Mark, I’m not sure about your third: adgcfbe
Although he correctly identified that there were three meals in the cycle.
Missy thought they rode 7 miles on their bicycles – Close enough sweetie.
Here’s how I have it:
There would be 6/2 or 3 distinct pairs with which to bracket Al, so there must be 3 meals in a cycle.
Using the initials of the names, let us first seat the family in alphabetical order and then break the circle at Al’s right and straighten out the sequence for consideration.
Then take those in an even position and move them to the right, preserving their order and repeat the operation twice.
The third move returns the seating to the original alphabetic order.
Thus,
A B C D E F G
A C E G B D F
A E B F C G D
A B C D E F G
Now let us examine the bracketing pairs for each person, and incidentally demonstrate that the device used does the job.
Three city cops went to a sleazy diner (dirty, but cheap). The first cop bought four sandwiches, a cup of coffee and ten doughnuts (he was on a diet) for $1.69.
The second purchased three sandwiches, a cup of coffee and seven doughnuts for $1.26.
My question is two-fold: What is the name of the first cop’s wife and-
What did the third cop pay for a sandwich, a cup of coffee and a doughnut?
Ima plannin’ going down Springfield ways to do me some hog wrasslin' and those lil greased gal’s sure do take some catchin’, so take your time chewing over the problemo.