4 May 2015

String around the rod

I've decided to feed my blogs with puzzles, sometimes. There are already two examples packed into one post in the other blog. I will use this blog to post about puzzles when I decide not to show how to tackle them with a computer language as a tool.

Usually you can find a solution online which is written better, explained better, shown better, and so on. This is why these posts must be read still as pointless ramblings and why I consider relevant to show also whatever could be described as suboptimal paths or even, maybe, wrong solutions. Warned: don't be fooled!

So, in this post the problem is the Sunday puzzle n. 28, that «stumped 96% of America's top math students»: String around a rod.