On May 22, 9:09 am, Seabiscuit <[email protected]> wrote: > Wow. This was an amazingly interesting problem. I spent the whole > time on this one -- didn't even read the other 2 (partly since I > thought A was almost worthless point-wise because of the codejam snafu > and B looked hard). I *knew* it had to do with Fibonacci numbers, but > it never occurred to me to use any non-integers. There is a great > geometric explanation in the solutions. Now I understand the golden > ratio as the cosmic balance between fat and thin -- very Aristotelian! > > Also, just learning the trick, > with k := floor(A/B) > {A-kB,B} winning => > {A-(k-1)B,B} losing => > {A-(k-2)B,B} winning => > etc. > was worth all the time I spent on this contest. Thanks. > > I would have gotten credit for C-small were it not for my debug- > printfs and procrastination, but I don't think I can ever code half as > fast as these competitors. If I can come up with one of these tricks > (aka insights), maybe I can make it to Round 2.
Just a small comment - problem 1 wasn't worthless. In fact, almost two *hundred* people classfied by solving just problem A quickly enough (qualifier #1000 sent in A-large at 52:40). One could have concentrated on getting a good time on problem A and get through. OTOH, on round 1B nobody in the top1000 has less than two problems solved, both small and large. I don't know if the problems where easier, more good coders awake at that time, or (probably) a combination of both. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "google-codejam" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/google-code?hl=en.
