Playing
with Straws
Have you ever played the game of straws where whoever draws the longest
straw wins?
Well, we are still drawing straws, but this time with a twist.
The Game: There are 50 straws of lengths 1,2, 3, ..., 50
Each player draws three straws. If your straws cannot form a triangle,
you automatically lose.
If you can form a triangle the winners rank as follows:
Right triangle
Acute Triangle
Obtuse Triangle
This means that if Bob draws an acute triangle and Betty draws an obtuse
triangle that Bob will win.
What we would like to know:
*
How many ways can you draw the straws?
*
How many of those ways will give you a triangle?
*
How many of the triangles will be:
Right triangles?
Acute triangles?
Obtuse Triangles?
Once we answer these questions we want to go large- REALLY large.
What happens when we have 10,000 straws?