A Story of Pirates
There are 100 highly intelligent and self-centered pirates. They are ranked from 1 to 100.They decided to divide a treasure by the following scheme. "If 50% or more than 50% of the members agree on dividing , then they will divide. If not, they will kill the last ranked pirate and the voting continues". (ex: suppose there are 56 pirates , then if 28 or more agree to divide the treasure , then they will divide. If not, they will kill 56th ranked pirate. Now the voting continues among 55 members.) How many pirates remain ?
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1 solution
1st ranked pirate will say no to dividing in every case. 2nd ranked will only say to divide when 2 pirates are remaining. 3rd will only say to divide when 4 pirates are remaining because if 4th get killed, 3rd will also get killed as 1st and 2nd are not willing to divide. 4th will only say to divide when 4 pirates are remaining. Similarly 5th,6th,7th,8th will say to divide only when 8 are remaining. 9th to 16th ranked pirates will say to divide only when 16 are remaining and it continues. So , finally 64 pirates will divide the treasure.