Patterns

Recreational mathematics
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Contents
Articles
Introduction
Recreational mathematics 1 1 4 4 17 22 23 25 28 28 30 32 33 35 40 49 51 51 53 54 56 63 66 68 68 70 72 73 75 77
Chess and mathematics

Eight queens puzzle Knight's tour Longest uncrossed knight's path Mutilated chessboard problem Wheat and chessboard problem
Connection puzzles
Gokigen Naname Hashiwokakero Icosian game Masyu Seven Bridges of Knigsberg Slitherlink Water, gas, and electricity
Grid determination puzzles

Battleship puzzle Heyawake Kuromasu Nonogram Nurikabe Shinro
Logic puzzles
Balance puzzle Bridge and torch problem Bulls and cows Fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle Hat puzzle Induction puzzles
Knights and Knaves Logic puzzle Missionaries and cannibals problem Prisoners and hats puzzle River crossing puzzle The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever Three way duel Wason selection task Wine/water mixing problem Zebra Puzzle
79 81 83 86 89 90 95 97 99 100 106 106 107 110 110 113 114 117 118 124 126 127 130 134 138 144 145 160 161 162 164 165 167 171 173 175 177
Magic squares
Antimagic square Associative magic square Bimagic cube Bimagic square Frnicle standard form Graeco-Latin square Heterosquare Latin square Lo Shu Square Magic cube Magic cube classes Magic hexagon Magic hyperbeam Magic hypercube Magic series Magic square Magic star Magic tesseract Most-perfect magic square Multimagic cube Multimagic square Mystic square Nasik magic hypercube Panmagic square Perfect magic cube Prime reciprocal magic square
Thirty-six officers problem Trimagic square
181 182 185 185 189 190 190 192 195 196 198 200 202 203 205 207 209 210 217 219 221 222 226 228 229 231 231 232 233 237 239 255 257 257 258
Mathematical games
24 Game Black Path Game Cayley's mousetrap Chomp Conway's Soldiers Dodgem Domineering Dots and Boxes Grundy's game Hackenbush Hexapawn Krypto L game Mathematical game Nim Phutball Pirate game Sim Sprouts Subtract a square Sylver coinage Wythoff's game
Mathematical puzzles
Cross-figure Feynman Long Division Puzzles Four fours Mathematical puzzle Monty Hall problem Verbal arithmetic
Mechanical puzzles
Bedlam cube Combination puzzle
Fifteen puzzle Mechanical puzzle Pocket Cube Professor's Cube Pyraminx Pyramorphix Rubik's Cube Rubik's Revenge Rubik's Snake Sliding puzzle Soma cube Sudoku Cube Think-a-Dot Tower of Hanoi
266 269 276 279 282 285 289 299 303 305 307 309 310 310 325 325 328 330 331 333 336 338 344 361 362 371 377 377 383 384 388 396 399 399 400
Number placement puzzles

Fill-In Futoshiki Hidato Hitori Kakuro KenKen Killer sudoku Mathematics of Sudoku Ripple Effect Sudoku Survo Puzzle
Paper folding
Flexagon Map folding Mathematics of paper folding Origami Regular paperfolding sequence
Polyforms
Domino Domino tiling
Fillomino Heptomino Hexomino LITS Nonomino Octomino Pentomino Polyabolo Polycube Polydrafter Polyform Polyhex Polyiamond Polyomino Polyominoid Polystick Tetromino Tromino
402 404 406 408 409 412 414 419 421 423 424 425 426 428 437 438 439 443 444 444 445 447 447 448 450 450 452 454 459 465 466 469 470 474 475 476
Publications
Journal of Recreational Mathematics Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays
Tiling puzzles
Conway puzzle Dissection puzzle Edge-matching puzzle Eternity II puzzle Eternity puzzle Ostomachion Packing problem SlothouberGraatsma puzzle Squaring the square T puzzle Tangram TetraVex Three-dimensional edge-matching puzzle Tiling puzzle
References
Article Sources and Contributors Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors 477 487
Article Licenses
License 497
Introduction
Recreational mathematics is an umbrella term, referring to mathematical puzzles and mathematical games. Not all problems in this field require a knowledge of advanced mathematics, and thus, recreational mathematics often attracts the curiosity of non-mathematicians, and inspires their further study of mathematics.
Topics
This genre of mathematics includes logic puzzles and other puzzles that require deductive reasoning, the aesthetics of mathematics, and peculiar or amusing stories and coincidences about mathematics and mathematicians. Some of the more well-known topics in recreational mathematics are mathematical chess problems, magic squares and fractals.
Mathematical games
Mathematical games are multiplayer games whose rules, strategies, and outcomes can be studied and explained by mathematics. The players of the game may not need to use mathematics in order to play mathematical games. For example, Mancala is a mathematical game, because mathematicians can study it using combinatorial game theory, even though no mathematics is necessary in order to play it.
Mathematical puzzles require mathematics in order to solve them. They have specific rules, as do multiplayer games, but mathematical puzzles don't usually involve competition between two or more players. Instead, in order to solve such a puzzle, the solver must find a solution that satisfies the given conditions. Logic puzzles are a common type of mathematical puzzle. Conway's Game of Life and fractals are also considered mathematical puzzles, even though the solver only interacts with them by providing a set of initial conditions. Sometimes, mathematical puzzles are referred to as mathematical games as well.
Others
Other curiosities and pastimes of non-trivial mathematical interest: Juggling (juggling patterns) Origami (many mathematical results, some deep) Cat's cradle and other string figures
Publications
The journal "Eureka" published by the mathematical society of the University of Cambridge is one of the oldest publications in recreational mathematics. It has been published 60 times since 1939 and authors have included many famous mathematicians and scientists such as Martin Gardner, John Conway, Roger Penrose, Ian Stewart, Timothy Gowers, Stephen Hawking and Paul Dirac. The Journal of Recreational Mathematics is the largest publication on this topic.
Recreational mathematics Mathematical Games was the title of a long-running column on the subject by Martin Gardner, in Scientific American. He inspired several new generations of mathematicians and scientists, through his interest in mathematical recreations. Mathematical Games was succeeded by Metamagical Themas, a similarly distinguished, but shorter-running, column by Douglas Hofstadter, then by Mathematical Recreations, a column by Ian Stewart, and most recently Puzzling Adventures by Dennis Shasha. In popular culture In the Doctor Who episode "42", the Doctor completes a sequence of happy primes, then complains that schools no longer teach recreational mathematics. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime, a book about a young boy with Asperger syndrome, discusses many mathematical games and puzzles.
People
The foremost advocates of recreational mathematics have included: Lewis Carroll, author, mathematician and puzzlist John Horton Conway, mathematician and inventor of Conway's Game of life Henry Dudeney, regarded as England's greatest puzzlist Martin Gardner, author of Mathematical Games, a long running column in Scientific American Sam Loyd, regarded as America's greatest puzzlist Clifford A. Pickover, author of numerous books on recreational mathematics Marilyn vos Savant, author of "Ask Marilyn", a long running column in PARADE Malba Tahan, pseudonym of Jlio Csar de Mello e Souza, author of several books figuring recreational mathematics, including The Man Who Counted Yakov Perelman, Russian author of many popular science books, including Mathematics Can Be Fun
Further reading
W. W. Rouse Ball and H.S.M. Coxeter (1987). Mathematical Recreations and Essays, Thirteenth Edition, Dover. ISBN 0-486-25357-0. Henry E. Dudeney (1967). 536 Puzzles and Curious Problems. Charles Scribner's sons. ISBN 0-684-71755-7. Sam Loyd (1959. 2 Vols.). in Martin Gardner: The Mathematical Puzzles of Sam Loyd. Dover. OCLC 5720955. Raymond M. Smullyan (1991). The Lady or the Tiger? And Other Logic Puzzles. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-286136-0.
External links
Recreational Mathematics [1] from MathWorld at Wolfram Research Mathematical treasure hunt on the Internet [2] by CIJM (for highschool students and general public) QEDcat - fun mathematical resources [3] by Burkard Polster and Marty Ross. mathpuzzle.com [4] by Ed Pegg, Jr. Puzzles of the Month [5] by Gianni A. Sarcone The Unreasonable Utility of Recreational Mathematics [6] by David Singmaster Nick's Mathematical Puzzles [7] Cotpi Weekly Puzzles [8] Knot a Braid of Links [9] Project Eureka - collection of mathematical problems and puzzles [10]
A+Click: Math problems with difficulty level adapted to students' age [11]
References
[1] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ topics/ RecreationalMathematics. html [2] http:/ / treasurehunt. cijm. org [3] http:/ / www. qedcat. com [4] http:/ / www. mathpuzzle. com/ [5] http:/ / www. archimedes-lab. org/ page10b. html [6] http:/ / anduin. eldar. org/ %7Eproblemi/ singmast/ ecmutil. html [7] http:/ / www. qbyte. org/ puzzles/ [8] http:/ / cotpi. com/ p/ [9] http:/ / camel. math. ca/ Kabol/ [10] http:/ / projecteureka. org/ [11] http:/ / www. aplusclick. com/ map. htm
Chess and mathematics

