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Splitting a clock face into three equal-sum parts

Question

A clock face carrying the numbers 11 to 1212 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

{11,12,1,2}\{11,12,1,2\}, {3,4,9,10}\{3,4,9,10\} and {5,6,7,8}\{5,6,7,8\}. The numbers sum to 7878, so each piece totals 2626. Pairs facing each other across a horizontal line add to 1313 (12+112+1, 11+211+2, 10+310+3, …), 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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