Euler in Babylon

Crack-free Walls

October 31, 2008

Consider the problem of building a wall out of 2×1 and 3×1 bricks (horizontal×vertical dimensions) such that, for extra strength, the gaps between horizontally-adjacent bricks never line up in consecutive layers, i.e. never form a "running crack".

For example, the following 9×3 wall is not acceptable due to the running crack shown in red:

There are eight ways of forming a crack-free 9×3 wall, written W(9,3) = 8.

Calculate W(32,10).


gamwe6

Written by gamwe6 who lives and works in San Francisco building useful things. You should follow him on Twitter