Eight queens puzzle
a 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a b c d e f g h b c d e f g h 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
One solution to the eight queens puzzle The eight queens puzzle is the problem of placing eight chess queens on an 88 chessboard so that no two queens attack each other. Thus, a solution requires that no two queens share the same row, column, or diagonal. The eight queens puzzle is an example of the more general n-queens problem of placing n queens on an nn chessboard, where solutions exist for all natural numbers n with the exception of 2 and 3.[1]
History
The puzzle was originally proposed in 1848 by the chess player Max Bezzel, and over the years, many mathematicians, including Gauss, have worked on this puzzle and its generalized n-queens problem. The first solutions were provided by Franz Nauck in 1850. Nauck also extended the puzzle to n-queens problem (on an nn boarda chessboard of arbitrary size). In 1874, S. Gnther proposed a method of finding solutions by using determinants, and J.W.L. Glaisher refined this approach. Edsger Dijkstra used this problem in 1972 to illustrate the power of what he called structured programming. He published a highly detailed description of the development of a depth-first backtracking algorithm.2
Constructing a solution
The problem can be quite computationally expensive as there are 4,426,165,368 (i.e., 64 choose 8) possible arrangements of eight queens on a 88 board, but only 92 solutions. It is possible to use shortcuts that reduce computational requirements or rules of thumb that avoids brute-force computational techniques. For example, just by applying a simple rule that constrains each queen to a single column (or row), though still considered brute force, it is possible to reduce the number of possibilities to just 16,777,216 (that is, 88) possible combinations. Generating the permutations that are solutions of the eight rooks puzzle[2] and then checking for diagonal attacks further reduces the possibilities to just 40,320 (that is, 8!). The following Python code uses this technique to calculate the 92 solutions:[3]
Eight queens puzzle from itertools import permutations n = 8 cols = range(n) for vec in permutations(cols): if (n == len(set(vec[i] + i for i in cols)) == len(set(vec[i] - i for i in cols))): print vec These brute-force algorithms are computationally manageable for n=8, but would be intractable for problems of n20, as 20! = 2.433 * 1018. Advancements for this and other toy problems are the development and application of heuristics (rules of thumb) that yield solutions to the n queens puzzle at a small fraction of the computational requirements. This heuristic solves N queens for any N4. It forms the list of numbers for vertical positions (rows) of queens with horizontal position (column) simply increasing. N is 8 for eight queens puzzle. 1. If the remainder from dividing N by 6 is not 2 or 3 then the list is simply all even numbers followed by all odd numbers N 2. 3. 4. 5. Otherwise, write separate lists of even and odd numbers (i.e. 2,4,6,8 - 1,3,5,7) If the remainder is 2, swap 1 and 3 in odd list and move 5 to the end (i.e. 3,1,7,5) If the remainder is 3, move 2 to the end of even list and 1,3 to the end of odd list (i.e. 4,6,8,2 - 5,7,9,1,3) Append odd list to the even list and place queens in the rows given by these numbers, from left to right (i.e. a2, b4, c6, d8, e3, f1, g7, h5)
For N=8 this results in the solution shown above. A few more examples follow. 14 queens (remainder 2): 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 3, 1, 7, 9, 11, 13, 5. 15 queens (remainder 3): 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 2, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 1, 3. 20 queens (remainder 2): 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 3, 1, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19, 5.
Solutions to the eight queens puzzle

The eight queens puzzle has 92 distinct solutions. If solutions that differ only by symmetry operations (rotations and reflections) of the board are counted as one, the puzzle has 12 unique (or fundamental) solutions. A fundamental solution usually has 8 variants (including its original form) obtained by rotating 90, 180, or 270 degrees and then reflecting each of the four rotational variants in a mirror in a fixed position. However, should a solution be equivalent to its own 90 degree rotation (as happens to one solution with 5 queens on a 5x5 board) that fundamental solution will have only 2 variants. Should a solution be equivalent to its own 180 degree rotation it will have 4 variants. Of the 12 fundamental solutions to the problem with 8 Queens on an 8x8 board, exactly 1 is equal to its own 180 degree rotation, and none are equal to their 90 degree rotation. Thus the number of distinct solutions is 11*8 + 1*4 = 92. The unique solutions are presented below:
Eight queens puzzle
a 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a
h 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Unique solution 1
Unique solution 5
Unique solution 9
Eight queens puzzle
a 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a
h 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Unique solution 2
Unique solution 6
Unique solution 10
Eight queens puzzle
a 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a
h 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Unique solution 3
Unique solution 7
Unique solution 11
Eight queens puzzle
a 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a
h 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Unique solution 4
Unique solution 8
Unique solution 12
Eight queens puzzle
10
Explicit solutions
Explicit solutions exist for placing n queens on an n n board, requiring no combinatorial search whatsoever.[4] The explicit solutions exhibit stair-stepped patterns, as in the following examples for n = 8, 9 and 10:
Explicit solution for 8 queens

a 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a b c d e f g h i b c d e f g h i 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Eight queens puzzle
11
a 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 a
j 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Counting solutions
The following table gives the number of solutions for placing n queens on an n n board, both unique (sequence A002562 in OEIS) and distinct (sequence A000170 in OEIS), for n=114, 2426.
n: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 92 11 341 12 1,787 13 9,233 14 45,752 .. 24 25 275,986,683,743,434 26 2,789,712,466,510,289
unique: 1 0 0 1 2
1 6
12 46
.. 28,439,272,956,934
distinct: 1 0 0 2 10 4 40 92 352 724 2,680 14,200 73,712 365,596 .. 227,514,171,973,736 2,207,893,435,808,352 22,317,699,616,364,044
Note that the six queens puzzle has fewer solutions than the five queens puzzle. There is currently no known formula for the exact number of solutions.
Related problems
Using pieces other than queens On an 88 board one can place 32 knights, or 14 bishops, 16 kings or eight rooks, so that no two pieces attack each other. Fairy chess pieces have also been substituted for queens. In the case of knights, an easy solution is to place one on each square of a given color, since they move only to the opposite color. Costas array In mathematics, a Costas array can be regarded geometrically as a set of n points lying on the squares of a nxn chessboard, such that each row or column contains only one point, and that all of the n(n 1)/2 displacement vectors between each pair of dots are distinct. Thus, an order-n Costas array is a solution to an n-rooks puzzle. Nonstandard boards Plya studied the n queens problem on a toroidal ("donut-shaped") board and showed that there is a solution on an nn board if and only if n is not divisible by 2 or 3.[5] In 2009 Pearson and Pearson algorithmically populated three-dimensional boards [6] (nnn) with n2 queens, and proposed that multiples of these can yield solutions for a four-dimensional version of the puzzle.
Eight queens puzzle Domination Given an nn board, the domination number is the minimum number of queens (or other pieces) needed to attack or occupy every square. For n=8 the queen's domination number is 5. Nine queens problem [7] Place nine queens and one pawn on an 88 board in such a way that queens don't attack each other. Further generalization of the problem (complete solution is currently unknown): given an nn chess board and m>n queens, find the minimum number of pawns, so that the m queens and the pawns can be set up on the board in such a way that no two queens attack each other. Queens and knights problem [8] Place m queens and m knights on an nn board so that no piece attacks another. Magic squares In 1992, Demirrs, Rafraf, and Tanik published a method for converting some magic squares into n queens solutions, and vice versa.[9] Latin squares In an nn matrix, place each digit 1 through n in n locations in the matrix so that no two instances of the same digit are in the same row or column. Exact cover Consider a matrix with one primary column for each of the n ranks of the board, one primary column for each of the n files, and one secondary column for each of the 4n-6 nontrivial diagonals of the board. The matrix has n2 rows: one for each possible queen placement, and each row has a 1 in the columns corresponding to that square's rank, file, and diagonals and a 0 in all the other columns. Then the n queens problem is equivalent to choosing a subset of the rows of this matrix such that every primary column has a 1 in precisely one of the chosen rows and every secondary column has a 1 in at most one of the chosen rows; this is an example of a generalized exact cover problem, of which sudoku is another example.
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The eight queens puzzle as an exercise in algorithm design

