快猫短视频

#239 Snap judgement

Set by Brian Hobbs

The current Guinness World Record for the largest chocolate bar by weight belongs to confectionery firm Thorntons for the 5792.5 kilogram bar it created in Derbyshire, UK, in 2011. The illustration above shows how the bar was arranged: in 15 segments, with one larger than the rest.

Separating the bar into its individual segments would be no small feat. In order to break the bar up, you would need to snap it multiple times along an entire line, either horizontally or vertically.

What would be the minimum number of snaps required to separate all 15 segments from each other? (By the way, no stacking of pieces before you snap them!)

Solution next week

#238 Knight shift

Solution

The knight starts on a black square somewhere in the board鈥檚 top left quarter. The only square where she can be trapped after three moves is the corner one, A8, starting on B6 or C7 (shown bottom left). If the knight is to land at least once in each column and be trapped a second time, the initial square must have been C7 and she must end on H8. The only nine-hop path in which she visits the bottom half of the board just once is shown below right.