#!/usr/bin/ruby
#
# Copyright (c) 2005 Thomer M. Gil
# http://thomer.com/
#
# This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
# under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
# Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
# any later version.
# 
# This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
# ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the GNU General Public License for
# more details.
# 
# You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
# this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
# Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA  02111-1307, USA.
#


#
# This little program visualizes the following riddle: You have 55 matches
# arranged in some number of piles of different sizes. You now do the
# following operation: pick one match from each pile, and form a new pile. You
# repeat this ad infinitum.  What is the steady state?  Is it unique? See also
# http://thomer.com/riddles/
#
require 'pp'

#
# Start out with one heap of 55 matches.  You can change this to whatever you
# want.  For example, for 3 piles, you could do:
#
# heaps = [10, 20, 25]
#
heaps = [55]

i = -1
while true
  print "#{i += 1} "
  pp heaps

  nheaps = []
  heaps.each do |x|
    nheaps << (x-1) if x > 1
  end
  (nheaps << heaps.length).sort!
  break if heaps == nheaps

  heaps = nheaps.clone
end