philcain.com

writing, journalism, books, events, recreation

Divide your timer

by

Can you draw two straight lines to cut the clock dial into two sets of numbers with the same sum? And can you do it with five lines to create six groups with an equal sum?

Reveal the solution
With two lines you’re going to get three sections if your lines do not cross. So, to be equal, they must be a third of the sum of the digits on the clock, meaning they are 78/3. Look for groups of numbers lying together with this sum and you will get the top and bottom groups. The middle one will come automatically. Follow a similar process with the five lines. A possible snarl-up would be if you started investigating crossing lines. With the first you could rule it out because 78 does not divide by four. With the second it is in the question. Sorry if this happened. Try to explore the “easy” case first.