The Jealous Husbands Problem Extended

Logic Level 5

There are some Couples wanting to cross a river by a boat. The boat can carry at most 3 persons at a time and of course cannot cross the river by itself with no one on board.

The problem is that all the husbands are extremely jealous. So no woman can be in the presence of another man unless her husband is also present. Even a woman alone in a boat at a bank which has other men on that shore without her husband is not permissible.

In other words at no point of time can women outnumber men on bank or shore because that would mean some woman is husband-less!

It may be assumed that everyone knows how to row and all persons on the boat disembark and board at the same time.

Given the constraints provided, the maximum number of Couples that can be transported across the river is n n .

The minimum number of one-way trips needed to transport these n n Couples is m m .

Find n × m n\times m .


The answer is 55.

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1 solution

Satyen Nabar
Jun 25, 2015

Capitals represent husbands.

Moderator note:

Is this optimal?

Yes, given the constraints, 11 11 one-way trips is optimal to transport 5 5 Couples. It is impossible to transport more than 5 5 Couples.

Satyen Nabar - 5 years, 11 months ago

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Eh I think you meant "it is impossible to transport more than 5 5 Couples." BTW Great question, enjoyed solving it !

Utkarsh Dwivedi - 4 years, 10 months ago

Its a good question

Rakshit Joshi - 5 years, 7 months ago

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it is hard

Rakshit Joshi - 5 years, 7 months ago

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