Gold Bar Puzzle
You’ve got someone working for you for seven days and a gold bar to pay him. The gold bar is segmented into seven connected pieces.
You must give them a piece of gold at the end of every day.
What and where are the fewest number of cuts to the bar of gold that will allow you to pay him 1/7th each day?
The fewest number of cuts will be 2.
If we cut it into 3 part where the parts are 1, 2 and 4 segments long.
Day 1 – Give 1 segment bar
Day 2 – Give 2 segment bar ask for 1 segment bar back
Day 3 – Give 1 segment bar
Day 4 – Give 4 segment bar ask for 1 + 2 back
Day 5 – Give 1 segment bar
Day 6 – Give 2 segment bar ask for 1 segment bar back
Day 7 – Give 1 segment bar
It only takes two cuts to create three segments.
I am a digital hardware engineer — Here goes my solution
i’ll require 3 bit to give id to each bar 1st
000
001
010
011
100
101
110
111
Here if you know each bit represent weights of 4, 2 and 1 i.e, 111 means 4*1+2*1+1*1 = 7
Now you know min bar length of 4, 2 and 1 we can use to represent / distribute all 7 pieces.
421
001 –> give bar1 1st day (weight1 is 1 and rest are 0)
010 –> take bar1 back (see weight1 is 0) and give bar 2 (weight2 is 1 )
011 –> give bar1 back again
100 –> take both bar1 , bar2 and give bar 4.
101 –> give bar1 again.
110 –> take bar1 back and give bar2 again.
111 –> give bar1 as well. We are done 🙂
Just 2 cuts.
First one between 1 and 2 and second between 3 and 4.
lets number them from 1 to 7
So you have 1 2-3 4-5-6-7 in this formation and connection
Day 1- Give 1
Day 2- Give 2-3 take back 1
Day 3- Give 1 also
Day 4- Take all back and give 4-5-6-7
Day 5- Give 1 with the rest
Day 6- Take back 1 and give 2-3
Day 7- Give 1.
So we need only two cuts
Your Answer
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