Camel and Bananas Puzzle

bananas.cpp

/*
    puzzle description:

    There is a desert, one camel and 3000 bananas.

    The camel has to transport as many bananas 1 km (1000 m).
    However each meter, the camel eats one banana.
    Also the camel can only carry 1000 bananas at the same time

    What is the maximum number of bananas the camel can bring to the other side
*/


#include <cstdlib>
#include <iostream>
#include <math.h>

using namespace std;

int bananas = 3000,
        distance = 1000,
        bpm = 1,
        carry = 1000;

int x[1000];

/*
 * 
 */
int main(int argc, char** argv) {

    x[0] = bananas;

    for (int i = 0; i < 999; i++){
        int times = ceil((x[i] + 0.0) / carry);
        x[i + 1] = x[i] - (times * 2 - 1);
    }

    cout << x[999];

    return 0;
}

Camel.matlab

%% puzzle description
% 
% There is a desert, one camel and 3000 bananas.
% 
% The camel has to transport as many bananas 1 km (1000 m).
% However each meter, the camel eats one banana. 
% Also the camel can only carry 1000 bananas at the same time
%
% What is the maximum number of bananas the camel can bring to the other side?
% 


%% Solve this!

bananas = 3000;         % number of bananas
distance = 1000;        % total distance
bpm = 1;                % bananas per meter
carry = 1000;           % how many bananas the camel can carry at the time
step = 1;               % the step size

x = zeros(1, distance / step);
x(1) = bananas;         % put all bananas at x(0)

l = length(x);

for i = 1:l
    times = ceil(x(i) / carry);
    x(i + 1) = x(i) - (times * 2 - 1) * step;
end


%% Output

% display result in the console
x(length(x))            % I was told it should be 533, it is 532 though…

% plot
plot(x);
ylabel('Number of bananas');
xlabel('Position (m)')