It's true. I think I'm working on the puzzle that the Car Talk guys actually posed, and Victor was discussing a simplification with the extra constraint you (Gareth) are pointing out. My apologies for any confusion. On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 8:24 PM, Gareth McCaughan <gareth.mccaughan@pobox.com
wrote:
On Tuesday 03 July 2012 22:13:43 Allan Wechsler wrote:
Launch a double expedition, of 2k people. This safely gets 2 people n units. Now they do a one-unit transfer, leaving the pilgrim topped up (as required), but the helper has only one unit left. The helper can clearly be "rescued" by a sufficiently elaborate cascade of rescue parties departing from the base at two-time-unit intervals. For some reason I am unable to work out the exact numbers needed. Just tired, I guess.
I think you're answering a different question from the original: you're allowing more helpers to be sent out after the initial expedition leaves, whereas the original question (if I understood it correctly) requires the whole team to leave together, with no further reinforcements dispatched after that.
-- g
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