Splitting a clock face into three equal-sum parts
Question
A clock face carrying the numbers to falls and breaks into three pieces. The numbers on each piece add up to the same total. Which numbers lie on each piece?
Short answer
, and . The numbers sum to , so each piece totals . Pairs facing each other across a horizontal line add to (, , , …), so two parallel horizontal breaks give three bands of two such pairs each.
Adapted from Zhou, A Practical Guide to Quantitative Finance Interviews, sec. 2.5 Series Summation, 'Clock pieces', p.17; question and answer rewritten by SelfMadeQuant.com.
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