Three pennies and three nickles are arranged in a row. The pennies are red and nickles are green in color. The goal is to move them so that the coins are again in a row, with all pennies to the right and nickels to the left.
Each move consists of moving a pair of adjacent coins, and sliding those two coins to a new position without rotating the coins. How can you achieve this (shown below) in three moves?
A man brought a jeweler six chains that each had five links. He wanted the jeweler to join all six chains together to make one long, closed, circular chain.
The jeweler said, “It’ll cost you a buck for every link I open and close. You want me to join six chains, so the job will cost you six bucks.”
“No, no,” replied the man, “the job can be done for less.” Is he right, and if so, how can it be done?
Riddle Answer