Blackboard Erasing Puzzle Brute Force Solution

#http://puzzling.stackexchange.com/questions/7862/ten-numbers-on-a-blackboard

import time


def rem_comb(i,j, l):
    l2 = []
    for index in range(len(l)):
        if index == i or index == j: continue
        l2.append(l[index])
    a,b = l[i],l[j]
    l2.append(a*b + a + b)
    return l2
def experiment(l):
    if len(l) == 1:
        return l[0]
    else:
        best = (0, None,None)
        for i in range(len(l)):
            for j in range(i+1,len(l),1):
                value = experiment(rem_comb(i,j, l))
                if value > best[0]:
                    best = (value, i,j)
        return best[0]
for length in range(1,10+1,1):
    t0 = time.time()
    value = experiment(list(range(1,length+1,1)))
    t1 = time.time()
    print("Length % 2d best %d (time %f)"%(length,value,t1-t0))