I've been thinking about sorting $6$ elements with the minimal possible number of comparisons. I can do it in $10$ comparisons but I've no idea if this is optimal. Or is there a better algorithm ?
Algorithm
1. Sort $a_1, a_2, a_3$ and $a_4, a_5, a_6$.
Number of comparisons: $3+3=6$.
2. Merge two subarrays.
Number of comparisons: $3 + 3 - 2 = 4$.
Total number of comparisons: $6 + 4 = 10$.