Friday, February 24, 2006

A construction problem...

The ancient temples in the kindgom of Pantheia are built with dimensions that are exact multiples of a unitum. Further, the dimensions of each room must be all different. For example, a temple with rooms of dimensions 5x11 and 13x5 is not allowed and neither is one with a square room.

You are the architect and are asked to build a new rectangular temple at the top of the flat topped mountain, Polypheme with atleast 2 rooms. The limited space on the mountain top means that you have to minimize the area of the temple. What is the temple with the smallest area that you can construct under the above constraints?

Explan clearly.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Unfork your way through...

Two tribes live in a jungle - the truth tellers (who always speak the truth) and the liars (who always lie). A traveler is walking along a path when he comes to an unmarked fork in the road. One path goes to his hometown. And he does not know which. Just then, a native comes along belonging to one of the two tribes mentioned above. What is one question he could pose to the native so that he finds his way home? (0.5 points)