1) Your task is to create an iron chain that consists of 15 links. You start with 5 chains that have 3 links each. It costs a dollar to cut a link and 50 cents to reweld a cut link. What is the cheapest cost to create the 15 link chain?

 

2) A wealthy benefactor in 2001 gave each member of Calgary’s Flying Saucer Club a few sacks of gold coins. She gave the same number of sacks to each member, but then added extra sacks for each female member. The benefactor increased the amount of these gifts year by year over the next three years. The benefactor in 2004 gave a total of 400 sacks of gold coins. That year, there were 21 male members and each received 11 sacks of gold coins. How many female members were there in 2004?

 

The answers to November’s puzzles were supplied in the November issue.

 

Here are the answers to this month’s puzzles:

1) Cut each link in one of the 3-link chains. Join four of the 3-link chains with the 3 cut links. That’s 3 cuts and 3 welds, ie $4.50.

2) If 21 males received 11 sacks each, the benefactor gave them 231 in all. This means 169 sacks were given to the women. 169’s factors are 1, 13 and 169, which means that the women members received 13 sacks each and there must have been 13 women. QED. Kudos and admiration if anyone can predict the value of these coins on December 31, 2009.