Gulliver and the King

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• April 28th 2013, 01:28 AM
baxteryay
Sigma
What does sigma mean I maths
• April 28th 2013, 05:11 AM
Soroban
Re: Gulliver and the King
Hello, baxteryay!

This is based on a classic problem.

Answer: his chain had from 8 to 15 links.

Suppose his chain had 7 links.
He could cut one link like this: . $\subset\!\supset\!\!\!\subset\!\!\supset \;\;\subset\!\supset \;\;\subset\!\!\supset \!\!\!\subset\!\supset \!\!\! \subset\!\supset \!\!\!\subset\!\supset$

Then he can present from 1 to 7 links.

. . $\begin{array}{cc} \text{Number} & \text{Combination} \\ \hline 1 & 1 \\ 2 & 2 \\ 3 & 1+2 \\ 4 & 4 \\ 5 & 1+4 \\ 6 & 2+4 \\ 7 & 1+2+4 \end{array}$

Since he needed two cuts, he had more than 7 links,
. . up to a maximum of 15 links.

Suppose his chain had 15 links.
Again, he would cut the 3rd link . . . and cut the 7th link.
This gives him four chains with 2, 1, 4, and 8 links.

Then he can present from 1 to 15 links.
• April 29th 2013, 03:20 AM
topsquark
Re: Sigma
Please do not edit your original post. It makes the thread rather impossible to understand, doesn't it?

-Dan