There is a desert which is 1000 kms long. On one side of the

When the camel arrives at the other side of the desert he has eaten all the watermelons.

Answer A.

Guys it's not that easy.........think little more

The maximum number of watermelons that will reach the destination = 1

1000kms / 1000 melons - camel eats one After it travels a km

hence can eat a mx of 999 melons.

Answer E

I was laughing trying to draw a picture of a camel carrying 1000 watermelons and somebody feeding it and saying "come on boy, you can do it".

Yeah answer is E

distance traveled =1000km
number of times a camel needs to eat is 999

As there are 3000 melons and distance is 1000 km and Camel can carry 1000 melons once, Camel can't do the job in one trip.

Suppose Camel lifts 1000 melons, walks 50 miles, leaves 900 melon there (ate 50 + 50 on round trip), goes back and picks another 1000....

At 50 miles (from start): 900+900+950 = 2750 melons
At 100 miles (from start): 900+900+700 = 2500 melons
At 150 miles (from start): 900+900+950 = 2250 melons
At 200 miles (from start): 900+900+700 = 2000 melons
At 250 miles (from start): 900+950 = 1850 melons
At 350 miles (from start): 900+800 = 1700 melons
At 400 miles (from start): 900+650 = 1550 melons
At 450 miles (from start): 900+500 = 1400 melons
At 50 miles (from start): 900+350 = 1250 melons
At 550 miles (from start): 900+200 = 1100 melons
At 600 miles (from start): 900+50 = 950 melons

Camel will end up with 550 melons at end (950-400).

This is closest to 600 (D). We clearly see that answer can't be 2000.

50 mile was just an arbitrary number that I chose. I'm sure Camel can perform lill better.

I think the answers is (C)

My logic is:

The camel has to go a distance of 1000km.
He takes 1000 melons and walks for 400km and back, eating a total of 400+400 = 800 leaving 200 melons at a distance of 400 km into the dasert.

He repeats that action once more and now we have 400 melons in a distance of 400 miles from the starting point.

He takes the rest of the melones (1000) and walks a distance of 400km joining the rest of the melons at 400km distance from starting point.

He now has 1000 melons at 400km from starting point.

He walks the rest of the way eating 600 melons and reaching the other side with 400 melons.

[(1000-400*2)+(1000-400*2)+(1000-400)] - 600 = 400

we can do a little sensitivity analysis and see that 400 will give us the best outcome !

Even i thought this was the answer..............but the way Juaz has explained ...........we'll surely get more melons.

Juaz I guess here u made some mistake.

At 250 miles (from start): 900+950 = 1850 melons
At 350 miles (from start): 900+800 = 1700 melons
At 400 miles (from start): 900+650 = 1550 melons

From 250 to 350 km, the camel consumes only 150 melons.......I think here it should consume 300 melons.

Sorry Guys.......I don't have the OA.

But I think it should be E.

This is how i calculated it.

Lets say the camel needs to transport all the melons 1 km only.

It picks 1000 melons..........travels 1 km........drops 998 melons.......comes back(consuming two melons for the whole trip).

Again picks 1000 melons..........travels 1 km........drops 998 melons.......comes back(consuming two melons for the whole trip)

It picks 1000 melons and travels 1 km to the other side consuming 1 melons

So the camel consumes 5 melons to trasport these 1 km to the other side.

5 melons gone and the remaining melons are shifted 1 km to the other side.

So 1000 melons will be consumed to shift these melons to 200km from the start point leving us with 2000 melons and 800 kms to go.

Now

To transport all the melons 1 km, the camel will consume 3 melons

It picks 1000 melons..........travels 1 km........drops 998 melons.......comes back(consuming two melons for the whole trip).

It picks the remaining 1000 melons and travels 1 km to the other side consuming 1 melons

So now the camel consumes 3 melons to trasport these 1 km to the other side.

Now 1000 melons will be consumed to shift these melons to 333.33 kms to the other side . i.e 200 + 333.33 km from the start point leaving us with 1000 melons and (1000 - 533.33) = 466.66 kms to go.

Now the camel will pick all the remaining 1000 melons , travel 466.66kms and will be left with 533.33 melons on the other side making the answer choice as E

you are right but you don't have to work so hard:

3000 - [(1000-200*2)+(1000-200*2)+(1000-200)] = 2000
2000 - [(1000-333*2)+(1000-333)] = 1000
1000 - [(1000-467)] = 533

Ya i know............that was for those who might need an explanation

This was a real pain in the neck. But any ways i think answere should be E as exlpained above.

Javed.

Cheers!

Man,
It's one of the most confusing problems so far.

Maybe , but its not an GMAC question. You will not see a question like that on the actual GMAT.