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Problem of the Week
Problem D
The Clock Works

Halina’s clock uses a digital LED display where each digit is represented by seven LED segments that are either on or off, as shown.

A description of the digits follows.

Sometimes some of the LED segments stop working. When the topmost horizontal LED segment stopped working, both the digit \(1\) and the digit \(7\) appeared as shown.

The seven segments forming two squares with the right sides of both squares highlighted.

This was a problem because Halina couldn’t distinguish between them.

Halina replaced the broken LED segment, but then a week later found that a different LED segment had stopped working. However, this time, she was still able to distinguish between all ten digits.

What is the largest number of LED segments that can be broken at the same time, while still allowing Halina to distinguish between all ten digits?

This problem was inspired by a past Beaver Computing Challenge (BCC) problem.