MathDB

Suppose we have

2013

piles of coins, with the

i

th pile containing exactly

i

coins. We wish to remove the coins in a series of steps. In each step, we are allowed to take away coins from as many piles as we wish, but we have to take the same number of coins from each pile. We cannot take away more coins than a pile actually has. What is the minimum number of steps we have to take?

Problem Statement