Finding all solutions to the eight queens puzzle is a good example of a simple but nontrivial problem. For this reason, it is often used as an example problem for various programming techniques, including nontraditional approaches such as constraint programming, logic programming or genetic algorithms. Most often, it is used as an example of a problem which can be solved with a recursive algorithm, by phrasing the n queens problem inductively in terms of adding a single queen to any solution to the problem of placing n1 queens on an n-by-n chessboard. The induction bottoms out with the solution to the 'problem' of placing 0 queens on an 0-by-0 chessboard, which is the empty chessboard. This technique is much more efficient than the nave brute-force search algorithm, which considers all 648=248= 281,474,976,710,656 possible blind placements of eight queens, and then filters these to remove all placements that place two queens either on the same square (leaving only 64!/56!= 178,462,987,637,760 possible placements) or in mutually attacking positions. This very poor algorithm will, among other things, produce the same results over and over again in all the different permutations of the assignments of the eight queens, as well as repeating the same computations over and over again for the different sub-sets of each solution. A better brute-force algorithm places a single queen on each row, leading to only 88=224= 16,777,216 blind placements. It is possible to do much better than this. One algorithm solves the eight rooks puzzle by generating the permutations of the numbers 1 through 8 (of which there are 8! = 40,320), and uses the elements of each permutation as indices to place a queen on each row. Then it rejects those boards with diagonal attacking positions. The backtracking depth-first search program, a slight improvement on the permutation method, constructs the search tree by
Eight queens puzzle considering one row of the board at a time, eliminating most nonsolution board positions at a very early stage in their construction. Because it rejects rook and diagonal attacks even on incomplete boards, it examines only 15,720 possible queen placements. A further improvement which examines only 5,508 possible queen placements is to combine the permutation based method with the early pruning method: the permutations are generated depth-first, and the search space is pruned if the partial permutation produces a diagonal attack. Constraint programming can also be very effective on this problem. An alternative to exhaustive search is an 'iterative repair' algorithm, which typically starts with all queens on the board, for example with one queen per column. It then counts the number of conflicts (attacks), and uses a heuristic to determine how to improve the placement of the queens. The 'minimum-conflicts' heuristic moving the piece with the largest number of conflicts to the square in the same column where the number of conflicts is smallest is particularly effective: it finds a solution to the 1,000,000 queen problem in less than 50 steps on average. This assumes that the initial configuration is 'reasonably good' if a million queens all start in the same row, it will obviously take at least 999,999 steps to fix it. A 'reasonably good' starting point can for instance be found by putting each queen in its own row and column so that it conflicts with the smallest number of queens already on the board. Note that 'iterative repair', unlike the 'backtracking' search outlined above, does not guarantee a solution: like all hillclimbing (i.e., greedy) procedures, it may get stuck on a local optimum (in which case the algorithm may be restarted with a different initial configuration). On the other hand, it can solve problem sizes that are several orders of magnitude beyond the scope of a depth-first search.
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An animated version of the recursive solution
This animation uses backtracking to solve the problem. A queen is placed in a column that is known not to cause conflict. If a column is not found the program returns to the last good state and then tries a different column.
Eight queens puzzle
14
Sample program
The following is a Pascal program by Niklaus Wirth.[10] It finds one solution to the eight queens problem. program eightqueen1(output); var i : integer; q : boolean; a : array[ 1 .. 8] of boolean; b : array[ 2 .. 16] of boolean; c : array[ -7 .. 7] of boolean; x : array[ 1 .. 8] of integer; procedure try( i : integer; var q : boolean); var j : integer; begin j := 0; repeat j := j + 1; q := false; if a[ j] and b[ i + j] and c[ i - j] then begin x[ i] := j; a[ j] := false; b[ i + j] := false; c[ i - j] := false; if i < 8 then begin try( i + 1, q); if not q then begin a[ j] := true; b[ i + j] := true; c[ i - j] := true; end end else q := true end until q or (j = 8); end; begin for i := 1 to 8 do a[ i] := true; for i := 2 to 16 do b[ i] := true; for i := -7 to 7 do c[ i] := true; try( 1, q); if q then for i := 1 to 8 do write( x[ i]:4); writeln end.
References
[1] Hoffman, et al. "Construction for the Solutions of the m Queens Problem". Mathematics Magazine, Vol. XX (1969), p. 66-72. (http:/ / penguin. ewu. edu/ ~trolfe/ QueenLasVegas/ Hoffman. pdf) [2] Rooks Problem from Wolfram MathWorld (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ RooksProblem. html) [3] Hettinger, Raymond. "Eight queens. Six lines." (http:/ / code. activestate. com/ recipes/ 576647-eight-queens-six-lines/ ). . Retrieved 25 June 2011. [4] Explicit Solutions to the N-Queens Problem for all N (http:/ / delivery. acm. org/ 10. 1145/ 130000/ 122322/ p7-bernhardsson. pdf?ip=128. 125. 133. 201& CFID=44352328& CFTOKEN=62267842& __acm__=1316815405_9a82b00e821cdd41080729f6f3f40975), Bo Bernhardsson (1991), Department of Automatic Control, Land Institute of Technology, Sweden. [5] G. Polya, Uber die doppelt-periodischen Losungen des n-Damen-Problems, George Polya: Collected papers Vol. IV, G-C. Rota, ed., MIT Press, Cambridge, London, 1984, pp.237247 [6] http:/ / queens. lyndenlea. info/ beyond2d. php [7] http:/ / www. chessvariants. org/ problems. dir/ 9queens. html [8] http:/ / www. vector. org. uk/ archive/ v213/ hui213. htm
Eight queens puzzle

