You have 23 links in a gold chain (just like before), and will pay one link per day to someone. Which two chain pieces should you break in order to pay this person?

What would be the longest chain you could have in order to pay this person (one each day) by breaking 3 pieces in the chain?

Is there a rule for how many days you could pay someone under the same circumstances if you could break x pieces in the chain?

You would have to break links 4 and 11 to pay him one a day:

OOO U OOOOOO U OOOOOOOOOOOO

Give him a broken one, then another broken one, then take them back and give him the three, then a broken one, then another broken one, then take them back and give him the six, and so on so forth.

The rest of the puzzle to follow sometime in the future...

Posted by Sam on 2003-11-17 09:07:31