Throwing the fattest people off of an overloaded airplane.

Question

Let\'s say you\'ve got an airplane, and it is low on fuel. Unless the plane drops 3000 pounds of passenger weight, it will not be able to reach the next airport. To save t

Answer 1

Assuming all passengers will cooperate: Use a parallel sorting network. (see also this)

Here is a live demonstration

Update: Alternative video (jump to 1:00)

Asking pairs of people to compare-exchange - you can't get faster than this.