A CHAIN PUZZLE.
(
Unclassified Problems.)
This is a puzzle based on a pretty little idea first dealt with by the
late Mr. Sam Loyd. A man had nine pieces of chain, as shown in the
illustration. He wanted to join these fifty links into one endless
chain. It will cost a penny to open any link and twopence to weld a link
together again, but he could buy a new endless chain of the same
character and quality for 2s. 2d. What was the cheapest course for him
to adopt? Unless the reader is cunning he may find himself a good way
out in his answer.
Answer:
To open and rejoin a link costs threepence. Therefore to join the nine
pieces into an endless chain would cost 2s. 3d., whereas a new chain
would cost 2s. 2d. But if we break up the piece of eight links, these
eight will join together the remaining eight pieces at a cost of 2s. But
there is a subtle way of even improving on this. Break up the two pieces
containing three and four links respectively, and these seven will join
together the remaining seven pieces at a cost of only 1s. 9d.
