This is not a puzzle related post. 🙂 It’s a brain teaser (I used to post brain teasers years ago). I’ve been studying game theory lately and wanted to share one “classic” problem of this discipline with you. See if you can solve it by yourself. Post your solution as comments below this post.
So… here we go…
Pirate Games
Five pirates have obtained 100 gold coins and have to divide up the loot. The pirates are all extremely intelligent, treacherous and selfish (especially the captain) each wanting to maximize the number of coins that he gets.
It is always the highest ranked pirate who proposes a distribution of the loot. All pirates vote on the proposal, and if half the crew or more go “Aye”, the loot is divided as proposed.
If the captain fails to obtain support of at least half his crew (which includes himself), all pirates turn against him and make him walk the plank. The pirates then start over again with the next most senior pirate as captain (the pirates have a strict order of seniority denoted by A, B, C, D and E).
Pirates’ preferences are ordered in the following way. First of all, each pirate wants to survive. Second, given survival, each pirate wants to maximize the number of gold coins he receives. Finally, each pirate would prefer to throw another overboard in the case of indifference.
What is the maximum number of coins that the original captain should propose for himself? And for others?
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