Just one more piece of chocolate
As I often do on a rainy Saturday morning, I am sitting with a cup of tea and a slab of chocolate and trying the brilliant Brilliant problems. The slab is made up of smaller squares arranged in a 3 by 4 rectangle. If I break up the chocolate in the usual way (by picking up a piece and snapping it in two along a straight line), what is the minimum number of breaks I must make to eat the chocolate one small square at a time?
Bonus:
I actually like snapping bits of chocolate. What is the maximum number of breaks I can make while eating the chocolate one square at a time?
The answer is 11.
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1 solution
The answer is 11.
Every time you break a piece of chocolate you create one more piece. So, since you start with one piece you need 11 breaks to make 12 pieces!
Once you have this insight you will see that no matter what strategy you use to reduce the bar to small squares you will always need 11 breaks, and so the maximum and minimum number of breaks are the same.