25 fish.

the first guy took one away and divided by 3. 24/3=8. so 24-8= 16. the next guy came and threw away one to get 15. 15/3=5. 15-5=10. so the next and final guy throws one away to get 9. 9/3=3. so he took 3 and left 6 that will probably rot.

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WK and Ace and tuco for scorps.

*is glad he got to it before the asian (tsuke)*

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WK and Ace and tuco for scorps.

any other solutions?

edit: edited :)

am i wrong or are there more answers?

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WK and Ace and tuco for scorps.

im gonna wait a little before answering your question.

any other solutions?

oh and while we are waiting. would you mind to post how did you figure it out PE? of course 24/3=8 but how did you get 24? just curious :)

answer is 25 instead of 24 btw. well, i started with the first multiple of 3 and 2, because all numbers without 1 being thrown away, can be multiplied by 3 halves (on and a half, but i like to use improper fractions) to get the number before it. once i noticed that it was simple. so i took 6 (first multiple of 3 and 2) and worked backwards.

6 x 3/2 = 9. 9 + 1 = 10. 10 x 3/2 = 15. 15 + 1 = 16. 16 x 3/2 = 24. 24 + 1 = 25.

viola.

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WK and Ace and tuco for scorps.

I believe you mean "voila" - a "viola" is an instrument.

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"The GREEN button, Commander Boots! Press the GREEN button!"

Yesterday is dead,
Tomorrow's lurking in wait,
Today can only last so long.

you mean what i know.

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WK and Ace and tuco for scorps.

backwards .. right. but since it was posted the other way around i was wondering.

shall i get to the point now or can we expect other solutions?

it was posted the other way to prove that it works. i didnt actually post my method.

i dont see anyone posting other solutions so yeah, the point would be nice.

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WK and Ace and tuco for scorps.

ok

i could start with: does the name Dirac ring a bell?

i was watching some debate about space yesterday and this riddle was mentioned, found it interesting and thought it could be fun mind experiment. took me some time to google this, learned its actually old riddle, but here it comes:

A tricky catch. A famous physicist Paul Dirac is said to have solved the problem immediately. He said the answer was -2. Indeed, throw one fish away, -2-1=-3, find one third of what's left, (-3):3=-1, take this third away, -3-(-1)=-2, and there is again -2 fish in the bucket, for the other fishermen. Dirac's solution may not look too surprising, given that in 1930 he put forward a theory which predicted the existence of antimatter! (Paul Dirac won the 1933 Nobel prize in Physics. ) However, the problem has a true positive solution which you can find by doing things backwards.

http://web.am.qub.ac.uk/users/g.gribakin/hints.html

that was the interesting part and how math can be funny and the following page is to demostrate human vs computer "thinking"

http://twt.mpei.ac.ru/ochkov/mc8Pro.book/FISHER.htm

It's psychologically difficult for humans to appreciate negative solutions, but the machine does it quietly, without any prejudices.

i hope you are not dissapionted coz i was amused :)

lol, well if these guys were retarded enough to not notice someone had already left i figured there didnt need to be the same amount of fish.

and antimatter is only applicable to certain things, it made no sense in this case, logically.

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WK and Ace and tuco for scorps.

well it obvously made sense to Dirac .. i see you dont appreciate it the same way i did, but thats ok :)

i guess it's possible if they were on *.

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WK and Ace and tuco for scorps.