Rameses wishes to build a great pyramid for his interment.

The structure will have a square base and be solidly composed of cubical stone blocks. Each level of the pyramid contains one block fewer per side as the pyramid rises.

Rameses has available an initial work force of 35,000 slaves. Each morning the available labor pool is divided into work crews of 17 slaves each. Any remainder that cannot form a full crew gets the day off but are available the following day. Each crew can lay one block of the pyramid each day.

Unfortunately, the heat of the desert sun causes the death of one member of each crew each day. Work ceases on the project when it can be determined that there will be insufficient slaves available to raise the pyramid one more level. Each stone block measures 3 meters per side.

How many days will it take to construct Rameses' pyramid? How tall will it be? How many of the original slaves survive the construction?

The 2nd day, there are 1937 groups. 58 of them work finishing the base floor, and 1879 get to work on the 2nd floor... but can they ALL work without the 1st floor being ended?

At the other extreme... the group waiting to lay the last stone at the top cannot start working until the previous level (2x2) is done, so the number of days, I guess, is somewhat larger than calculated...

Posted by Old Original Oskar! on 2004-11-05 13:17:34