Minus' Solution to

Standing Room Only
Posted Oct 28 - Nov 12, 1996

A Math student will not stand next to another Math student, so place a History or English student between them. But make sure a History student and English student aren't placed next to each other, or a fight will break out.

H M E M E M H
M H M H M E E
H M H M E M E
H M E M H M E
E M H M H M E

are all possible arrangements.


Your Solutions

Minus was delighted to receive so many solutions. He chewed through all of them and came up with the five best. Here they are:

Ashley L. Mankowski of Rosemount Middle School in Rosemount, Minnesota, sent in this entertaining scenario for sorting out the problem:

The history students will not stand next to the english students because of the "You need writing more than history" war. The math students will not stand next to each other because they all have a different idea of how the world started. The english students will stand next to anyone because they believe in being nice to everyone. One history student trips and lands between the 1st and 2nd math students. His other history friend tries to catch him and lands between the 2nd and 3rd math students. They find that this solves their problem.

M H M H M E E



Helen Clarke, also of Rosemount Middle School, admitted that it took awhile to come up with an answer. But what great insight on English students...

We got a group of 3 math students, 2 history students, and 2 english students together. Math students always want to be the best at their subject so they don't want to stand next to any other math student. History students all think differently about everything and they don't like the snobby math students so they won't stand next to history or math students. English students couldn't have a care in the world. They do like to stand next to other english students though. After about 3 hours we finally figured out this possibility:

M H M H M E E



Ariel Barker, from Methodist Ladies College in Western Australia, knew that there was more than one possible answer and explained her reasoning:

One possible order for the 3 Maths student, 2 History students and 2 English students is the following:

History / Maths / History / Maths / English / Maths / English

With this order, no History student is standing next to any other History student and no English students, no Maths student is next to any other Maths student and all English students are slotted in where convienient.



Daphne Chan and Beth George, the dynamic duo from MLC in Western Australia, were fabulously polite and thorough with their solution:

To the good people at MathDen challenge,

We have considered the challenge and here is the answer we have come up with. Although there is definitely more than one solution, here is a possible solution.

History / Maths / English / Maths / English / Maths / History

It is possible to swap over history students and english students and still get a correct answer. You could also put English students next to one another.



Georgia Moore and Barbara Abbott, of MLC in Western Australia, told Minus the method they used to solve the problem. Ingenius, girls!

We found that at the beginning of the row an English student would stand, followed by a Maths student, then History, Maths, History, Maths, and finally, the second English student.

We found this by putting pieces of paper, labeled with an E, M, or H, in a row, and checked if all the information fitted.




We wish we could have posted all of the submissions to Standing Room Only, but time and space is limited. Minus did, however, want us recognize everyone who submitted a correct solution:
Wells [wells@istar.ca]
The Given's [stephen_given@bc.sympatico.ca]
J. Watts [alvin@ccgs.wa.edu.au]
Adele Meagher [renmar@iinet.net.au]
Katherine Permiakova [kap_p@geocities.com]
Christain Tawfik [Christian_Tawfik@blackbox.at]
Ron Walczak [rwalczak@ais.net]
Harley Gillon, Thomas Ching, Ben Johnson & Ryan Lego [@ccgs.wa.edu.au]
Pippa Lilly & Lisa Davidson [@mlc.wa.edu.au]
Melissa Chantry & Lisa Day [@mlc.wa.edu.au]
Jenny Ho [jcho@mlc.wa.edu.au]
Yvonne Ho & Yan Cui [@mail.mlc.wa.edu.au]
Lisa Crawford & Jacqui Kennedy [@blue.mlc.wa.edu.au]
Elaine Hopwood & Olivia del Piano [@mlc.wa.edu.au]
Emilie Kuhaupt [ekuhaupt@mlc.wa.edu.au]
Vicki Leung [vkleung@mlc.wa.edu.au]
Bree Foley [Bafoley@blue.mlc.wa.edu.au]
Renae Meagher [rmeagher@mlc.wa.edu.au]
Chermaine Chua [cwchua@mlc.wa.edu.au]
Katie Leach & Sarah Harris [maths8@sthildas.wa.edu.au]
Susie Blackburn & Libbi Stevenson [maths8@sthildas.wa.edu.au]
Amy Finlay-Jones & Lin Chan [maths8@sthildas.wa.edu.au]
Felicity Pearce [maths8@sthildas.wa.edu.au]

Minus got a bad case of
indigestion after his binge.
Can someone e-mail him some Tums?