greg (10/20/82)
I happened across an interesting problem last night in an old Martin Gardner book of puzzles. Ah, for the good old days of Mathematical Games in Scientific American... Here's the puzzle: A truck has a gas tank capable of holding enough gas to allow it to travel 500 miles. At the edge of a desert 800 miles across is a gas station. The truck may set up 'outposts' in the desert and leave gas at them. Assuming that the gas at outposts does not evaporate, get stolen, etc. at any of the outposts, what is the smallest amount of gas that will be required to cross to the other side of the desert? A related question: is it possible for the truck to make it across an arbitrarily large desert? - Greg Johnson U Wis - Madison