Josephus Problem/Turks and Christians Variant/Mistake

Source Work

1992: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Puzzles:

The Puzzles:

The Josephus Problem

$99$

Mistake

On board a ship, tossed in storms and in danger of shipwreck, are fifteen Christians and fifteen Turks. To lighten the load and save the ship, half are to be thrown overboard. One of the Christians suggests that all should stand in a circle and every ninth person counting around the circle should be chosen. How should the Christians arrange themselves in the circle to ensure that only the Turks die?

The solution is given as:

The Christians and Turks should be placed in the following circular order, in which the first person follows the last, and the counting starts with the first person: $\text {CCCCTTTTTCCTCCCTCTTCCTTTCTTTCCTT}$.

Correction

If you count them carefully, you will see that there are $32$ letters in the solution string.

The correct solution is:

$\text {CCCCTTTTTCCTCCCTCTTCCTTTCTTCCT}$

Sources

• 1992: David Wells: Curious and Interesting Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): The Josephus Problem: $99$