Monkey Business

by Kevin J. Lin

Yes, fortunately for Skinny, Monty and yourself. Less fortunately for the monkeys who were looking for some payback.

You start by having Ed reluctantly ferry his evolutionarily challenged cousins across the river. By themselves, they cause no trouble. When finished, Ed returns and stays behind with a human (all men are equal for the sake of this problem) while the other two human row across.

One human ferries one monkey back to the starting side, then goes across with Ed. This human picks up the other monkey and returns to the first bank while Ed thinks "Why the @#$?!? did they have me bring those monkeys over in the first place?!?"

The two humans now on the first bank cross over and begin afternoon tea, having had enough travel for one day. A now thoroughly disgusted and motion sick Ed is sent across to ferry all the monkeys over once again.

The following table lists the steps:

Starting Bank	The Boat	Finishing Bank
HHHEMM
HHHM	EM
HHHM	E	M
HHH	EM	M
HHH	E	MM
HE	HH	MM
HE	HM	HM
HM	HE	HM
HM	HM	HE
MM	HH	HE
MM	E	HHH
M	EM	HHH
M	E	HHHM
	EM	HHHM
		HHHEMM

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