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.)

(In reply to Possible solution by Juggler)

But if you are going to count the bodies in the graveyard for the sake of having bullets pass over their heads, you have to include them in the total tally of "villagers." After all, the puzzle says the bullets passed over "villager's heads" and asks for the total number of "villagers". If you count corpses in one case you have to count them in both.

I prefer the 5 villagers scenario: they stand in a cross formation, we put 8 barbarians on each side of the village (in a line, looking over each other's heads toward the town), and the barbarians all shoot each other and miss the villagers completely.

Posted by Brian Wainscott on 2004-02-05 12:05:01