The maximum distributor
An intelligent trader travels from 1 place to another carrying 3 sacks having 30 coconuts in each of them. No sack can hold more than 30 coconuts and he can move the coconuts between sacks. On the way, he passes through 30 checkpoints and on each checkpoint he has to give 1 coconut from each sack he is carrying.
What is the maximum number of coconuts he can have after passing through every checkpoint?
The answer is 25.
This section requires Javascript.
You are seeing this because something didn't load right. We suggest you, (a) try
refreshing the page, (b) enabling javascript if it is disabled on your browser and,
finally, (c)
loading the
non-javascript version of this page
. We're sorry about the hassle.
For the first ten checkpoints he gives 1 coconut for each bag he is carrying.
He is thus left with 60 coconuts. He then transfers them into two bags.
For the next 15 i.e. up to checkpoint 25, he gives 2 coconuts for each checkpoint.
He is left with 30 coconuts which transfers into one bag.
For the next 5 checkpoints he gives one coconut each and at the end is left with 25 coconuts.