An unlucky gardener planted a 10x10 square array of 100 old seeds out in the garden. Only 5 of these seeds have germinated including one at the southwest corner (0,0) where a slug is currently reducing it to ground level.

When it finishes it will head directly to the next closest doomed plant. After it eats that one it will again leave a slime trail to the closest remaining plant and so on until the garden is no more.

Where are the 4 remaining seedlings if the path crawled by the slug is the longest possible and it never has to choose between two equidistant snacks?

Note: Although the slug will never have to choose between two equidistant seedlings, this doesn't imply that no two are equidistant.

Next find the locations if 6 seedlings had germinated instead of 5.

(In reply to My solution for 6 seeds by atheron)

There is no row 10 or column 10.  The 10 columns and 10 rows are numbered 0 - 9 each.

Posted by Charlie on 2006-06-25 20:02:02