geepod
June 12th, 2002, 11:35 PM
seeing as i have had some positive response from the first challenge, which by the way no one has solved yet i thought i would issue another one that is slightly easier. This one took me 30 mins, it is a question often given to prospective micro$oft programmers etc as a lateral thinking exercise. The actual answer does relate to PC hardware strangely enough.
The band U2 are on one side of a river that is linked by a bridge, thay have to cross this bridge to get to their concert which starts in 17 minutes. They can only cross the bridge 2 at a time but when they do they can only cross at the speed of the slowest person and they have to cross 2 at a time cos it is night time and only have one torch, so when two cross one of them has to return to bring another across.
The members are :
Bono = 1 min
adam = 2 min
edge = 5 min
larry = 10 min
where 10 min means that it takes larry 10 minutes to cross.
example.
adam and edge cross which takes 5 minutes, edge returns which takes another 5 min and then he crosses with larry which takes 10 minutes. this already has taken 20 minutes and bono is still on the other side.
example 2.
bono crosses with adam which takes 2 minutes, bono returns which takes another minute and then crosses with edge which tkaes 5 minutes and then returns adding another minute then crosses with larry which takes another 10 minutes. this hs taken 19 minutes so again they are late.
How can they cross following the rules in only 17 minutes, and not they cant chuck the torch back across and noone is going to swim as i know someone will post these answers. it can be done but how ?
good luck
The band U2 are on one side of a river that is linked by a bridge, thay have to cross this bridge to get to their concert which starts in 17 minutes. They can only cross the bridge 2 at a time but when they do they can only cross at the speed of the slowest person and they have to cross 2 at a time cos it is night time and only have one torch, so when two cross one of them has to return to bring another across.
The members are :
Bono = 1 min
adam = 2 min
edge = 5 min
larry = 10 min
where 10 min means that it takes larry 10 minutes to cross.
example.
adam and edge cross which takes 5 minutes, edge returns which takes another 5 min and then he crosses with larry which takes 10 minutes. this already has taken 20 minutes and bono is still on the other side.
example 2.
bono crosses with adam which takes 2 minutes, bono returns which takes another minute and then crosses with edge which tkaes 5 minutes and then returns adding another minute then crosses with larry which takes another 10 minutes. this hs taken 19 minutes so again they are late.
How can they cross following the rules in only 17 minutes, and not they cant chuck the torch back across and noone is going to swim as i know someone will post these answers. it can be done but how ?
good luck