Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

josephus problem

Word Rarity Rare

Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.84 in modern English

Syllables
jose-phus prob-lem
IPA
33
Scrabble Score
15
Letters
3
Syllables
11
Unique Chars

Meaning

name

A theoretical problem in which every nth person, counting around a circle of people, is chosen for execution, and this process repeats after the removal of each chosen person, with the last person left being freed. The problem is to select one's position so as to be the last to be chosen.

Etymology

Named after Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian of the 1st century, who describes such a situation in his account of the siege of Yodfat.

Inflected Forms

the Josephus problem (canonical)

Questions

What does josephus problem mean?
A theoretical problem in which every nth person, counting around a circle of people, is chosen for execution, and this process repeats after the removal of each chosen person, with the last person left being freed. The problem is to select one's position so as to be the last to be chosen.
Where does josephus problem come from?
Named after Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian of the 1st century, who describes such a situation in his account of the siege of Yodfat.

How to pronounce josephus problem

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