[9] O. Demirrs, N. Rafraf, and M.M. Tanik. Obtaining n-queens solutions from magic squares and constructing magic squares from n-queens solutions. Journal of Recreational Mathematics, 24:272280, 1992 [10] Wirth, 1976, p. 145
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Bell, Jordan and Stevens, Brett, A survey of known results and research areas for n-queens, Discrete Mathematics, Vol. 309, Issue 1, 6 January 2009, 1-31. Watkins, John J. (2004). Across the Board: The Mathematics of Chess Problems. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-11503-6. O.-J. Dahl, E. W. Dijkstra, C. A. R. Hoare Structured Programming, Academic Press, London, 1972 ISBN 0-12-200550-3 see pp 7282 for Dijkstra's solution of the 8 Queens problem. Three Dimensional NxN-Queens Problems (http://www.csse.monash.edu.au/~lloyd/tildeAlgDS/Recn/ Queens3D/), L.Allison, C.N.Yee, & M.McGaughey (1988), Department of Computer Science, Monash University, Australia. S. Nudelman, The Modular N-Queens Problem in Higher Dimensions, Discrete Mathematics, vol 146, iss. 1-3, 15 November 1995, pp.159167. On The Modular N-Queen Problem in Higher Dimensions (http://www.liacs.nl/~kosters/nqueens/papers/ gomez2004.pdf), Ricardo Gomez, Juan Jose Montellano and Ricardo Strausz (2004), Instituto de Matematicas, Area de la Investigacion Cientifica, Circuito Exterior, Ciudad Universitaria, Mexico. J. Barr and S. Rao, The n-Queens Problem in Higher Dimensions, Elemente der Mathematik, vol 61 (2006), pp.133137. Wirth, Niklaus (1976), Algorithms + Data Structures = Programs, Prentice-Hall, ISBN0-13-022418-9
External links
"DEDUCE": A Two-Player game based on Eight Queen problem at "sadtoy.com" (http://www.sadtoy.com) A visualization of N-Queens solution algorithms by Yuval Baror (http://yuval.bar-or.org/index.php?item=9) An Applet simulating the random-greedy solution for the n-queen problem (http://firefang.net/english/ n-queens) MathWorld article (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/QueensProblem.html) Solutions to the 8-Queens Problem (http://bridges.canterbury.ac.nz/features/eight.html) Walter Kosters's N-Queens Page (http://www.liacs.nl/home/kosters/nqueens.html) Durango Bill's N-Queens Page (http://www.durangobill.com/N_Queens.html) On-line Guide to Constraint Programming (http://kti.ms.mff.cuni.cz/~bartak/constraints/index.html) NQueen@home Boinc project (http://nqueens.ing.udec.cl/) Ideas and algorithms for the N-Queens problem (https://sites.google.com/site/nqueensolver/) Queens@TUD project (uses FPGA-based solvers) (http://queens.inf.tu-dresden.de/) Eight queens puzzle: Flash game (http://ilovemedia.es/en/games/eight_queens_puzzle.html) Eight Queens Puzzle: iPhone free game (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/8-queens/id397685941) Five Queens Puzzle: Free game (http://funmin.com/online-games/5queens/index.php) jQuery version of the Eight Queens Puzzle (http://www.patriciomolina.com/samples/eqp/) Eight Queens Puzzle: Android free game (https://market.android.com/details?id=kosta.sokol.queens& feature=search_result)
Eight queens puzzle
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Links to solutions
Simple solution and layout to 8 Queen and for NxN matrix (http://kunals.com/pg/d/apps/invigilator/index) Takaken's N-Queen code (around 4 times faster than Jeff Somer's code because of symmetry considerations) (http://www.ic-net.or.jp/home/takaken/e/queen/index.html) Jeff Somers' N-Queen code (http://www.jsomers.com/nqueen_demo/nqueens.html) Sloane's A000170 : Number of ways of placing n nonattacking queens on n X n board (http://oeis.org/ A000170). The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. Usefull algorithms for solving the N-Queens problem (https://sites.google.com/site/nqueensolver/home/ algorithm-results) C++ implementation of 8-queen problem all permutations (http://www.planet-source-code.com/vb/scripts/ ShowCode.asp?txtCodeId=13265&lngWId=3) Find your own solution (http://www.hbmeyer.de/backtrack/achtdamen/eight.htm) Atari BASIC (http://www.atarimagazines.com/v3n12/Queens8.html) Atari Action! (http://www.atarimagazines.com/v4n5/8queens.html) Genetic algorithms (http://www.dossier-andreas.net/ai/ga.html) Haskell/Java hybrid (http://www.scdi.org/~avernet/projects/jaskell/queens/) Java (http://files.nyu.edu/eb1167/html/works/programs/queens/queens.html), mirror (http://homepages. nyu.edu/~eb1167/works/programs/queens/queens.html), solves by backtracking, code under GPL. Python (http://code.activestate.com/recipes/576647/) With out Permutations (Python) (http://code.activestate.com/recipes/ 577325-eight-queens-with-out-permutations/) Standard ML (http://www.dcs.ed.ac.uk/home/mlj/demos/queens/) Integer Sequences (http://www.muljadi.org/EightQueens.htm) Quirkasaurus' 8 Queens Solution (http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/ quirkasaurus/queens8/index.html&date=2009-10-26+01:10:12) LISP solution for N-Queens Problem (http://www.obereed.net/queens/) ANSI C (recursive, congruence-free NxN-size queens problem solver with conflict heuristics) (http://www. 0xe3.com/src/chess/) javascript solution for 8-Queens Problem (http://www.webcitation.org/query?url=http://www.geocities.com/ ndjapic/OSIGKStanisic/Dame.html&date=2009-10-26+02:43:41) Brute-force solution for eight queens in a web based interactive classic BASIC environment (http://www. quitebasic.com/prj/puzzle/eight-queens-brute/) solution for eight queens in C++ (http://ananyamallik.blogspot.com/2010/10/solution-of-8-queen-problem. html) Conflict heuristics solution for the eight queens in a web based interactive classic BASIC environment (http:// www.quitebasic.com/prj/puzzle/eight-queens-heuristic/) A Simple PHP Solution (http://www.citytalks.gr/8q/index.php) A table of algorithmically-first n-queens solutions: for n=4 to n=45, n=47 and n=49 (by Pearson), and for n=46 (by Engelhardt). The algorithmically-first solution for n=48 remains unknown (http://queens.cspea.co.uk/ csp-q-1stsols.html) Visual Prolog: N-Queen Puzzle (http://wiki.visual-prolog.com/index.php?title=N-queen_puzzle) (wiki) Solutions in various languages (http://rosettacode.org/wiki/N-Queens) on Rosetta Code N-Queens in X10 (http://dist.codehaus.org/x10/applications/samples/NQueensDist.x10) An Overview of Miranda (http://www.cs.kent.ac.uk/people/staff/dat/miranda/overview.pdf), including 4-line Miranda solution (SigPlan Notices, 21(12):158-166, Dec 1986) A Case Study: The Eight Queens Puzzle (http://web.engr.oregonstate.edu/~budd/Books/oopintro3e/info/ chap06.pdf), including solutions in multiple languages
Eight queens puzzle ANS-Forth solution (http://www.forth.org/novice.html) Non-recursive with backtracking (demonstrates how Forth functions can take variable numbers of parameters on the stack). Also, an implementation of the heuristic algorithm described earlier in this Wikipedia article (demonstrates linked lists). N-Queens in Java (http://github.com/kapild/Permutations/tree/master/src/)
17
Knight's tour
The knight's tour is a mathematical problem involving a knight on a chessboard. The knight is placed on the empty board and, moving according to the rules of chess, must visit each square exactly once. A knight's tour is called a closed tour if the knight ends on a square attacking the square from which it began (so that it may tour the board again immediately with the same path). Otherwise the tour is open. The exact number of open tours is still unknown. Creating a program to solve the knight's tour is a common problem given to computer science students.[1] Variations of the knight's tour problem involve chessboards of different sizes than the usual 8 8, as well as irregular (non-rectangular) boards.
The Knight's tour as solved by The Turk, a chess-playing machine hoax. This particular solution is closed (circular), and can be completed from any point on the board.
Knight's tour
18
Theory
The knight's tour problem is an instance of the more general Hamiltonian path problem in graph theory. The problem of finding a closed knight's tour is similarly an instance of the Hamiltonian cycle problem. Note, however, that unlike the general Hamiltonian path problem, the knight's tour problem can be solved in linear time.[2]
History
The earliest known references to the Knight's Tour problem date back to the 9th century AD. The pattern of a knight's tour on a half-board has been presented in verse form (as a literary constraint) in the highly stylized Sanskrit poem Kavyalankara[3] written by the 9th century Indian poet Rudrata, which discusses the art of poetry, especially with relation to theater (Natyashastra). As was often the practice in ornate Sanskrit poetry, the syllabic patterns of this poem elucidate a completely different motif, in this case an open knight's tour
Knight's graph showing all possible paths for a Knight's tour on a standard 88 chessboard. The numbers on each node indicate the number of possible moves that can be made from that position.
on a half-chessboard. One of the first mathematicians to investigate the knight's tour was Leonhard Euler. The first procedure for completing the Knight's Tour was Warnsdorff's rule, first described in 1823 by H. C. von Warnsdorff. In the 20th century, the Oulipo group of writers used it among many others. The most notable example is the 10 10 Knight's Tour which sets the order of the chapters in Georges Perec's novel Life: A User's Manual. The sixth game of the 2010 World Chess Championship between Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov saw Anand making 13 consecutive knight moves (albeit using both knights) - online commentors jested that Anand was trying to solve the Knight's Tour problem during the game.
Closed tours
On an 8 8 board, there are exactly 26,534,728,821,064 directed closed tours (i.e. two tours along the same path that travel in opposite directions are counted separately, as are rotations and reflections).[4][5][6] The number of undirected closed tours is half this number, since every tour can be traced in reverse. There are 9,862 undirected closed tours on a 6 6 board.[7] No closed tours exist for smaller square boards besides the trivial case 1 1 (this is a corollary of the following theorem).
Knight's tour
19
Schwenk's Theorem
For any m n board with m less than or equal to n, a closed knight's tour is always possible unless one or more of these three conditions are met: 1. m and n are both odd; m and n are not both 1 2. m = 1, 2, or 4; m and n are not both 1 3. m = 3 and n = 4, 6, or 8. Condition 1 One can show that condition 1 prohibits closed tours by a simple argument based on parity and coloring. For the standard black-and-white coloring of the chessboard, the knight must move either from a black square to a white square or from a white square to a black square. Thus in a closed tour the knight must visit the same number of white squares as black squares, and the number of squares visited in total must therefore be even. But if m and n are both odd, the total number of squares is odd. (For example, in a 5 5 checkerboard there are 13 of one color and 12 of the other.) Therefore closed tours do not exist. Open tours may still exist (with the exception of the trivial case 1 1). Condition 2 Condition 2 states that when the shorter side is of length 1, 2, or 4, no closed tour is possible. When m = 1 or 2, no closed tour is possible because the knight would not be able to reach every square (once again, with the exception of the trivial case 1 1). It can be shown that a 4 n board cannot have a closed tour either, by using a coloring argument. Start by assuming that a 4 n board has a closed knight's tour. Let be the set of all squares that would be black and all the squares that would be white, if they were colored according to the alternating black-and-white checkerboard scheme. Consider the figure at right. Define to be the set of green squares and as the set of red squares. There are an equal number of red squares as green squares. Note that from a square in jump to a square in a square in the knight must next it must move to later).
The knight must alternate between green and red.
. And since the knight must visit every
square once, when the knight is on a square in
next (otherwise the knight will need to travel to two squares in and . .
If we follow the hypothetical knight's tour, we will find a contradiction. 1. The first square the knight goes to will be a square of 2. 3. 4. 5. and so that it is true. The second square must be an element of the sets and The third square must be an element of and . The fourth square must be an element of the sets and And so on. has the same elements as set . If it is not, we switch the definitions of
It follows that set
, and set
has the same elements as set
. But this is
obviously not true, as the red and green pattern shown above is not the same as a checkerboard pattern; the set of red squares is not the same as the set of black squares (or white, for that matter). So our above assumption was false and there are no closed knight's tours for any 4 n board, for any n.
Knight's tour Condition 3 Condition 3 may be proved using casework. Attempting to construct a closed knight's tour on a 3 by 4, 3 by 6, or 3 by 8 will lead to definite failure. 3 by n boards with n even and greater than 8 can be shown to have closed tours by induction (a repeating pattern). All other cases Simply proving the above three conditions does not prove the theorem. It is still required to prove that all rectangular boards that do not fall in one of the above three categories have closed knight's tours.[8]
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Computer algorithms
Algorithms other than the simple brute-force search to find knight's tour solutions are discussed below. For a regular 8x8 chess board, there are approximately 41051 possible move sequences,[9] and it would take an unfathomable amount of time to iterate through such a large number of moves.
Divide and conquer solutions

