Variations on the Missionaries and Cannibals Problem

By George Spahn and Doron Zeilberger


.pdf     .tex

appeared in Discrete Mathematics Letters, v. 11 (2023),84-90.



Written: Oct. 19, 2022


ל כ ב ו ד   נ ח ו ם   צ ב י   ב ן   י צ ח ק   ה ל ו י   נ ר ו   י א י ר   ב מ ל א ת   ל ו   פ ה   ש נ י ם


Dedicated to our academic father (for DZ) and grandfather (for GS), Harry Dym (b. Jan 26, 1938), on his forthcoming eighty-fifth birthday.


We explore both automated and human approaches to generalizations of this famous puzzle. We got the idea for this project when one of us (DZ) found in a used bookstore a book written by Clive Dym, (Harry Dym's brother), where the Missionaries and Cannibals problems is used to illustrate Engineering Design.

Maple packages


Sample Input and Output for Cannibals.txt


Sample Input and Output for DiGpaths.txt


Sample Input and Output for RiverCrossing.txt


Doron Zeilberger's Home Page