Brain Out Level 91
📝 Walkthrough
Overview
The prompt asks for the maximum number of pieces a watermelon can be cut into with ten cuts, and a whole striped watermelon sits beside the question. This is a doubling puzzle rather than a physical slicing task: each straight cut can split every existing piece again if the pieces are stacked or rearranged between cuts. Starting from one whole melon, the number of pieces doubles with every cut, so ten cuts produce two raised to the tenth power. The answer is 1024, entered in the field below the watermelon.
- Difficulty: Regular
- Estimated moves: 1
Step-by-Step Solution
- Read the question: what is the maximum number of pieces a watermelon can be cut into with ten cuts? Ignore the rounded shape of the fruit for a moment and focus on how pieces multiply.
- Think about the first cut. One cut divides the single melon into two pieces, so after cut one you have two pieces.
- Recognize that for the maximum possible count, each new cut can pass through every piece you already have. In that ideal case the piece count doubles each time: two pieces become four, four become eight, and so on.
- Build the doubling sequence across the ten cuts: after the cuts the totals run two, four, eight, sixteen, thirty-two, sixty-four, one hundred twenty-eight, two hundred fifty-six, five hundred twelve, and finally one thousand twenty-four.
- Express the same result as two to the power of ten, which equals 1024. This is the largest number of pieces ten cuts can theoretically produce.
- Tap the Enter field, type 1024, and press the OK button to submit the answer.
Strategy & Reasoning
The word "maximum" is the key to the puzzle. A single straight cut through an unstacked melon only adds one or two new pieces, but the theoretical maximum assumes you can rearrange or stack pieces between cuts so that every existing piece is split again. Under that assumption the growth is exponential, not linear, which is why the result climbs past one thousand after only ten cuts.
Players who picture a normal kitchen knife cutting one slice at a time usually answer a small number such as eleven or twenty, but that counts only one cut adding one new piece. The puzzle instead asks for the best case, where each cut doubles the current pile. Working out the powers of two confirms that two to the tenth is 1024, and that value is what the entry field accepts.
Tips & Common Mistakes
- Do not add one new piece per cut; the maximum case doubles the existing pieces instead of merely extending the count by one.
- Remember that ten cuts mean two raised to the tenth power, not ten multiplied by two or ten squared.
- Enter 1024 and confirm with OK; if a smaller doubling total is rejected, recheck the exponent count rather than guessing a nearby number.