Dafoe, The Lone Entrepreneur is a very ambitious man. He wants to make $1000 in the shortest amount of time! He starts out with $0 but is currently receiving $5 per day and he can purchase the following shops at any given time:

1-Shack. Cost: $10 Income: $5/day
2-Mall. Cost $25 Income $15/day
3-Shopping Center. Cost $150 Income $150/day

The money is always paid in at night and Dafoe can purchase as many new shops as his money allows in the mornings.

What would be the best sequence of shops to be purchased to to have a balance of $1000 on hand?

How many days would that take?

Money spent comes out of his balance and so is no longer part of the needed total balance of $1000.

Without a computer program; and forgetting how to do simultaneuous equations I have simply "trialled and errored" to get a starting point.

Purchasing the maximum possible as soon as it can be afforded allows the $1000 barrier to be broken on the 12th evening.

I am sure a better strategy will lessen that. Over to the programmers and mathematicians.

Posted by Vernon Lewis on 2006-01-30 23:34:29