Tuesday, December 5, 2017

mathematics - Savage Road Signs


There is a highway that starts in the city of Savage. You must must place distance marker signs on this highway for the outgoing traffic. According to highway code, there must be a distance marker sign at least every 20 km, and every distance marker sign must be labelled with its distance from the start (the city of Savage).


Normally this isn't a problem for you but there is a snag. Your sign printing machine is broken and your only back-up plan is to steal a pack of stickers from your daughter. This pack of stickers contains ten of each digit, 0 through 9 (that's 100 total stickers). As luck would have it, using these stickers isn't against code and you have plenty of blank signs to put them on.



What is the furthest distance marker sign you can place without breaking highway code?



Note: This isn't meant to be a lateral-thinking question. Use no more than 10 of each digit across all signs, no more than a gap of 20 between signs, the answer is the last sign you place. You do not need leading zeros, so "004" can just be "4".


I do not claim to have the optimal answer (but it's probably pretty good). I did not use a computer program, but they are allowed. I guess if you want to answer you should also list all of your signs? Assuming somebody beats me I'll give out the checkmark after a couple of days.



Answer




Edit: my improved answer is



688 km

Stepping by 19 or 20 km gave me four solutions, all of which use 10 of each digit 0 - 9:

20 40 60 80 99 118 137 157 177 197 217 237 256 276 295 314 334 353 372 392 411 430 450 470 490 509 529 549 569 588 608 628 648 668 688

20 40 60 79 99 118 137 157 177 197 217 236 256 275 294 314 333 352 372 391 410 430 450 470 490 509 529 549 568 588 608 628 648 668 688

20 40 60 79 98 118 137 157 177 197 217 236 256 275 294 314 333 352 372 391 410 430 450 470 490 509 529 549 569 588 608 628 648 668 688

20 40 60 79 98 117 137 157 177 197 216 236 255 274 294 313 332 352 371 390 410 430 450 470 489 509 529 549 569 588 608 628 648 668 688



My (previous) answer is



488 km.

20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160 180 199 219 239 259 279 299 319 338 358 378 398 418 438 457 477 488

The signs go every 20km until I run out of 0s.
The next is after 19km, and again every 20 km until I run out of 9s.
The next is after 19km, and again every 20 km until I run out of 8s.
The next is after 19km, and again every 20 km until the furthest sign I can make within 20 km

— there are no 8s (48x) or 9s (49x) or 0s (50x) left.



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