To two too
Start at 1 and go clockwise around the star till you end up at 1 again. Your task is to select as many numbers as you can in rising order. The best you can do with the star above is 1, 3, 4 with a score of 3.
Now do the same counter clockwise. Start at 1 and select numbers in rising order. The best you can do is 1, 2, 3, 5 with a score of 4.
The highest of the clockwise and counter clockwise score is called the star’s rising score. In this case it is four.
Today’s little non-fattening food for thought: Rearrange the numbers on the star so the score is three. Can you reduce it to two, too?
Problem source: Wordplay.
June 16th, 2010 at 10:32 am
clockwise 1 4 5 2 3 gives
1 4 5
1 2 5
score of 3
I don’t see how a score of 2 could be possible. Getting that in one direction would require something like 1 5 4 3 2 but of course that means the other direction would be 1 2 3 4 5 for a combined score of 5.