TIMTOWTDI. A simple analysis demonstrates that there are multiple "optimal" solutions. The first row is dictated (it must contain the 1 ball). The second third and fourth rows are completely determined by choosing one of two alternatives for the second row. The last row has an odd number of balls, thus you can form a symmetrical pattern in that row giving four adjacent pairs of balls between the last two rows, or you can swap two balls of different stripe in the last row giving three adjacent pairs balls between rows and one adjacent pair within the last row.

Four equivalent solutions - very Perlish.


Perl's payment curve coincides with its learning curve.

In reply to Re: Rackin' up a game of Eight Ball by GrandFather
in thread Rackin' up a game of Eight Ball by thezip

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":



  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.