Planetary Voyage
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Clearly state the problem to be solved:
The problem to be solved is in fact a mathematical magic trick. A magician draws a three by three grid. In each of the spots he writes a name of a planet. It looks like this:
MeThe magician then hands you a dime and asks you to place it on any one of the planets, you are free to choose any of the planets and the magician has no way of knowing what you picked. You are then going to move you dime a certain number of "hops". A hop is a move to the next planet above or below the one you are on, or to the right or to the left of the one you are on. There are no diagonal hops allowed. One your first move you are to hop once for each letter in the name of the planet that you have chosen to start on. For example if you chose to start on Mars you would make 4 hops, M-A-R-S. The magician then tells you to use a penny to signify the destruction of a planet he chooses...