Finally, a puzzle that is mathematically quite intricate - a scheduling problem from Sangraal. This occurs in the endgame, when the Sangraal (Holy Grail) is almost won. You arrive at the castle where the Foul Fiend has imprisoned 8 knights. These are as follows:
Agravain - lightly bound - badly wounded;
Bors - lightly bound - scratched;
Caradoc - bound a bit more - badly wounded;
Dagonet - bound as C - scratched;
Ector - bound and gagged - somewhat wounded;
Feirefiz - in chains - badly wounded;
Gareth - in chains and gagged - somewhat wounded;
Harry - bound really tight in chains (poor chap) - scratched.
Here the state of binding means that it will take 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 minutes (respectively) to free them: a freed knight then goes away to wash and recover himself physically in time for the Sangraal's arrival. The time he takes for this second stage is 5, 10 or 15 minutes, according to injury. In twenty minutes' time the sun will set and the Sangraal will arrive. How many knights can you bring? We see, for example that if you want F, you must free him almost at once, as he can only be ready in 19 minutes at the earliest. Freeing Harry, though it takes 6 minutes, is not urgent, as he only needs to be freed by the 15th minute. This sort of puzzle has standard algorithms for solving it, but it is at least a bit more interesting than the average optimization exercise!
Agravain - lightly bound - badly wounded;
Bors - lightly bound - scratched;
Caradoc - bound a bit more - badly wounded;
Dagonet - bound as C - scratched;
Ector - bound and gagged - somewhat wounded;
Feirefiz - in chains - badly wounded;
Gareth - in chains and gagged - somewhat wounded;
Harry - bound really tight in chains (poor chap) - scratched.
Here the state of binding means that it will take 1, 1, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 minutes (respectively) to free them: a freed knight then goes away to wash and recover himself physically in time for the Sangraal's arrival. The time he takes for this second stage is 5, 10 or 15 minutes, according to injury. In twenty minutes' time the sun will set and the Sangraal will arrive. How many knights can you bring? We see, for example that if you want F, you must free him almost at once, as he can only be ready in 19 minutes at the earliest. Freeing Harry, though it takes 6 minutes, is not urgent, as he only needs to be freed by the 15th minute. This sort of puzzle has standard algorithms for solving it, but it is at least a bit more interesting than the average optimization exercise!