Hundred Fowls
Solutions to the "Hundred Fowl"
puzzle.
- I'd fool around with pen and paper for a while, maybe days, until I
found the solution.
Well I might have chosen this method in my pre-teens before I discovered a
wonderful book on Number Theory in the Arncliffe Branch of the Rockdale
Municipal Library. I wore that puppy out. B
- I'd write a Perl/Python script.
My recent scribblings at 2am in hospital on pain killers would be
shorter and quicker to produce. Correct as well. I'd also not accept the solution with one-third of a
chicken. F
- I'd use some math I learned at school, maybe consulting a book.
Ahh! Send a résumé. A+
- I don't know how to do this.
Honest. You might like to read a book on Number Theory. A good programmer
you might become one day. B+
- I used Mathematica.
OK. Skip the class, go to the pub (I won't nit-pick, pocket calculators
were allowed). Like this?
Reduce[{c >= 0, h >= 0, k >= 0, 5 c + 3 h + k/3
== 100, c + h + k == 100}, {c, h, k}, Integers]
(Answer elided.)
Extra credit: f(10) =
434460632656258183416749, f(9)
= 5975780706516831163205. What are
f(11) and f(8)?
Hint: they are cool but but not exactly spectacular integers - call our
1-900 number for f(1).
No - I won't give the numeric chook solutions. I encourage you to solve it. A free
chunder.com postcard to the first and any funny solutions, which may be
presented here with your permission.
© 2007, Bruce Ellis: brucee@chunder.com,
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