A standard 8 x 8 wooden chessboard has a straight line scratch in its surface, and is taken in for repair. The artisan who it is brought to decides to cover each affected square with a thin wooden veneer of the appropriate color.

Assuming that a different veneer is needed for each square of the board, what is the maximum number of such veneers that the artisan will require to do the job?

Wouldn't the solution be 8? Since you want the max number of veneers, it would make sense for the scratch to cover the most distance ie diagonal, since the scratch is straight. However since a chess board is square and we are counting squares this actually makes no difference. As well, the colors are irrelavent since a new veneer is used for each Square, so 8 is the answer

Posted by Dan on 2002-05-04 07:23:31