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.

(In reply to re(7): Now we have a problem(?) by Vernon Lewis)

What I meant by that was that he had 1 shack, and only 1 shack.

He couldn't, as you suggest, have 7 Shopping Centers at the start of day 1. As for the $5 part, like Jer's lastest "Stupid Number Trick" puzzles, you use the most common interpretation. That is, the one that the other solutions have used, and in this case, we assume that he has $5 available at the start of day 1.

Also, as another option, the day truely ends before midnight. Therefore, day 0 ends before 12:00 A.M. on day 1.

This means that night is between the end of day 0, and 12:00 A.M. on day 1. Therefore, by 12:00 A.M. the money is already collected.

Based on the wording of the problem, he starts out with $0. However, based on this new concept, we can conclude that the money was collected before day 1, and so we have $5 by day 1.

Sorry if this doesn't help, but that is the ratinale behind my thoughts.

Posted by Justin on 2006-02-03 22:41:26