Question 5
Nine vertical pillars stand in a row, with horizontal sticks between neighboring pillars at pairwise different heights. A beetle climbs upward; whenever it meets a stick it crosses to the neighboring pillar and continues upward. Starting at the bottom of pillar1, it finishes at the top of pillar9. Can one always remove a single stick so that a beetle starting at pillar1 finishes at pillar5?
In the source example, the original route is solid; removing its third encountered stick gives the dotted route.
In the source example, the original route is solid; removing its third encountered stick gives the dotted route.