By dividing the board into smaller pieces, constructing tours on each piece, and patching the pieces together, one can construct tours on most rectangular boards in polynomial time.[10][11]
Neural network solutions

The Knight's Tour problem also lends itself to being solved by a neural network implementation.[12] The network is set up such that every legal knight's move is represented by a neuron, and each neuron is initialized randomly to be either "active" or "inactive" (output of 1 or 0), with 1 implying that the neuron is part of the final solution. Each neuron also has a state function (described below) which is initialized to 0. When the network is allowed to run, each neuron can change its state and output based on the states and outputs of its neighbors (adjacent knight's moves) according to the following transition rules:
Closed Knight's Tour on a 24 24 board solved by a neural network.
where
represents discrete intervals of time,
is the state of the neuron connecting square
to square
is the output of the neuron from to , and is the set of neighbors of the neuron. Although divergent cases are possible, the network should eventually converge, which occurs when no neuron changes its state from time to . When the network converges, a solution is found. The solution found by the network will be either a knight's tour, or a series of two or more independent knight's tours within the same board.
Knight's tour
21
Warnsdorff's rule
Warnsdorff's rule is a heuristic method for finding a knight's tour. Briefly, one moves the knight according to the following rule: always proceed to the square from which the knight will have the fewest onward moves. When calculating the number of onward moves for each candidate square, of course, we do not count moves that revisit any square already visited. It is, of course, possible to have two or more choices for which the number of onward moves is equal; there are various methods for breaking such ties, including one devised by Pohl [13] and another by Squirrel and Cull.[14] This rule may also more generally be applied to any graph. In graph-theoretic terms, each move is made to the adjacent vertex with the least degree. Although the Hamiltonian path problem is NP-hard in general, on many graphs that occur in practice this heuristic is able to successfully locate a solution in linear time.[13] The knight's tour is a special case.[15]
A graphical representation of the Knight's Tour implemented using Warnsdorff's Rule. Each square contains an integer giving the number of moves that the knight could make from that square. In this case, the rule tells us to move to the square with the smallest integer in it, namely 2.
The heuristic was first described in "Des Rsselsprungs einfachste und allgemeinste Lsung" by H. C. von Warnsdorff in 1823.[15]
Notes
[1] H. M. Deitel, P. J. Deitel. "Java How To Program Fifth Edition." Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey, pp. 326328. 2003. [2] Conrad, A.; Hindrichs, T.; Morsy, H. & Wegener, I. (1994). "Solution of the Knight's Hamiltonian Path Problem on Chessboards". Discrete Applied Mathematics 50 (2): 125134. doi:10.1016/0166-218X(92)00170-Q. [3] Satyadev, Chaudhary. Kavyalankara of Rudrata (Sanskrit Text, with Hindi translation);. Delhi: Parimal Sanskrit Series No. 30. [4] Martin Loebbing; Ingo Wegener (1996). "The Number of Knight's Tours Equals 33,439,123,484,294 Counting with Binary Decision Diagrams" (http:/ / www. combinatorics. org/ Volume_3/ Abstracts/ v3i1r5. html). The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics 3 (1): R5. . Remark: The authors later admitted (http:/ / www. combinatorics. org/ Volume_3/ Comments/ v3i1r5. html) that the announced number is incorrect. According to McKay's report, the correct number is 13,267,364,410,532 and this number is repeated in Wegener's 2000 book. [5] Brendan McKay (1997). "Knight's Tours on an 8x8 Chessboard" (http:/ / www. combinatorics. org/ Volume_3/ Comments/ v3i1r5. 01. ps). Technical Report TR-CS-97-03 (Department of Computer Science, Australian National University). . [6] Wegener, I. (2000). Branching Programs and Binary Decision Diagrams (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=-DZjVz9E4f8C& pg=PA369& dq=532). Society for Industrial & Applied Mathematics. ISBN0-898-71458-3. . [7] Weisstein, Eric W., " Knight's Tour (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ KnightsTour. html)" from MathWorld. [8] Watkins, John J. (2004). Across the Board: the Mathematics of Chessboard Problems. Princeton University Press. ISBN0691115036. [9] "Enumerating the Knight's Tour" (http:/ / www. josiahland. com/ ?p=781). . [10] Cull, P.; DeCurtins, J. (June 1978). "Knight's Tour Revisited". Fibonacci Quarterly 16: 276285. [11] Parberry, Ian (1997). "An Efficient Algorithms for the Knight's Tour Problem" (http:/ / larc. unt. edu/ ian/ pubs/ algoknight. pdf). Discrete Applied Mathematics 73: 251260. doi:10.1016/S0166-218X(96)00010-8. . [12] Y. Takefuji, K. C. Lee. "Neural network computing for knight's tour problems." Neurocomputing, 4(5):249254, 1992. [13] Pohl, Ira (July 1967). "A method for finding Hamilton paths and Knight's tours" (http:/ / portal. acm. org/ citation. cfm?id=363463). Communications of the ACM 10 (7): 446449. doi:10.1145/363427.363463. . [14] Squirrel, Douglas; Cull, P. (1996). "A Warnsdorff-Rule Algorithm for Knight's Tours on Square Boards" (https:/ / github. com/ douglassquirrel/ warnsdorff/ blob/ master/ 5_Squirrel96. pdf?raw=true). . Retrieved 2011-08-21. [15] Alwan, Karla; Waters, K. (1992). "Finding Re-entrant Knight's Tours on N-by-M Boards" (http:/ / portal. acm. org/ citation. cfm?id=503806) (PDF). ACM Southeast Regional Conference. New York, New York: ACM. pp.377382. doi:10.1145/503720.503806. . Retrieved 2008-10-28.
Knight's tour
22
External links
Warnsdorff's Rule (http://web.telia.com/~u85905224/knight/eWarnsd.htm) and its efficiency (http://web. telia.com/~u85905224/knight/bWarnsd.htm) from Warnsdorff's Rule Web Page Thomasson, Dan. "The knight's tour" (http://www.borderschess.org/KnightTour.htm). Knight's tour notes (http://www.mayhematics.com/t/t.htm) (sequence A001230 in OEIS) warnsdorff.com (http://warnsdorff.com) - Page devoted to Warnsdorff's Rule
Implementations
The Knight's Tour (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/TheKnightsTour/) by Jay Warendorff, Wolfram Demonstrations Project Kumar, Piyush. "A Simple backtracking implementation in C++" (http://www.compgeom.com/~piyush/teach/ 3330/homeworks/knightour.cpp). Horsell, Kym. "A Simple implementation in standard Prolog" (http://junk.kymhorsell.com/knight.html). An implementation in C# (http://www.knightstour.co.uk) Knight's Tours Using a Neural Network (http://dmitrybrant.com/knights-tour) Program that creates tours using a neural network, plus gallery of images. An interactive version in JavaScript (http://www.brainbashers.com/knight) Knight's Tour in form of jQuery plugin (http://www.breve.cz/jquery/jknight.php)
Longest uncrossed knight's path

