There is a small town situated by a barbarian colony. The population in this town is very small, but they live well. Upon seeing the villagers in this town so happy, a group of thirty two barbarians sneak up and position themselves around the city. All the barbarians fired at exactly the same time, and every bullet went over 3 villager's heads before it killed another person, including anyone who may have been shot already. If no villager was at the same place at the time (and all villagers were in the town) when the simultaneous shooting occurred, what is the fewest amount of villagers in the town? (Note: "Around" means actually around. A line going around the city would work, but one going out of the city would not.)

From the question, we know that there are 32 barbarians, we also know that there is more than 1 villager (Gamer uses plural VILLAGERS in the clue) since all of the barbarians fired at exactly the same time then no-one standing can already be dead, he also uses the phrase "including any-one who has been shot already" this implies that there are dead people in the village, i suspect the dead centre of the village is a cemetary (pun intended).

from the info given the answer can be 2. each barbarian fires at the graveyard from his vantage point over the dead bodies of 3 people, his bullet hits the victims at the exact time that other bullets are coming from other shooters.

this solution also works with the final answer as 1, but since plurals are used answer must be 2

Posted by Phil on 2004-02-04 20:42:13