Monkey Business II

Algebra Level 2

For part I to the Monkey Business problem here Monkey Business

Big Monkey (BM) and Little Monkey(LM) are both searching for food. After searching frantically, they finally stumble upon a banana tree. To their dismay, there is only ONE banana left on the tree. Herein lies the problem. To get to the fruit, one of them must climb the tree, and shake vigorously until the fruit is dislodged and falls to the ground below. For all its worth, each banana provides 10 kilocalories (Kc) of energy, but the penalty for running up and shaking the fruit loose costs 2 Kc. for BM and 0 Kc for LM. Moreover, if both of them climb the tree, shake the fruit loose, then climbs down and eat the fruit, BM gets 7Kc and LM gets 3Kc. ; if only BM climbs the tree, while LM waits below for the fruit to fall, BM gets 6Kc and LM gets 4 Kc.; if only LM climbs the tree, BM gets 9kc and LM gets 1 Kc. as most of the banana is gone by the time LM gets down to retrieve his share. What will BM and LM do if each wants to maximize their energy gain? Which of these ( A-D) is the best response, or Nash Equilibrium?

Assumptions:
1) Small Monkey makes the first move.
2) Monkeys are always energy maximizers.
3) Monkeys are aware of costs-benefits of their actions.
4) Monkeys are smart.

Small Monkey Waits, Big Monkey Waits Small Monkey climbs, Big Monkey Waits Small Monkey waits, Big Monkey Climbs Small Monkey Climbs, Big Monkey Climbs

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1 solution

Siva Budaraju
Mar 3, 2017

If SM climbs, BM waits and SM gets only 1 KC. If SM waits, BM has to climb if he wants any Kc, otherwise he gets nothing. So he climbs, and SM gets 4 Kc which is better than 1 Kc. So SM waits.

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