Physics Challenge for Teachers and Students

w The Cats Cradle

There are 2010 points on a giant circuit board. Each point is connected to each of the other points by a wire with resistance R. Find the resistance r between any two points.

Boris Korsunsky, Column Editor

Weston High School, Weston, MA 02493 korsunbo@post.harvard.edu

Solution to April 2010 Challenge

B A C

Solution: The solutions to the April Challenge came from all over the world. Several different approaches were used and most answers were correct. However, the solutions that simply observed the numeric pattern for 2, 3, 4, etc. resistors and then applied that pattern to 2010 resistors, without any physical reasoning, were deemed insufficient, even if the answer was correct.

(Contributed by John Cordell, Fort Worth Country Day School, Fort Worth, TX) We are also pleased to recognize the following contributors: Sharmila Balamurugan (undergraduate student, Chennai, India) Hratch Barsoumian (Haigazian University, Beirut, Lebanon) Daniel Cartin (Naval Academy Preparatory School, Middetown, RI) Daro Castello (IES Front Martim, Barcelona, Spain) Craig Caylor (Westminster College, New Wilmington, PA) Matthew Cochran (Chaminade University of Honolulu, Honolulu, HI) R. C. Dhandhania (KalraShukla, Mumbai, India) Peter Dion (St. Catharines General Hospital, St Catharines, Ontario, Canada) Don Easton (Lacombe, Alberta, Canada) Hasan Fakhruddin (The Indiana Academy for Science, Mathematics, and Humanities, Ball State University, Muncie, IN) Michael C. Faleski (Delta College, Midland, MI)

Here is one of the correct solutions: The pentagram shown below is connected to an emf source at points A and C. Since every point is connected to every other point, all other points (B, D, and E) are equipotential. Therefore, any wire connecting points B, D, and E carries no current, and there are only four parallel paths that need to be considered. One has resistance R, and the others all have resistances 2R each. For n points, there are n-1 paths. Therefore, there are n-2 paths with resistance 2R each and one path with resistance R. The effective resistance can be found from

1 1 1 = + ( n 2) 2R r R 2 r= R n For n = 2010, r = R . 1005

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The Physics Teacher Vol. 48, 2010

Fernando Ferreira (Universidade da Beira Interior, Covilh, Portugal) Gerald E. Hite (TAMUG, Galveston, TX) Art Hovey (retired, Milford, CT) Jos Ignacio iguez de la Torre (Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain) Per-Olof Jansson (Ericsson Telecommunications, Stockholm, Sweden) Jack Kingston (Weston High School, Weston, CT) Chris LaSota (Gonzaga University, Spokane, WA) Jos Costa Leme (High School Lanheses, Viana do Castelo, Portugal) Samuel Lederer (Isidore Newman School, New Orleans, LA) Lay Kuan Loh, student (NUS High School of Mathematics and Science, Singapore) John Mallinckrodt (Cal Poly Pomona, Pomona, CA)

Jeff Melmed (Eastern Maine Community College, Bangor, ME) Carl E. Mungan (U.S. Naval Academy, Annapolis, MD) Jason L. Smith (Richland Community College, Decatur, IL) Cssio dos Santos Sousa, student (Colgio Objetivo, So Paulo, Brazil) Pietjan Wippoo (Hoogeveen, The Netherlands) Leo H. van den Raadt (Heemstede, The Netherlands) Adam Wyrzykowski, student (August Witkowski High School, Cracov, Poland) Many thanks to all contributors and we hope to hear from you in the future! Please send correspondence to: Boris Korsunsky korsunbo@post.harvard.edu

The Physics Teacher Vol. 48, 2010

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