Got roped into teaching a class at work for a couple of weeks. Here's an exercise I threw in to loosen the students up a little (and fill some excess time). It's meant to be done individually and then as a group. I thought the some of the members here might like to try to see how they do individually.
The exercise:
You are adrift on a private yacht in the South Pacific. Because of a fire of unknown origin, much of the yacht and its contents have been destroyed. The yacht is now slowly sinking. Your location is unclear because critical navigational equipment was destroyed and you and the crew were distracted trying to bring the fire under control. Your best estimate is that you are approximately 1,000 miles south-southwest of the nearest land.
Below is a list of 15 items that are intact and undamaged after the fire. In addition to these articles, you have a serviceable rubber life raft with oars large enough to carry yourself, the crew, and all the items listed below. The total contents of all survivors' pockets are a package of cigarettes, several books of matches, and five one-dollar bills.
Your task is to rank the 15 items below in terms of their importance to your survival. Place the number 1 by the most important item, the number 2 by the second most important, and so on through number 15, the least important.
= Fifteen feet of nylon rope
= Fishing kit
= Five-gallon can of water
= Maps of the Pacific Ocean
= Mosquito netting
= One case of U. S. Army C rations
= One quart of 160-proof Puerto Rican rum
= Seat cushion (flotation device approved by the U. S. Coast Guard)
= Sextant
= Shark repellent
= Shaving mirror
= Small transistor radio
= Twenty square feet of opaque plastic
= Two boxes of chocolate bars
= Two-gallon can of oil-gasoline mixture
Reply by copying and pasting the list of items with your ranking of the item's importance (1 through 15) in front of the "=".
I will respond with the numerical difference between your rankings and the "experts". Like golf, or a track meet, the lower score is better.
After a while I'll post the expert's ranking and the rationale.
We'll depend on the honor system to prevent anyone from looking up the correct answers on the web before they respond.
