Talk:Five pirates

Error or variation?

Based on comparisons with other versions that I can find online, I believe "If more than half of the pirates accept the proposal" should read "If at least half of the pirates accept the proposal".

This is a serious issue, as the puzzle depends critically upon what happens when exactly 50% of pirates accept a proposal. Is it an error, or a variation?

It is a variation. The Forty thieves puzzle uses "at least half" and as such is considerably easier to solve. Oscarlevin 13:09, 14 October 2010 (EDT)

OK. To fill in some background here, I came up with a solution (I think), but I had to make an assumption (namely that a pirate will always let another pirate live if there's no financial gain from having them killed) which I felt wasn't in character and thus felt unsatisfied with it. So later I looked online to see if I was right and only found versions with "at least half". Zerrakhi 09:49, 17 October 2010 (EDT)