A rich man left home, with only a gold chain with 123 links. He decides to stay at an inn. The owner of the inn wants one link for the first week, two links for the second week, three links for the third week, etc. What is the minimum amount of cuts?
Answer
The minimum number of cuts needed to be made is 4. If the links are numbered from 1 to 123, then the cuts would be made on the following links:
6, 17, 38 and 79.
This would result in four 1-link piece, one 5-link piece, one 10-link piece, one 20-link piece, one 40-link piece and one 44-link piece.