document.write( "Question 1135387: Six coins are lying in a triangle. You have to move
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document.write( "some coins to place them in a circle as you can see in the
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document.write( "second picture. How many coins must be moved at
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document.write( "least? \n" );
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Algebra.Com's Answer #752997 by greenestamps(13200)![]() ![]() You can put this solution on YOUR website! \n" ); document.write( "Moving 2 coins can make a circle; moving only 1 can't. \n" ); document.write( "Think of the 6 coins when they are in a circle as the vertices of a regular hexagon. \n" ); document.write( "The problem then becomes determining the minimum number of coins that have to be moved from the original triangular array to accomplish that. \n" ); document.write( "Then the problem is to find the largest number of the 6 coins in the original array that do NOT need to be moved to become vertices of a regular hexagon. \n" ); document.write( "A look at the original array shows that 4 of the 6 coins can stay where they are. For example.... \r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( " 1 6 1\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( " 2 3 --> 2 3\r\n" ); document.write( "\r\n" ); document.write( " 4 5 6 4 5\n" ); document.write( " |