Josephus (Flavius Josephus)

The Josephus problem involves a group of people standing in a circle, where every k-th person is sequentially eliminated until only one remains. Historically, Flavius Josephus was a Jewish historian who, during a siege, and with his companions, chose to form a circle and avoid capture by deciding to kill themselves in sequence until only one survived, using a specific counting method. Mathematically, it explores the most efficient way to determine the position to avoid elimination and ensures survival, often used in algorithm design and problem-solving where elimination or selection processes are involved.