Three missionaries and three cannibals are on one side of the river, wanting to get across.

Unfortunately, the only boat available can hold a maximum of two people. The missionaries, wanting to stay safe, can never be on a side with more cannibals than missionaries (even for a moment!). The boat cannot travel under its own power, so there must be at least one person on board for it to cross.

How can the missionaries get safely across?

I actually first misread the problem where the missionaries and the cannibals were on two opposite sides of the bank and both groups wanted to cross to the other side. Solving this problem helped me solve the original one as intended.

Posted by Charley on 2005-05-29 12:48:58