Is it possible to make one long chain of the five pieces, if you have just 15 Rs?

Question

You have five pieces of chain, each consisting of three links. You want to make one long chain of these five pieces. Breaking open a link costs 1 Rs, and welding an open link costs 3 Rs.

Is it possible to make one long chain of the five pieces, if you have just 15 Rs?

Answer 1

Chain 1: Chain 2: Chain 3: Chain 4: Chain 5
Here Chain 2 and Chain 4 links are to be cut at both the ends &
then welded back

If the three link chains can be folded such that the end links are on top of one another then a single cut would give us 2 open links on a single chain (At the ends). By doing this on one another chain then linking by welding can give us a total expenditure of Rupees 14/-
2 cuts ------- 2 x Rupees 1 = 2/-
4 welds ---- 4 x Rupees 3 = 12/-
----------------------------TOTAL = 14/-