Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site talcott.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!allegra!bellcore!decvax!genrad!panda!talcott!gjk From: gjk@talcott.UUCP (Greg Kuperberg) Newsgroups: net.jokes,net.puzzle Subject: Re: Re: Re: Short-swords Message-ID: <324@talcott.UUCP> Date: Tue, 5-Mar-85 16:47:01 EST Article-I.D.: talcott.324 Posted: Tue Mar 5 16:47:01 1985 Date-Received: Thu, 7-Mar-85 05:43:06 EST References: <233@tekred.UUCP> <222@wuphys.UUCP> <101@ucbcad.UUCP> Organization: Harvard Lines: 45 Xref: watmath net.jokes:11228 net.puzzle:574 > > Hey Ron, if he cut the fly in four peices with only two > > swords, shouldn't he have gotten first prize?!?! > > Watch: > > /-----\ > | |_ > | _| <- Fly (sort of) > | | > \----/ > > /-----\ > | |_ > |||====-------- One sword > | | > \----/ > > | > /--|--\ > |__|__| > ___|___ A second sword > | # | > \--#-/ > # > > /-- --\ > |_| |_| > ___ ___ Four parts (count them) > | | | | > \-- -/ > > I hope this clairifies the matter. > > Wayne Ok, folks, and now for a puzzle: If the man had used, say twenty, short-swords instead of two, into how many pieces could he have cut up the fly? (Assume that the fly has a convex shape, and that its components do not scatter after the first few swords, but merely separate a little, as above.) --- Greg Kuperberg harvard!talcott!gjk "2*x^5-10*x+5=0 is not solvable by radicals." -Evariste Galois.