 When the number of sailors is a parameter, let it be formula_26, rather than a computational value, careful algebraic reduction of the relation between the number of coconuts in the original pile and the number allotted to each sailor in the morning yields an analogous Diophantine relation whose coefficients are expressions in formula_26.The first step is to obtain an algebraic expansion of the recurrence relation corresponding to each sailor's transformation of the pile, formula_28 being the number left by the sailor