Hello,

This schoolyear I started the study Mathematics. One of my first subjects is Calculus. I can earn extra points for my exam when I do my homework well. Ofcourse I'll take my opportunity and do as much homework as possible to pass my first year.

The question:
There's a chocolate bar, existed of n amounts pieces. Where n is a natural number (1, 2, 3, 4, ...). It's a rectangular bar that I have to break along the sides. I have to break it till I own n single pieces. Now: show that I have to break the chocolate bar (atleast) n-1 times.

Can someone help me with this problem, please?

Question

Hello,

This schoolyear I started the study Mathematics. One of my first subjects is Calculus. I can earn extra points for my exam when I do my homework well. Ofcourse I'll take my opportunity and do as much homework as possible to pass my first year.

The question:
There's a chocolate bar, existed of n amounts pieces. Where n is a natural number (1, 2, 3, 4, ...). It's a rectangular bar that I have to break along the sides. I have to break it till I own n single pieces. Now: show that I have to break the chocolate bar (atleast) n-1 times.

Can someone help me with this problem, please?

anonymous · Answer

Oh sorry, I'm new here and I just discovered that this is (probably) the wrong section.

kainui · Answer

I don't really know how to show this mathematically but it makes sense to just list them out like this:

1 piece of chocolate : 0 cuts
2 pieces : 1 cut
3 pieces : 2 cuts
etc...

Then I would fit an equation to this table of experiments tada.