A woman wants to buy a painting at an auction where you bid grams of gold instead of money. She owns a gold chain made of 23 interlocking loops, each weighing 1 gram. She wants to go to a jeweler before the auction to cut the minimum number of loops that would allow her to pay any sum from 1 to 23. For example, she could pay a 13 gram price with a 12 link chain and a single link. After much thought, she figures out a way to do it by cutting just 2 of the loops in the chain. How many loops are in the pieces of chains that she has after the 2 cuts?

• She will make two cuts
  one after 3 loops and other after 10 loops.
  then she will get
  5 pieces of
  1,1,3,6,12 loops.
  
  Then she can pay any sum from 1 to 23.
• 12 years agoHelpfull: Yes(10) No(0)
• Nice puzzle and nice answer.
• 12 years agoHelpfull: Yes(1) No(1)
• please explain it properly.
• 12 years agoHelpfull: Yes(1) No(0)