Here is another online puzzle. This time, unlike Question 4, we can write the solution in a symbolic form. The aim is to get all the people across the bridge before the lantern burns out. Instructions are on the first page.
Go to the bridge puzzle.
To write your answer, let's look at a nice and simple way to represent the people crossing the bridge. We shall represent each person by the number of minutes it takes them to cross the bridge.
If 3 and 8 cross together let's write this as (3,8).
If 6 crosses the bridge alone we can represent this with just one number (6).
So, for example, if 3 and 8 cross the bridge first, then 8 walks back alone, then 1 and 12 cross the bridge, then 3 walks back alone, we can show this simply as:
(3,8)(8)(1,12)(3)
This is obviously not a solution, and the puzzle has not been finished, it is just to show you a simple way for you to write the final solution.
A nice thing about this representation is that we can calculate the total minutes by adding the largest number in each bracket. In my example above, the total would be: 8 + 8 + 12 + 3 = 31. Way too high!
So, your final solution will be a string of brackets showing the sequence of your moves plus the toal number of minutes.
Good luck!
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