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A mathsy logic puzzle

I stumbled upon this puzzle the other day, and thought I'd share it here...

Five pirates have obtained 100 gold coins and have to divide up the loot. The pirates are all extremely intelligent, treacherous and selfish (especially the captain).

The captain always proposes a distribution of the loot. All pirates vote on the proposal, and if half the crew or more go "Aye", the loot is divided as proposed, as no pirate would be willing to take on the captain without superior force on their side.

If the captain fails to obtain support of at least half his crew (which includes himself), he faces a mutiny, and all pirates will turn against him and make him walk the plank. The pirates start over again with the next senior pirate as captain.

What is the maximum number of coins the captain can keep without risking his life?


--The answer may surprise you!

Stuck? Here's a hint.

Spoiler



Source of this puzzle (which includes the answer, if you really feel like cheating):

Spoiler

(edited 12 years ago)
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DFranklin
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tomthecool
..

Spoiler

Original post by DFranklin

Spoiler


Yeah, good point. To be honest, I'd just copied+pasted the hint off another website. I've edited it slightly now.

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