perplexus.info :: General : Teetering on the Edge

Teetering on the Edge (Posted on 2005-02-04)

A deck of 52 playing cards is placed over-hanging the straight edge of a table. The cards are identical and uniformly dense. Suppose these cards are 3.5 inches in length, and this side is perpendicular to the table's edge. If the individual cards can be pushed forward or pulled back from the edge as you please, what is the farthest the cards can reach beyond the edge without any card tipping or leaning off of the card or table immediately below it?

Example of what a three-card deck may look like:
               -----------
          -----------
           -----------
[[[[Table]]]]]]]

See The Solution Submitted by owl

Rating: 4.0000 (3 votes)

Comments: ( Back to comment list | You must be logged in to post comments.)

re: Ballast (pointer)

Comment 8 of 8 |

(In reply to Ballast (pointer) by Jer)

I mailed the remarks from my former posting to Ken Duisenberg and, three hours later, I received the following answer:

You may be right. My solutions page is more of a folder of responses, rather than a proof of solution (though usually the solutions are well proven.) It's been a while since I've updated my site - I'll try to get your comments in. Feel free to suggest a better solution.

Ken

Posted by Hugo on 2005-03-19 16:48:51

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