Re: Josephus Flavius Problem Help Please

Roedy Green wrote:
On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 14:45:43 -0800 (PST), TheGodfather
<saliba.toufic.george@xxxxxxxxx> wrote, quoted or indirectly quoted
someone who said :

hey folks i did solve josephus problem to day

Examining just snippets, this looks like some racist joke. What is the
Josephus problem?

Josephus was a famous Jewish historian, back when Rome ruled the
'known' world. The story this is based on (uncertain if it's true,
but I doubt it) is that he was also once a Jewish military commander.
When his group became trapped by the Roman legions, they resolved
to all die rather than surrender. The technique alluded to here
was that they selected a number N and counted around the group.
The Nth person was then killed by the others and the count restarted
with the next in line. And so on. Josephus positioned himself
so that he would be last, surrendered to the Romans and began
reporting on the Roman conquests.

When teaching, I used to turn this into the "Howard Hughes Will"
problem (lots of wills out there, once upon a time). These days it
could be the "Anna Nicole Smith Will" problem... You need to put
your versionof the will in the correct spot.



--
Steve Wampler -- swampler@xxxxxxxx
The gods that smiled on your birth are now laughing out loud.
.