The longest uncrossed (or nonintersecting) knight's path is a mathematical problem involving a knight on the standard 88 chessboard or, more generally, on a square nn board. The problem is to find the longest path the knight can take on the given board, such that the path does not intersect itself. A further distinction can be made between a closed path, which ends on the same field as where it begins, and an open path, which ends on a different field from where it begins.
Known solutions
The longest open paths are known only for n 9. Their lengths for n = 1, 2, , 9 are: 0, 0, 2, 5, 10, 17, 24, 35, 47 (sequence A003192 in OEIS) The longest closed paths are known only for n 10. Their lengths for n = 1, 2, , 10 are: 0, 0, 0, 4, 8, 12, 24, 32, 42, 54 (sequence A157416 in OEIS)
A longest closed path for n = 7 of length 24.
A longest open path for n = 8 of length 35.
Longest uncrossed knight's path
23
Generalizations
The problem can be further generalized to rectangular nm boards, or even to boards in the shape of any polyomino. Other standard chess pieces than the knight are less interesting, but fairy chess pieces like camel, giraffe and zebra lead to problems of comparable complexity.
References
L. D. Yarbrough (1969). "Uncrossed knight's tours". Journal of Recreational Mathematics 1 (3): 140142. George Jelliss, Non-Intersecting Paths [1] Non-crossing knight tours [2]
External links
Uncrossed knight's tours [3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. mayhematics. com/ t/ geometry/ gn. htm [2] http:/ / euler. free. fr/ knight/ index. htm [3] http:/ / ukt. alex-black. ru
Mutilated chessboard problem

Mutilated chessboard problem. The mutilated chessboard problem is a tiling puzzle introduced by Gamow & Stern (1958) and discussed by Martin Gardner in his Scientific American column "Mathematical Games." The problem is as follows: Suppose a standard 8x8 chessboard has two diagonally opposite corners removed, leaving 62 squares. Is it possible to place 31 dominoes of size 2x1 so as to cover all of these squares? Most considerations of this problem in literature provide solutions "in the conceptual sense" without proofs.[1] John McCarthy proposed it[2] as a hard problem for automated proof systems.[3] In fact, its solution using the resolution system of inference is exponentially hard.[4]
24
Solution
The puzzle is impossible to complete. A domino placed on the chessboard will always cover one white square and one black square. Therefore a collection of dominoes placed on the board will cover equal numbers squares of each colour. If the two white corners are removed from the board then 30 white squares and 32 black squares remain to be covered by dominoes, so this is impossible. If the two black corners are removed instead, then 32 white squares and 30 black squares remain, so it is again impossible. [5]
Gomory's theorem
The same impossibility proof shows that no domino tiling exists whenever any two white squares are removed from the chessboard. However, if two squares of opposite colors are removed, then it is always possible to tile the remaining board with dominos; this result is called Gomory's theorem,[6] and is named after mathematician Ralph E. Gomory, whose proof was published in 1973.[7] Gomory's theorem can be proven using a Hamiltonian cycle of the grid graph formed by the chessboard squares; the removal of two oppositely-colored squares splits this cycle into two paths with an even number of squares each, both of which are easy to partition into dominos.
Mutilated chessboard example showing like coloured empty squares
Notes
[1] Andrews, Peter B.; Bishop, Matthew (1996), "On Sets, Types, Fixed Points, and Checkerboards" (http:/ / citeseer. ist. psu. edu/ 87819. html), Theorem Proving With Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods: 5th International Workshop, Tableaux '96, Terrasini, Palermo, Italy, 15-17th, 1996, Proceedings, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Springer-Verlag, , "most treatments of the problem in the literature solve it in the conceptual sense, but do not actually provide proofs of the theorem in either of McCarthy's original formulations." [2] Bancerek, Grzegorz (1995), "The Mutilated Chessboard Problemchecked by Mizar" (http:/ / citeseer. ist. psu. edu/ 87819. html), in Boyer, Robert; Trybulec, Andrzej, QED Workshop, II, Warsaw University, pp.2526, , "The problem presented by John McCarthy during his lecture "Heavy duty set theory"1 has been resolved here." [3] Arthan, R. D. (2005) (PDF), The Mutilated Chessboard Theorem in Z (http:/ / www. lemma-one. com/ ProofPower/ examples/ wrk071. pdf), , retrieved 2007-05-06, "The mutilated chessboard theorem was proposed over 40 years ago by John McCarthy as a tough nut to crack for automated reasoning." [4] Alekhnovich, Michael (2004), "Mutilated chessboard problem is exponentially hard for resolution", Theoretical Computer Science 310 (1-3): 513525, doi:10.1016/S0304-3975(03)00395-5. [5] McCarthy, John (1999), "Creative Solutions to Problems" (http:/ / www-formal. stanford. edu/ jmc/ creative/ creative. html), AISB Workshop on Artificial Intelligence and Creativity, , retrieved 2007-04-27 [6] Watkins, John J. (2004), Across the board: the mathematics of chessboard problems, Princeton University Press, pp.1214, ISBN9780691115030. [7] According to Mendelsohn, the original publication is in Honsberger's book. Mendelsohn, N. S. (2004), "Tiling with dominoes", The College Mathematics Journal (Mathematical Association of America) 35 (2): 115120, doi:10.2307/4146865, JSTOR4146865; Honsberger, R. (1973), Mathematical Gems I, Mathematical Association of America.
25
References
Gamow, George; Stern, Marvin (1958), Puzzle-Math, Viking Press, ISBN978-0-333-08637-7 Gardner, Martin (1994), My Best Mathematical and Logic Puzzles, Dover, ISBN0486281523
External links
Dominoes on a Checker Board by Jim Loy (http://www.jimloy.com/puzz/dominos.htm) Dominoes on a Checker Board (http://explorepdx.com/dominos.html) Gomory's Theorem (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/GomorysTheorem/) by Jay Warendorff, The Wolfram Demonstrations Project.
Wheat and chessboard problem

Empty chessboard The wheat and chessboard problem (the problem is sometimes expressed in terms of rice instead of wheat) is a mathematical problem: If a chessboard were to have wheat placed upon each square such that one grain were placed on the first square, two on the second, four on the third, and so on (doubling the number of grains on each subsequent square), how many grains of wheat would be on the chessboard at the finish? A chessboard contains 64 squares. If the amount of grains doubles on successive squares, then the sum of grains on all 64 squares is:
This equals 18,446,744,073,709,551,615. This problem (or a variation of it) demonstrates the quick growth of exponential sequences.
26
Origin of the problem

While the story behind the problem changes from person to person, the fable usually follows the same idea: When the creator of the game of chess (in some tellings an ancient Indian mathematician, in others a legendary dravida vellalar named Sessa or Sissa) showed his invention to the ruler of the country, the ruler was so pleased that he gave the inventor the right to name his prize for the invention. The man, who was very wise, asked the king this: that for the first square of the chess board, he would receive one grain of wheat (in some tellings, rice), two for the second one, four on the third one, and so forth, doubling the amount each time. The ruler, arithmetically unaware, quickly accepted the inventor's offer, even getting offended by his perceived notion that the inventor was asking for such a low price, and ordered the treasurer to count and hand over the wheat to the inventor. However, when the treasurer took more than a week to calculate the amount of wheat, the ruler asked him for a reason for his tardiness. The treasurer then gave him the result of the calculation, and explained that it would be impossible to give the inventor the reward. The ruler then, to get back at the inventor who tried to outsmart him, cut off the inventor's head to discourage such trickery.
Variations
The problem also has another setting, the Roman Empire. When a brave general came back to Rome, the Csar asked him to name a price for the services he had offered to his country. When the general asked for an exorbitant price, the Caesar, not wanting to sound cheap, or that he was going to go back on his word, made him an offer; the next day, the general was to go to the treasury, and grab a one gram gold coin, the next day, a two gram gold coin, and each day, the weight of the coin would double, and the general could take it, as long as he was able to carry it by himself. The general, seeing a good opportunity to make money quickly, agreed. However, by the end of the 18th day, the general was not able to carry any more coins. The general only received a small fraction of what he had asked the Caesar. Yakov Perelman retells the story in one of his books with brass coins instead of gold ones, starting with five gram. The general manages to take 17 coins, and the last two must be rolled in instead of being carried. Another version places two merchants together. One merchant offers the other a deal; that for the next month, the merchant was going to give $10,000 (or, in some variants, even $100,000) to the other one, and in return, he would receive 1 cent the first day, 2 cents the second, 4 cents on the third, and so on, each time doubling the amount. The second merchant agreed, and for the first three weeks (or more, depending on the variant), he enjoyed the fortunes that the first merchant was "unwittingly" giving him, but by the end of the month, the second merchant was broke, while the first merchant was incredibly rich. Yet another variant is about a man buying a horse and displeased with the high price. The owner offers him to buy it by paying instead one cent for the first nail in its horseshoes, two for the second nail, and so on. With each horseshoe having six nails, the results are similar to the above story. Some books about popular mathematics also mention this problem: Fold a Post-it note in half seven times, and then try to rip the note. Folding the paper would soon become difficult as the note becomes increasingly smaller and increasingly harder to manipulate. However, even if you were to start with a large piece of paper, you would be unable to rip it because the paper would be 128 sheets thick.
27
Second half of the chessboard

