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        riddles >> medium >> Desert Delivery
        
(Message started by: melimel on Dec 4^th, 2006, 4:52pm)

Title: Desert Delivery
Post by melimel on Dec 4^th, 2006, 4:52pm

You are at a desert oasis with 600 liters of gasthat is sorely needed at an outpost 1000km away. Your small jeep can only carry 200 liters at a time, and burns one liter for every 5km it travels. How many liters of gasoline can you deliver safely to the outpost? How?

Title: Re: Desert Delivery
Post by flamingdragon on Dec 4^th, 2006, 5:45pm

Hmm, by the time the truck gets there, it will have used all the fule it's carrying. :-/

So the only thing I can think of is:
All of it, because a plane could come and get it all. ;D
Or: Get a better Jeep. ;)

Title: Re: Desert Delivery
Post by Noke Lieu on Dec 4^th, 2006, 6:27pm

Interesting that you chose a quick reply, rather than sit and think about it. I find it great how this forum allows people to contibute their part, no matter how small.

And one litre for 5km, driving across sand with a heavy load... that's not an unexpected value- i'd definately have the air conditioning off.

Flamingdragon (that has a funny meaning here, now I think about it- Alf Stewart (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alf_Stewart))
what if you assume that the jeep has a series of containers like jerry cans- a long range sub tank might get you upto 160 litres, but that's pushing it.

So the jeep can carry for (a first step) 100L in its tank, and 100L in the jerry cans. Drive 250km out, and store the jerry cans somewhere (with a beacon for later recovery) and drive back, fill up again. So you've burnt up 100L, have 200L in jerry cans, and 100L in the tank.

Drive 250km, refuel at your beaconed depot, and push on, getting to the station with 50L (and leaving 50L in the desert...)

But surely YOU could do better than that? (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/JeepProblem.html)

Title: Re: Desert Delivery
Post by flamingdragon on Dec 4^th, 2006, 6:48pm

on 12/04/06 at 18:27:20, Noke Lieu wrote:

Interesting that you chose a quick reply, rather than sit and think about it...

I do the quick reply first and then think about it afterwards and get a better answer. ;)

Title: Re: Desert Delivery
Post by Three Hands on Dec 5^th, 2006, 3:22am

on 12/04/06 at 18:48:16, flamingdragon wrote:

I do the quick reply first and then think about it afterwards and get a better answer. ;)

Fools rush in where uberpuzzlers fear to tread? ;) ::)

Title: Re: Desert Delivery
Post by Grimbal on Dec 5^th, 2006, 6:16am

What are the sizes of the recipients you can use? Because if you leave a pool of gas on the sand in the middle of the desert I wonder how much you can recover. :(

Maybe you should rent that camel from the other riddle that drinks 1 liter water each 10 kilometers and be careful how much you carry of the various liquids.

Title: Re: Desert Delivery
Post by towr on Dec 5^th, 2006, 6:57am

on 12/05/06 at 06:16:34, Grimbal wrote:

What are the sizes of the recipients you can use? Because if you leave a pool of gas on the sand in the middle of the desert I wonder how much you can recover. :(

Well, you can always hope to strike oil while trying to dig it back up.

Title: Re: Desert Delivery
Post by Grimbal on Dec 5^th, 2006, 7:06am

anyway, [hide]157.46[/hide]?

Title: Re: Desert Delivery
Post by Icarus on Dec 5^th, 2006, 6:37pm

on 12/05/06 at 03:22:51, Three Hands wrote:

Fools rush in where uberpuzzlers fear to tread? ;) ::)

Ha! Nice to know that at least one person gets the reference (several people haven't when I've mentioned it to them).

(To give credit where it's due, I lifted the quote from an old Infocom game.)