of the
Week
|
Problem
of the Week |
Ten potato chips are arranged in the shape of a triangle, see the figure
on the left. You start by eating the bottom chip, numbered 1 in the
figure. Being hungry, you want to eat as many chips as possible
but may only do so by following this rule:
You may move a chip to a blank spot in the triangle by jumping over another chip; you then get to eat the chip that you jumped over, creating an additional blank spot.For example, you can move 6 to 1 and eat 3, leaving 3 and 6 now blank. Is it possible to eat all but one chip? (For those with a sweet tooth: You may use chocalate chips rather than potato chips!)
(For the incurably curious: The problem described above is played on a triangular board with four rows. What happens if the board is made up n(n+1)/2 chips in the shape of triangle with n rows?)
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