Mental Nuts-- Can You Crack 'em?

[glatt]

Don't forget that you have to add up the price for all the individual nails. So your calculation is correct for finding the price of the final nail. I don't remember if there is a formula for doing a sum of numerous equations. There must be, and I just can't remember it.

When I break out my calculator and do a tedious 3 minutes of punching numbers in, I get a total of $42,949,652.95

[HungLikeJesus]

Originally Posted by glatt

Don't forget that you have to add each nail together. So your calculation is correct for finding the price of the final nail. I don't remember if there is a formula for doing a sum of numerous equations. There must be, and I just can't remember it.

When I break out my calculator and do a tedious 3 minutes of punching numbers in, I get a total of $42,949,652.95

Good point. I think the easy way to do it would be to double the cost of the last and subtract one.

(2^(n-1) * 2)-1 = (2^n) -1
(2^32) -1 = 4294967295 (cents)
$42,949,672.95, which agrees with your results.

[glatt]

Edit: I made a typo.

$42,949,672.95

[Lamplighter]

Glatt, a heroic calculation !

But the answer depends on your assumption about "first nail"
1st leg: 1st nail = $0.01 ... 6 nails per shoe = $0.63
2nd leg: 1st nail = $0.01 ... 6 nails per shoe = $0.63
3rd leg: 1st nail = $0.01 ... 6 nails per shoe = $0.63
4th leg: 1st nail = $0.01 ... 6 nails per shoe = $0.63

Total: $2.52
Time to calculate: 15 seconds