Breadstick Puzzle

Breadstick Puzzle

Posers and Puzzles

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Art, not a Toil

60.13N / 25.01E

Joined
19 Sep 11
Moves
57002
16 Oct 13

My hunch would be that finger width doesn't really make much difference, unless we are dealing with elephants trying to share one french bread? Would be intriguing to find it actually does. ^^

Joined
26 Apr 03
Moves
26771
16 Oct 13

Finger width w can be simulated with zero width fingers that cannot go nearer than w/2 to a side or nearer than w to another finger. In practice playing nearer than w (minus a tiny delta) to a side is not profitable because at w-delta nobody can get between you and the side anyway.

It is clear that, when there are enough players, the last few cannot fit their fingers on the stick, so having a finger width means at some n players the first player HAS to play w-delta from the stick end, and each subsequent player has to play at most w-delta from the nearest finger or stick end. Therefore having width puts a limit on the maximum players AND I think it also means that with each extra player the first player has to edge closer to the stick end than would be ideal with zero widths.

s
Fast and Curious

slatington, pa, usa

Joined
28 Dec 04
Moves
53223
21 Oct 13
1 edit

Originally posted by iamatiger
Aha, watermelons are actually the easiest! Just touch anywhere! (all points are the same).
Not quite, a watermelon is an ellipsoid.