Ponder This

January 2020 - Solution

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January 2020 Challenge

There is a simple solution for 4 barrels and 1 day: A;B;C;D.

Adding the prefix E,F,G,H provides a trivial solution for the example with 8 barrels and 2 days:
E.A;F.B;G.C;H.D
Alas, it does not work for our 12-barrel 3-day problem since I.E.A;J.F.B;K.G.C;K.H.D does not distinguish, for example, between IA and IE.

However, the example we gave included a (very) large hint. You can add an I,J,K,L prefix to it and get the solution:
I.B.DG;J.DF.AB;K.AH.CF;L.C.GH