Sunday, June 9, 2019

logical deduction - Hungry lions and a goat


There are 53 lions in a cage and 1 goat. All the lions are very hungry and would want to eat the goat. But the problem here is that any lion who eats the goat can satisfy his hunger but he will himself become a goat and then other lions will eat him. All lions are intelligent and understand this fact, so obviously no one wants to die becoming a prey for others.


So, the question here is will the goat be eaten or not?



Answer




Let's follow the usual approach for this.


Say there's just 1 lion and the goat. Would the lion eat the goat? Yes, it's not at risk.


So say there's 2 lions and a goat. Would a lion eat the goat? If so it would become the goat in the 1 lion and a goat situation, and so it would be eaten. So it would not eat the goat.


If there's 3 lions and a goat, would a lion eat the goat? Well there'd be 2 left, and as we just worked out, with 2 left, the goat is safe.


So it becomes clear that the pattern is: odd number of lions, goat gets eaten, even number, goat is safe. So with 53, the goat gets eaten.


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