Lateral Thinking Questions

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ANSWER: L.T.Q. #52  !
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Date: Thu, 21 Nov 1996 14:59:00 -0500 (EST)

Don't you just love cheap video effects?

Here is this week's question:

Our intrepid explorer, Sir Edmund Hunkidoray, wishes to cross the desolate Saandhi Desert on foot. It will take six days, but any one man can take enough food and water for four days only. Fortunately, the local village of Igubwanatstan can supply him with men who will act as bearers, but they charge 100 pieces of gold per day for their arduous work. What is the least number of bearers Sir Edmund needs to help him make the journey, and what will it cost him in wages?
Notes: 1. Here's a hint for you. A man can carry four days' supplies, and if he turns back after one day, he can pass on two days' supplies to two other men, leaving one day's supply for his return. 2. Funeral costs for bearers are 1,000 pieces of gold each, so inhumane solutions are inadmissible!

ANSWER:

He needs only two bearers. The first goes with him for only one day and then returns, having handed over one day's supply to each of the other two men. The second bearer carries on a second day and then hands one day's supply to Sir Edmund before returning. Sir Edmund then has four days' supply for the remaining four days' journey.
The first man gets two days' wages and the second gets four, so it costs Sir Edmund and the London Explorers Club and the National Geographic Society 600 pieces of gold.

My mispresumption was thinking that Sir Edmund would not carry his own gear. I think I spent 75,000 pieces of gold on the whole thing, including 3 accidental deaths for which funeral costs were then to be paid. It's a good thing I didn't set out to discover America when Chris Columbus did, or I might just have found a passage to the Orient!

Liz had a completely carefree view on things: "Who cares that you don't have any food or water left by the end of the day — you'll be there and you can use the gold you would have had to spend on bearers to buy a really nice dinner in an air conditioned restaurant.
  "Of course, this is assuming the guy can't afford to take some poor slob with him to do all the carrying. According to my calculations, it should take 8 days if he does it himself.
  "But why he would is beyond me! Surely, there is a cheap camel rental place? Camels can carry a lot, and he would have company on the long trip... Hmmm, I don't think I want to go any further with that one."

And I thought I was going to get into trouble with the "three married couples at the orgy" question!  $8-)

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