3 ms·
i, j, k, l, m ,n suggest that this problem is concerned with an integral number of cannibals and missionaries. Usually these letters are assigned in the order
by weinzierl 8y ago
i, j, k, l, m ,n suggest that this problem is concerned with an integral number of cannibals and missionaries. Usually these letters are assigned in the order of occurrence. If cannibals were introduced first and missionaries second it would be unnatural to assign missionaries an m. Further a c for cannibals would be counter-intuitive because c is often used for constants.
> Mathematicians really do make things hard sometimes.
Hard for non-mathematicians for sure, hard for themselves often enough too; but not this time.
- tempguy9999 8y ago1, 2, 3... have a natural ordering. a, b, c...i, j, k...z do not. Alphabetical ordering is convention and no more than that. To say, let's apply this convention to a problem to which such an ordering has literally no relevance, and ignore their value as a mnemonic, is bizarre beyond my comprehension. I suspect some ultra smart people like Bellman, and possibly you, can attach completely arbitrary labels to things and immediately use those. I suspect that's what happened here. But I can't, and I'm pretty sure most people can't. To us, it helps greatly if the label has some relationship to the thing labelled