Philosophers
In computer science, the dining philosophers problem is an example problem often used in concurrent algorithm design to illustrate synchronization issues and techniques for resolving them.
Five philosophers dine together at the same table. Each philosopher has their own place at the table. Their philosophical problem in this instance is that the dish served is a kind of spaghetti which has to be eaten with two forks.
There is a fork between each plate. Each philosopher can alternately think, eat and sleep. Moreover, a philosopher can only eat their spaghetti when they have both a left and right fork. Thus two forks will only be available when their two nearest neighbors are sleeping or thinking, not eating. After an individual philosopher finishes eating, they will put down both forks. The problem is how to design a regimen (a concurrent algorithm) such that no philosopher will starve, assuming that no philosopher can know when others may want to eat or think (an issue of incomplete information).
