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You are given sticks of integer lengths .
You can perform at most cuts in total. In a single cut, you can choose a stick of integer length and divide it into two sticks of integer lengths and such that , , and .
After performing at most cuts, your goal is to minimize the difference between the maximum and minimum lengths among all the resulting sticks.
Find the minimum possible difference between the length of the longest stick and the shortest stick.
We can make at most cut. If we don't make any cuts, the sticks are and the difference between the longest and shortest piece is . Even if we use our cut (for example, cutting the stick of length into and ), the new pieces would be , resulting in a difference of . Thus, the minimum possible difference is .
Since , no cuts are allowed. We simply calculate the difference between the longest and shortest initial sticks, which is .
All sticks are already the same length (all are ). Without making any cuts, the difference between the longest and shortest piece is .
There is only one stick. We don't even need to use our available cut; since there is only a single piece, both the longest and shortest pieces are the exact same stick, making the difference .
The initial lengths are , giving an initial difference of . Even with available cuts, there is no way to divide the sticks such that the difference between the maximum and minimum resulting pieces becomes strictly less than . The minimum possible difference remains .