Can you solve the pirate riddle? - Alex Gendler

It’s a good day to be a pirate. Amaro and his four mateys – Bart, Charlotte, Daniel, and Eliza have struck gold – a chest with 100 coins. But now, they must divvy up the booty according to the pirate code — and pirate code is notoriously complicated. Can you help come up with the distribution that Amaro should propose to make sure he lives to tell the tale? Alex Gendler shows how.

Lesson by Alex Gendler, animation by Artrake Studio.

[TheBigRedskull]

"Each pirate is an expert in logical deduction"
*As pirates are*

[ryanl]

Watches a riddle video
*makes no attempt at solving the riddle*
*watches answer anyways*

[MrBen]

More important question: Why did Pirates fight over buried treasure when the real treasure was in the friendships they made along the way?

[aayushrathod]

Amaro: **gives one coin to Eliza and Charlotte**
The whole internet: *S I M P*

[dannycasserly]

Me: why not split it equally?
Amaro: *THERE BE NO COMMUNISM ON THIS HERE SHIP*

[Alvaldong]

*Pirates A to D fell off the plank*
Eliza: Plan E
Eliza: Nay
Eliza: *Walks off plank leaving the ship empty and no one gets the booty*

[Susanmugen]

"1 coin ensures their support..."
Ah, so now I see how these pirates got so bloodthirsty.

[hulohyou]

Alternative ending: While Amaro is thinking, Royal Navy Pirate Hunters find them
It's a bad day to be a pirate

[holo]

Me, an unintellectual: everyone gets a fifth

[cq.cumber_offishial]

Amaro: hey guys what if we all get 20 coins.
Bart, Charlotte, Daniel, and Eliza: good idea, let's not do it.

[egon]

If you keep adding pirates, the solution is much the same: Keep the majority and give 1 coin to each pirate with the same parity as you.

[Randomdude-zctd]

The fact that they are all great mathematicians and know that each other are too actually helps them. If charlotte and Eliza only get one coin, if they were not great mathematicians, they would vote no because they would be disappointed with only receiving one coin. Funny how that works.

[ameyd]

Can I solve the Riddle
-NO
But do I want to see the answer
_YES

[abbieelana]

“But being pirates, none of them trust each other. So they can’t collaborate in advance.” That sound like a “you” problem.

[megaagentj]

This would make a great jackbox party pack game, not everyone would be perfect logicians and it’d be funny seeing what plans people make

[diegonathanielmina]

However, if the five of them would be working together again in the future, it now becomes in Amaro's interest to ensure the cooperation of all the crew members and avoid resentment, which makes the case for splitting equally or a less imbalanced distribution. Probably a variation on an infinite prisoner's dilemma.

[sophianorris]

Ted ed: can you solve the pirate riddle?

Me: probably not but I'm going to watch it anyway

[johnjackson]

1:30 Ok pirates are not the brightest people maybe I could easily trick th-

1:37 Of course they are.

[AnaranyoSarkar]

Amaro : I keep 98 coins and give 1 each to Charlotte and Eliza!!

Bart & Daniel : *S I M P*

[arkanys]

Bonus :
Now let's say in case of a tie, the captain walks the plank and the next crewmate becomes captain, what would Amaro do?

If only Daniel and Eliza remain, Eliza votes Nay to Daniel's plan so she remains alone with 100 coins in pocket. Therefore Daniel wants to avoid being captain at all costs to survive. Charlotte knows that she will therefore have Daniel's support without even needing to offer him money, while Eliza will always vote Nay in hopes of being the last one alive, so Charlotte proposes to keep all the gold herself. To beat that offer, Bart needs to be slightly more generous to get two other votes than his own. Since Charlotte will vote Nay in any case so she can leave with all the gold, he needs to bribe Daniel and Eliza by making them a better offer than Charlotte's, offering one coin to each. Finally, Amaro also needs a total of 3 votes, by making a more interesting offer for 2 of his crewmates. The easiest to bribe is Charlotte, with one coin as she would get nothing if Bart comes to power, and then he needs to bribe either Daniel or Eliza with 2 coins, which is one coin more than Bart's offer, leaving him with 97 coins and high risks of mutiny.