Making room
- I have three guest houses in my garden.
- I didn’t even know you had a garden!
- Most of the time I have guests in all the houses.
- How do you get rid of the guests so you can clean them?
- But why? The guests clean themselves.
- I meant the houses.
- I only clean one house at a time.
- But how do you empty them? Do you simply ask the guests to leave?
- Far from it. I have a much better procedure.
- Let’s hear it.
- I double the number of guests in a house by borrowing guests from one of the two other houses.
- But will that always create an empty guest house?
- Often not straight away. I normally have to repeat the procedure a few times.
- Exciting!
- Let me give you an example. Right now there are 41, 17, and 31 guests in the three houses.
- These houses must be big!
- Thank you.
- So, how does your method work in this case?
- I would love to tell you, but it is time for something more important.
- Like what?
- My siesta.
- Does your method always work?
- Take care!
My son Jan Thomas (5) clears a guest house:
3 – 5 – 10 start state
6 – 2 – 10
6 – 4 – 8
12 – 4 – 2
10 – 4 – 4
10 – 8 – 0 final state