In technology strategy, the second half of the chessboard is a phrase, coined by Ray Kurzweilkurzweilbook, in reference to the point where an exponentially growing factor begins to have a significant economic impact on an organization's overall business strategy. While the number of grains on the first half of the chessboard is large, the amount on the second half is vastly larger. The number of grains of rice on the first half of the chessboard is 1 + 2 + 4 + 8 + 16 + 32 + 64 + 128 + 256 + 512 + 1024 + ... + 2,147,483,648, for a total of 2321 = 4,294,967,295 grains of rice, or about 100,000kg of rice, with the mass of one grain of rice taken as 25mg.[1] This amount is about 1/1,200,000 of total rice production in India per annum (in 2005).[2]
An illustration of the principle.
The number of grains of rice on the second half of the chessboard is 232 + 233 + 234 ... + 263, for a total of 264232 grains of rice (the square of the number of grains on the first half of the board plus itself). Indeed, as each square contains one grain more than the total of all the squares before it, the first square of the second half alone contains more grains than the entire first half. On the 64th square of the chessboard alone there would be 263 = 9,223,372,036,854,775,808 grains of rice, or more than two billion times as much as on the first half of the chessboard. On the entire chessboard there would be 2641 = 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 grains of rice, weighing 461,168,602,000 metric tons, which would be a heap of rice larger than Mount Everest. This is around 1,000 times the global production of rice in 2010 (464,000,000 metric tons).[3]
References
1. Raymond Kurzweil (1999). The Age of Spiritual Machines. Viking Adult. ISBN0-670-88217-8.
[1] "Rice CRC - Size and Weight" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20060823025557/ http:/ / www. ricecrc. org/ reader/ tg_Size_and_Weight. htm). 2006-08-23. Archived from the original (http:/ / www. ricecrc. org/ reader/ tg_Size_and_Weight. htm) on 2006-08-23. . Retrieved 2011-09-16. [2] (http:/ / www. irri. org/ science/ ricestat/ ) [3] World rice output in 2011 estimated at 476 mn tonnes: FAO (http:/ / articles. economictimes. indiatimes. com/ 2011-06-24/ news/ 29698994_1_rice-production-paddy-production-rice-output)
External links
Weisstein, Eric W., " Wheat and Chessboard Problem (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ WheatandChessboardProblem.html)" from MathWorld. One telling of the fable (http://mathforum.org/~sanders/geometry/GP11Fable.html) Salt and chessboard problem (http://web.archive.org/web/20110707192804/http://www.averypickford. com/Third/salt.htm) - A variation on the wheat and chessboard problem with measurements of each square.
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Connection puzzles
Gokigen Naname
Gokigen Naname is a binary-determination logic puzzle published by Nikoli.
Rules
Gokigen Naname is played on a rectangular grid in which numbers in circles appear at some of the intersections on the grid. The object is to draw diagonal lines in each cell of the grid, such that the number in each circle equals the number of lines extending from that circle. Additionally, it is forbidden for the diagonal lines to form an enclosed loop. Unlike many of Nikoli's similar puzzles, such as Hashiwokakero, a single network of lines is not required.
A solved Gokigen Naname puzzle
Gokigen Naname
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Solution methods
Basic positions and combinations assuming no strategy or game play.
Immediate deductions from single numbers. (top) Either 0 or 1 in a corner specifies that cell. (middle row) A number at an edge determines both adjacent cells unless it is 1, in which case it is known that the two share a common value which is not yet determined. (bottom) A lone number away from the edge gives no information unless it is 4. (0 cannot occur away from an edge, because it would force a closed loop)
Deductions from two numbers. When immediately adjacent and not at the edge, either two 1s or two 3s require the intervening two cells to share the same value. When it is known that a 1 adjoins two cells with the same value, one must contact that position; therefore the opposite two cells must form a semicircle around the 1. When a 3 adjoins two cells with the same value, one does not contact it, so the opposite two cells must both meet that position. A cell away from the edge cannot connect two 1s at opposite corners, because that would force a closed loop.
Gokigen Naname
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External links
Play Gokigen Naname online [1] A free Gokigen Naname game to download [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. janko. at/ Raetsel/ Gokigen/ index. htm [2] http:/ / www. mulm. at/ downloads. html
Hashiwokakero
Hashiwokakero ( Hashi o kakero; lit. "build bridges!") is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli. It has also been published in English under the name Bridges or Chopsticks (an understandably mistaken translation; the hashi of the title, , means bridge; hashi written with another character, , means chopsticks). It has also appeared in The Times under the name Hashi. In France, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Belgium it is published under the name Ai-Ki-Ai.
Moderately difficult Hashiwokakero puzzle (solution)
Rules
Hashiwokakero is played on a rectangular grid with no standard size, although the grid itself is not usually drawn. Some cells start out with (usually encircled) numbers from 1 to 8 inclusive; these are the islands. The rest of the cells are empty. The goal is to connect all of the islands by drawing a series of bridges between the islands. The bridges must follow certain criteria: They must begin and end at distinct islands, travelling a straight line in between. They must not cross any other bridges or islands. They may only run perpendicularly. At most two bridges connect a pair of islands. The number of bridges connected to each island must match the number on that island. The bridges must connect the islands into a single connected group.
A simpler puzzle
Hashiwokakero
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Solution methods
Solving a Hashiwokakero puzzle is a matter of procedural force: having determined where a bridge must be placed, placing it there can eliminate other possible places for bridges, forcing the placement of another bridge, and so on. An island showing '3' in a corner, '5' along the outside edge, or '7' anywhere must have at least one bridge radiating from it in each valid direction, for if one direction did not have a bridge, even if all other directions sported two bridges, not enough will have been placed. Obviously, a '4' in a corner, '6' along the border, or '8' anywhere must have two bridges in each direction. This can be generalized as added bridges obstruct routes: a '3' that can only be travelled from vertically must have at least one bridge each for up and down, for example.
Solution of above puzzle
It is common practice to cross off islands whose bridge quota has been reached. In addition to reducing mistakes, this can also help locate potential "short circuits": keeping in mind that all islands must be connected by one network of bridges, a bridge that would create a closed network that no further bridges could be added to can only be permitted if it immediately yields the solution to the complete puzzle. The simplest example of this is two islands showing '1' aligned with each other; unless they are the only two islands in the puzzle, they cannot be connected by a bridge, as that would complete a network that cannot be added to, and would therefore force those two islands to be unreachable by any others. There is a solution using integer linear programming in the MathProg examples included in GLPK.
History
Hashiwokakero first appeared in Puzzle Communication Nikoli in issue #31 (September 1990), although an earlier form of the puzzle appeared in issue #28 (December 1989).
References
Puzzle Cyclopedia, Nikoli, 2004. ISBN 4-89072-406-0. Nikoli's English page on Hashiwokakero [1] A Javascript version of the game [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. nikoli. co. jp/ en/ puzzles/ hashiwokakero/ [2] http:/ / benoit. koenig. free. fr/ hashiwokakero. html
Icosian game
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Icosian game
The icosian game is a mathematical game invented in 1857 by William Rowan Hamilton. The game's object is finding a Hamiltonian cycle along the edges of a dodecahedron such that every vertex is visited a single time, no edge is visited twice, and the ending point is the same as the starting point. The puzzle was distributed commercially as a pegboard with holes at the nodes of the dodecahedral graph and was subsequently marketed in Europe in many forms. The motivation for Hamilton was the problem of symmetries of an icosahedron, for which he invented icosiansan algebraic tool to compute the symmetries.[1] The solution of the puzzle is a cycle containing twenty (in ancient Greek icosa) edges (i.e. a Hamiltonian circuit on the icosahedron).
A Hamiltonian cycle in a dodecahedron.
References
[1] "Icosian Game" (http:/ / www. daviddarling. info/ encyclopedia/ I/ Icosian_Game. html). . Retrieved 2008-11-28.
External links
Weisstein, Eric W., " Icosian game (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/IcosianGame.html)" from MathWorld. Puzzle Museum article with pictures (http://puzzlemuseum.com/month/picm02/200207icosian.htm) Icosian game for Android (https://sites.google.com/site/icosianapp/) Icosian game in flash (http://neamar.fr/Res/Icosien)
Masyu
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Masyu
