Giver Pirate 2
There are 12 pirates, each having a limited number of gold bars.
Everyday, a maximum of 3 pirates get together for a meeting, where those who are not in attendance must not all have the same number of gold bars. Also, the pirates who are in attendance must not all have the same number of gold bars as well. During this meeting, these pirates pool their gold bars together and then divide it equally among the attendees. It is not possible to hold a meeting if the gold bars cannot be divided equally.
Is it possible for the pirates to meet indefinitely?
Reference: Question 1
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1 solution
No , it is not possible. Every time a meeting occurs, the variance for the number of gold bars owned by each pirate reduces. In other words, the number of gold bars each pirate has will always fall towards the mean. Hence, in a finite amount of time (depending on the variance of gold bars) all the pirates will have an equal amount of gold bars (unless they can no longer divide equally among each other) and no more meetings will be held.