Can you solve the dark matter fuel riddle? - Dan Finkel

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It’s an incredible discovery: an abandoned alien space station filled with precursor technology. Now every species in the galaxy is in a mad dash to get there first, but you’ve got a problem. Your ship can’t hold enough fuel to get you there unless you vent caches of it into space at precise points and then come back for the fuel later. Can you reach the alien space station? Dan Finkel shows how.

Lesson by Daniel Finkel, directed by Artrake Studio.

It’s an incredible discovery:

an ancient, abandoned alien space station
filled with precursor technology.

But now, every species in the galaxy is
in a mad dash to get there first

and claim it for themselves.

And right away, you’ve got a problem.

Your ship’s faster-than-light jump drive
consumes 1 unit of fuel

for every parsec of distance it takes you,

and your ship holds only 15 units of fuel.

But the space station is 23 parsecs away,

and there’s only empty space between
there and here.

There’s one thing that can
help you, though:

dark matter fuel is stable in deep space.

That means you can vent a cache of it
from your fuel chamber,

and then come back to pick
it up again later.

Even though your ship holds
only 15 units of fuel,

you’ve been granted use of all 45 units
in your current location.

With some strategic fuel caching
along the way,

you might be able to
make it all 23 parsecs.

So how can you reach the
alien space station?

Answer in 3,

2,

1.

It’s possible to solve this riddle using
as few as two cache points,

and there are also valid solutions
that use more.

No matter how you go about it though,

the key is determining exactly where
to cache fuel along your route.

Let’s work backwards from the
alien space station.

To reach 23 parsecs,

you’ll have to leave the 8-parsec
mark with a full tank of fuel.

The 8-parsec point is too far from the
start to use as a cache right away;

you could jump there, but wouldn’t have
enough fuel to return to the start,

let alone store any for later.

So that means you’ll need to find a cache
somewhere between the start and 8.

But where?

There’s an interesting pattern
that can help.

At the start you have exactly 3 tanks’
worth of fuel.

At 8 parsecs you need exactly 1.

Is there a point, which we can call
point X, where you could have exactly 2?

That would be useful, because then you
could refuel there exactly twice,

making full use of your storage capacity
without any waste.

Wherever point X is,

you’ll jump forward from it twice:

once to deposit some fuel at the 8-parsec
cache point, and a second time for good.

So you’ll jump the distance between X and
8-parsecs 3 times in all.

You’d have 2 tanks of fuel at point X, and
need 1 left at the 8 parsec cache point,

so you can spend one tank-- or 15 units--
going back and forth.

Since 15 units divided by 3 trips is 5,

we can place these two cache points
5 parsecs apart.

Any farther, and you wouldn’t have enough
fuel to reach the alien space station.

So it looks like the earliest we can place
point X is at the 3-parsec mark.

Is it possible to transport 30 units of
fuel there? Let’s try.

You set out with a full tank of 15 units.

You jump 3 parsecs, drop 9 units
off at the cache point,

and then jump the 3 units home,
arriving with an empty tank.

Repeating this process gets you 18 units
of fuel at the cache point,

and one more jump puts you at the 3-parsec
cache with 30 total units of fuel.

So far so good!

Next, you jump to the 8-parsec mark,

drop off 5 units of fuel, and jump
back to the 3-parsec mark.

You fill up your tank and
jump forward again,

arriving with 10 units of
fuel in your tank.

And now the end is in sight.

You beam the 5 units of fuel in from deep
space to fill your tank to capacity,

and type in the coordinates of
your final destination.

A 15-parsec jump leaves you
running on fumes,

but ready to dock with the
precursor space station.

Time to put this alien tech to work

and make life better for everyone
in the galaxy.