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Breaking Up a Chocolate Bar Puzzle - Solution
The Puzzle:
How many steps are required to break an m × n sized bar of chocolate into 1 × 1 pieces?
You can break an existing piece of chocolate horizontally or vertically.
You cannot break two or more pieces at once (so no cutting through stacks).
Our Solution:
You need m × n − 1 steps.
By breaking an existing piece horizontally or vertically, you merely increase the total number of pieces by one.
You already have 1 piece, so need m × n − 1 steps to get to m × n pieces.