Question

A camel is sitting by a stack of 3000 bananas at edge of a 1000 mile wide desert. He is going to travel across the desert carrying as many bananas as he can to the other sides. He can carry 1000 bananas at a time, but he eats one banana every mile.

What is the maximum number of bananas the camel can get across the desert? How does the camel do it? Explain how you arrived to your answer.

Answer 1

Would it be zero or is this a trick question?

Answer 2

I have no idea what the answer is but i know its not 0. my Calculus teacher gave us this problem for fun.

Answer 3

@Hero @ParthKohli

Answer 4

well if he carry 1000 and drop them after 500 miles hewill drop there 500 ..
comes back and lift next 1000 and at 500 miles drops remianing 500 there
come back and carries last 1000 and recheces at 500 miles .. now he has 1500 bananas at 500 miles away.. so picks 1000 and drops remaining 500 miles and drops left 500 bannas there .. come back and pick remaining 500 bnanna and covers remaining 500 miles again and drops 0 more .. so total he will drop there will be 500 total baanas at the end

Answer 5

ok tell me the answer i can think about it

Answer 6

533.33

Answer 7

ok i try to think about it if i do wil answer u

Answer 8

@satellite73 @xGuardians @ParthKohli

Answer 9

Takes 1K -> goes 250 M (-250) -> Drops off 500 -> Walks back (-250) -> Grabs 1K more -> Goes 250 (-250) -> grabs 500 (+500) -> Goes to 500 (-250) -> drops off 500 (-500) -> walks back (-500) -> grabs 1K -> walks 500 (-500) -> grabs 500 (+500) -> walks final 500 (-500) -> 500 is answer?

Answer 10

Goes 750 -> Walks back -> Dies.
The End.

Answer 11

haha seriously but lets delete these miscellaneous comments it obstructs the problem

Answer 12

@dan815

Answer 13

ok baseball its a cool question ill work on it

Answer 14

sec

Answer 15

he can carry 1000 bananas, drop them off just before 1 mile, then go back and he will eat a banana carry another 1000 to that just before a mile

Answer 16

and come back eat a banana and carry the left back to that spot

Answer 17

he can repeat this proces i guess so

Answer 18

something like around 2000, probably missing a banana or 2 here and there

Answer 19

is that okya??

Answer 20

kinda confused about this camel though.. because he wont have bananas for a mile, so we cannot eat

Answer 21

so technically for just 1.99999 miles he is eating only 1 banana

Answer 22

true but when he turns to go back he will have to eat a banana

Answer 23

oh okay so no cheating?

Answer 24

if camel has walked 2 miles he must have consumed 2 bananas no question asked?

Answer 25

yes

Answer 26

okay then i guess its a path minimizing function with 3k bananas

Answer 27

theres an algorithm for these kinda questions its to reduce the number of trips consistently

Answer 28

you wanna pick a point where, on the next journey of the camel only 2 trips are needed to carry the rest of the banans home