A person is working for you for five days, and you should pay him a gold bar at the end of every day. It should be done in a way that you make the fewest number of cuts from the one big gold bar you have, which will allow you to pay him 1/5th each day?
Updated: Sept. 25, 2023 — Training Time: 1 Minute
Overseen by: Archangel Macsika
Topic: Data Science.
Difficulty: Easy.
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Objective: Four people A, B, C, D need to cross a bridge at night, and they have only one torch. The bridge is too dangerous to cross without a torch and is strong enough to support a maximum of two people at a time. They take 1, 2, 5 and 8 minutes respectively. What is the shortest time needed for all four of them to cross the bridge?
Short Answer: 2 cuts.
Full Solution
Make 2 cuts on the big gold bar to get 3 pieces such that we have one of 1-unit gold bar and two of 2-unit gold bar.
On the first day, give out the 1-unit gold bar.
On the second day, give out the 2-unit gold bar and collect the 1-unit gold bar from the previous day.
On the third day, give out the 1-unit gold bar.
On the fourth day, give out the second 2-unit gold bar and collect the 1-unit gold bar from the previous day.
On the fifth day, give out the 1-unit gold bar.