Q&A Discuss: Stacking Boxes in A pyramid

[Greg Ross]

Originally posted by M. Krass
But once the top bin shifts once, it may change how other bins do or do not support the stack.

If you should happen to take away one bin, and that bin happens to be the one that makes the top bin shift, you are ignoring the potential for others to exist that wouldn't cause that to happen.

Right? Or, maybe I'm misreading that.

I realize the question is now moot, but to answer your challenge: Just as in Jack Straws (Pick-Up-Sticks) you pick up the easy ones first. In this game, the judges would pick up the bins which obviously are not supporting the stack. Then they would evaluate the remaining bins, and remove the ones that in their best judgment are least likely to be supporting the stack. True, the judges could make a mistake, and attempt to move a bin which causes the pile to shift, when there were other bins that could have been removed with impunity. But remember -- the game isn't fair.