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Leave no stone unturned (Posted on 2017-03-19) Difficulty: 2 of 5
There are three virtual piles of stones. In one operation one may add to, or remove from, one of the piles the number of stones equivalent to the quantity in the other two piles combined, leaving the numbers in those two piles unchanged.
Thus, e.g., (12,3,5) can become (12,20,5) by adding 12+5=17 stones to the second pile, or (12,3,5) can become (4,3,5) by removing 3+5=8 stones from the first pile.

Assume a starting state (1111,111,11).
Is it possible, by a sequence of such operations, reach a state where one of the piles is empty?

  Submitted by Ady TZIDON    
Rating: 4.0000 (1 votes)
Solution: (Hide)
No, you always reach a triplet of 3 odd numbers; zero is even.

Comments: ( You must be logged in to post comments.)
  Subject Author Date
Some Thoughtsre(2): Other casesSteve Herman2017-03-19 15:53:15
re: Other casesCharlie2017-03-19 14:33:33
Some Thoughtsre: Other casesSteve Herman2017-03-19 14:29:54
Some ThoughtsOther casesSteve Herman2017-03-19 14:13:27
SolutionsolutionCharlie2017-03-19 13:32:00
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