From: David Chelimsky <dchelimsky@...>
Date: 2007-01-28T17:05:31+09:00
Subject: Re: Counting Toothpicks (#111)

Just for fun - hows this looking? I added the numeric expressions at
the end because my eyes were starting to pop out from reading the
toothpicks. Plus you can stick them back into eval() for testing.
Doesn't prove that their the shortest, but at least it proves the
calculations are correct.

500: ||||x|||||x|||||x||||| (19 toothpicks - 4*5*5*5)
501: ||||x|||||x|||||x|||||+| (22 toothpicks - 4*5*5*5+1)
502: ||||x|||||x|||||x|||||+|| (23 toothpicks - 4*5*5*5+2)
503: ||||x|||||x|||||x|||||+||| (24 toothpicks - 4*5*5*5+3)
504: |||x||||x||||||x||||||| (20 toothpicks - 3*4*6*7)
505: |||x||||x||||||x|||||||+| (23 toothpicks - 3*4*6*7+1)
506: |||x||||x|||||x|||||||+|||x||||x|||||||+|| (39 toothpicks -
3*4*5*7+3*4*7+2)
507: |||x||||x|||||x|||||||+|||x||||x|||||||+||| (40 toothpicks -
3*4*5*7+3*4*7+3)
508: |||x||||x|||||x|||||||+||||x||||x|||||+||x|||| (42 toothpicks -
3*4*5*7+4*4*5+2*4)
509: |||x||||x|||||x|||||||+||||x||||x|||||+|||x||| (42 toothpicks -
3*4*5*7+4*4*5+3*3)
510: ||||x||||x|||||x||||||+|||||x|||||| (32 toothpicks - 4*4*5*6+5*6)



On 1/28/07, Andrey Falko <ma3oxuct@gmail.com> wrote:
> Ok, I fixed 13, 26, and 34 (dumb mistakes on my part, I'd say)...
>
> Now all I have left is to figure out my 46....
>
> Thanks.
>
> On 1/28/07, C Erler <erlercw@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On Jan 27, 10:22 pm, "Andrey Falko" <ma3ox...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 13: |||||||||||||
> > > 26: |||||||||||||x||
> > > 34: ||||x||||+|x||
> >
> > 13 and 26 can be done with less.  34 is incorrect: 4 * 4 + 1 * 2 = 16
> > + 2 = 18 (I assume it came from (4 * 4 + 1) * 2).
> >
> >
> >
>
>