Squirrel Gets All The Acorns

Computer Science Level 1

Each edge in the binary tree has length 1. What is the minimum distance that the squirrel must travel to collect all 8 acorns?

30 29 31 28 27 26 32

1 solution

Arjen Vreugdenhil
Oct 6, 2015

There are 15 branches. The squirrel must travel them all and backtrack them all, except after reaching the last acorn. The total distance traveled is $2\times 15 - 4 = 26,$ and the general solution for a tree with $n$ levels is $2(2^n-1)-n.$

26- fair enough if collecting means he reached the last nut and did not have to return the nut to home for it to count as collected. other wise 30 is a sufficient answer-

Joshua Coddington - 5 years, 8 months ago

I thought it was 30. He was not specific enough.

Owen Steel - 1 year, 7 months ago

Your solution is clear, but it doesn't answer the question that is being asked. The question is poorly phrased. It should be, "what is the minimum distance the squirrel must travel in order to reach each of the acorns?"

Brian Egedy - 5 years, 4 months ago

I think the wording of the question changed after I answered it. I agree that the question, "What is the minimum distance that the squirrel must travel once it has collected all 8 acorns?", makes little sense. Perhaps you should post a report?

Arjen Vreugdenhil - 5 years, 4 months ago

What doe the phrase "once it has collected all 8 acorns" mean? I thought it takes 4 steps to reach home, after it collected all 8 acorns. But that's not in the options. So I added distance it must travel to collect all 8 acorns, Hence I figured answer = 26 (to collect acorns) +4 (to return home) =30.

భాఱ్గవ అన్నంరాజు - 5 years, 5 months ago

Squirrel Gets All The Acorns

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