Here is a good shape problem I heard about recently:

There are 3 buns with sprinkles on the top that 4 people want to share. The buns have a radius of 3 inches, 4 inches and 5 inches, and although the people know where the center of each bun is, they don't know anything else about the buns, and all they have is a knife to divide the buns.

What is the fewest number of pieces required to let each person have the same area of bun? (Note that each cut must be from top to bottom; horizontal cuts would result in uneven sprinkle distribution. The cuts don't need to be straight.)

You are allowed to measure angles, but how would you do such a thing? Halving an angle measure is not easy to do with only a knife. (Be careful about "it doesn't say you can't" though; "It doesn't say aliens can't land and use futuristic technology to split them" ) It is a good solution but I didn't catch how you measure so if I added that into the solution it wouldn't be complete.

I assume when you say "measure" you half and then half again rather than cutting up the buns.

Posted by Gamer on 2004-05-08 22:23:01