03-20-2018, 10:06 PM
You are a generous employer. You pay one of your employee with one gold bar each week.
The point is that you pay him with 1/7 of the gold bar each day of the week.
The gold bar is a prism with trapezoid base or, simplified, with a rectangular base. What is the minimum amount of cuts that one need to do to be able to pay the employee?
A guy in the MathJam meeting today was able to find a really "out of the box" but valid solution (in payments terms, with the employee cooperation) with only 2 cuts. Really neat.
Also this problem for me could be linked to the egyptian fraction problems.
The point is that you pay him with 1/7 of the gold bar each day of the week.
The gold bar is a prism with trapezoid base or, simplified, with a rectangular base. What is the minimum amount of cuts that one need to do to be able to pay the employee?
A guy in the MathJam meeting today was able to find a really "out of the box" but valid solution (in payments terms, with the employee cooperation) with only 2 cuts. Really neat.
Also this problem for me could be linked to the egyptian fraction problems.