You are a merchant in a desert, and you need to transport 3,000 bananas to a distant city 1000 miles away. You have a camel, but the camel can only carry 1000 bananas at a time. The camel also consumes one banana every mile it travels.
What’s the maximum number of bananas you can deliver to the city 1000 miles away?
The Camel and the Bananas Riddle
Hint:
The key is that the camel eats a banana every mile, so you need to think about how to minimize the number of bananas consumed during the journey.
Since the camel can only carry 1000 bananas at a time, and you have 3,000 bananas, you’ll need to make multiple trips and transport bananas in stages.
Consider how you can use intermediate “staging points” along the way to reduce the number of bananas eaten on each trip.
The camel consumes one banana per mile, and you have to figure out how to transport 3,000 bananas over 1,000 miles while minimizing banana loss. The trick is to break the journey into stages.
Step-by-Step Breakdown:
Initial Setup:
You have 3,000 bananas, and the camel can carry only 1,000 bananas at a time.
The camel eats 1 banana per mile.
Stage 1: First 333 miles:
To start, you transport bananas in multiple trips over the first 333 miles. Since the camel can carry 1,000 bananas, you’ll need to make 3 trips to transport the first batch of bananas.
After each trip, the camel eats 1 banana per mile, and the bananas left at each point are eaten by the camel.
After the camel eats for 333 miles, only 1,000 bananas – 333 bananas (eaten) = 667 bananas are left.
Stage 2: The next 333 miles:
You’ll keep transferring the bananas over these stages, trying to make fewer trips and minimizing the camel’s consumption.
This process is repeated for each stage until you get to the last 100 miles.
Final stage: The last 100 miles:
The final 100 bananas that make it to the city should be the only ones left!
Maximum Bananas You Can Deliver:
You can manage to deliver about 534 bananas to the destination after the camel eats its share.
