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Brainteaser #17
- Bridge & Torch Problem -
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4

It's late at night when four

travelers come upon a narrow
bridge that they need to cross.
It's very dark so they need to
use a torch to cross the bridge
safely. It's an old wooden bridge
and a sign reads "Warning: No
more than two people on the bridge at a time". They
have a single torch between them which lasts 15
minutes once lit. Each of the four travelers (A, B, C, and
D) requires a different amount of time to cross the
bridge. A: one minute, B: two minutes, C: five minutes,
and D: eight minutes. Given the two-person bridge limit,
how can the entire group get to the other side of the
bridge before the torch burns out (i.e. in 15 minutes)?

You can use the table below to enter the details of each
crossing:

Elapsed Starting Action Ending

Time Side Side
0 minutes ABCD

ABCD

Need a Hint?

ANSWER: There are two nearly

identical solutions (see the tables
below):

Elapsed Starting Action Ending

Time Side Side
0 minutes ABCD
2 minutes CD A and B cross AB
(2 min)
3 minutes ACD A returns (1 B
min)
11 minutes A C and D cross BCD
(8 min)
13 minutes AB B returns (2 CD
min)
15 minutes A and B cross ABCD
(2 min)

Elapsed Starting Action Ending

Time Side Side
0 minutes ABCD
2 minutes CD A and B cross AB
(2 min)
4 minutes BCD B returns (2 A
min)
12 minutes B C and D cross ACD
(8 min)
13 minutes AB A returns (1 CD
min)
15 minutes A and B cross ABCD
(2 min)

Rating: 4.4 on 5 (58 votes)

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