Masyu (Japanese: IPA [ma]; translates as "evil influence") is a type of logic puzzle designed and published by Nikoli. The purpose of its creation was to present a puzzle that uses no numbers or letters and yet retains depth and aesthetics.
Rules
Masyu is played on a rectangular grid of squares, some of which contain circles; each circle is either "white" (empty) or "black" (filled). The goal is to draw a single continuous non-intersecting loop that properly passes through all circled cells. The loop must "enter" each cell it passes through from the center of one of its four sides and "exit" from a different side; all turns are therefore 90 degrees. The two varieties of circle have differing requirements for how the loop must pass through them: White circles must be traveled straight through, but the loop must turn in the previous and/or next cell in its path; Black circles must be turned upon, but the loop must travel straight through the next and previous cells in its path.
Sample puzzle
History
The early version of Masyu first appeared in Puzzle Communication Nikoli #84 under the title of Shinju no Kubikazari ( , meaning "pearl necklace"). That puzzle contains only white circles. Solution to above puzzle Black circles were introduced in Puzzle Communication Nikoli #90, and the puzzle was renamed Shiroshinju Kuroshinju ( , meaning "white pearls and black pearls"). This improvement deepened the puzzle and made it gain popularity. Masyu, which is originally a misreading by Nikoli's president of kanji (shinju), and apparently became an inside joke at the Nikoli office, was adopted in Puzzle Communication Nikoli #103 to replace the old lengthy name.
Solution methods
Understanding the nuances of the circles and how they interact with each other is the key to solving a Masyu puzzle. Generally speaking, it is easiest to start along the outside border of the grid and work inwards. Here are some basic scenarios where portions of the loop can be determined: Any segment travelling from a black circle must travel two cells in that direction without intersecting another part of the loop or the outer border; each black cell must have two such segments at a right angle. The logical combination of those two statements is that if a segment from a black cell cannot be drawn in some orthogonal direction, a segment in the opposite direction must be drawn. For example, if one cannot legally travel up two cells from a black circle, then the loop must travel down from that black circle for two cells. This has two common results: Any black circle along the outer border or one cell from the outer border must have a segment leading away from the border (and those sufficiently near a corner must lead from both walls, defining the loop's path
Masyu through the circle); Orthogonally adjacent black circles must have segments travelling away from each other. White circles along the outer border obviously need the loop to travel through them parallel to the border; if two white circles along a border are adjacent or are one cell apart, then the loop will need to turn away from the border just beyond the circles. If three or more white circles are orthogonally contiguous and collinear, then the loop will need to pass through each of those circles perpendicular to the line of circles. If two white circles are orthogonally contiguous and a cell on either end has a loop segment entering parallel to the line of the circles, then the loop will need to pass through each of those circles perpendicular to their line. (Otherwise, the line through them would connect to the adjacent segment and one of the white cells would not be next to a turn in the loop.) As in other loop-construction puzzles, "short circuits" also need to be avoided: as the solution must consist of a single loop, any segment that would close a loop is forbidden unless it immediately yields the solution to the entire puzzle. Like many other combinatory and logic puzzles, Masyu can be very difficult to solve; solving Masyu on arbitrarily large grids is an NP-complete problem.[1] However, published instances of puzzles have generally been constructed in such a way that they can be solved in a reasonable amount of time.
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References
[1] Erich Friedman. "Pearl Puzzles are NP-Complete". In preparation. 2002. (http:/ / www. stetson. edu/ ~efriedma/ papers/ pearl/ pearl. html).
External links
Masyu page at Web Nikoli (http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/masyu/) Father of Sudoku puzzles next move (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6745433.stm) BBC
Seven Bridges of Knigsberg
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The Seven Bridges of Knigsberg is a historically notable problem in mathematics. Its negative resolution by Leonhard Euler in 1735 laid the foundations of graph theory and prefigured the idea of topology. The city of Knigsberg in Prussia (now Kaliningrad, Russia) was set on both sides of the Pregel River, and included two large islands which were connected to each other and the mainland by seven bridges. The problem was to find a walk through the city that would cross each bridge once and only once. The islands could not be reached by any route other than the bridges, and every bridge must have been crossed Map of Knigsberg in Euler's time showing the completely every time; one could not walk halfway onto the bridge and actual layout of the seven bridges, highlighting then turn around and later cross the other half from the other side. The the river Pregel and the bridges walk need not start and end at the same spot. Euler proved that the problem has no solution. There could be no non-retracing continuous curve that passed through all seven of the bridges. The difficulty was the development of a technique of analysis and of subsequent tests that established this assertion with mathematical rigor.
Euler's analysis
First, Euler pointed out that the choice of route inside each land mass is irrelevant. The only important feature of a route is the sequence of bridges crossed. This allowed him to reformulate the problem in abstract terms (laying the foundations of graph theory), eliminating all features except the list of land masses and the bridges connecting them. In modern terms, one replaces each land mass with an abstract "vertex" or node, and each bridge with an abstract connection, an "edge", which only serves to record which pair of vertices (land masses) is connected by that bridge. The resulting mathematical structure is called a graph.
Since only the connection information is relevant, the shape of pictorial representations of a graph may be distorted in any way, without changing the graph itself. Only the existence (or absence) of an edge between each pair of nodes is significant. For example, it does not matter whether the edges drawn are straight or curved, or whether one node is to the left or right of another. Next, Euler observed that (except at the endpoints of the walk), whenever one enters a vertex by a bridge, one leaves the vertex by a bridge. In other words, during any walk in the graph, the number of times one enters a non-terminal vertex equals the number of times one leaves it. Now, if every bridge has been traversed exactly once, it follows that, for each land mass (except possibly for the ones chosen for the start and finish), the number of bridges touching that land mass must be even (half of them, in the particular traversal, will be traversed "toward" the landmass; the other half, "away" from it). However, all four of the land masses in the original problem are touched by an odd number of bridges (one is touched by 5 bridges, and each of the other three is touched by 3). Since, at most, two land masses can serve as the endpoints of a putative walk, the proposition of a walk traversing each bridge once leads to a contradiction.
Seven Bridges of Knigsberg In modern language, Euler shows that the possibility of a walk through a graph, traversing each edge exactly once, depends on the degrees of the nodes. The degree of a node is the number of edges touching it. Euler's argument shows that a necessary condition for the walk of the desired form is that the graph be connected and have exactly zero or two nodes of odd degree. This condition turns out also to be sufficienta result stated by Euler and later proven by Carl Hierholzer. Such a walk is now called an Eulerian path (oylrin) or Euler walk in his honor. Further, if there are nodes of odd degree, then any Eulerian path will start at one of them and end at the other. Since the graph corresponding to historical Knigsberg has four nodes of odd degree, it cannot have an Eulerian path. An alternative form of the problem asks for a path that traverses all bridges and also has the same starting and ending point. Such a walk is called an Eulerian circuit or an Euler tour. Such a circuit exists if, and only if, the graph is connected, and there are no nodes of odd degree at all. All Eulerian circuits are also Eulerian paths, but not all Eulerian paths are Eulerian circuits. Euler's work was presented to the St. Petersburg Academy on August 26, 1735, and published as Solutio problematis ad geometriam situs pertinentis (The solution of a problem relating to the geometry of position) in the journal Commentarii academiae scientiarum Petropolitanae in 1741.[1] It is available in English in The World of Mathematics.
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Significance in the history of mathematics

In the history of mathematics, Euler's solution of the Knigsberg bridge problem is considered to be the first theorem of graph theory, a subject now generally regarded as a branch of combinatorics. Combinatorial problems of other types had been considered since antiquity. In addition, Euler's recognition that the key information was the number of bridges and the list of their endpoints (rather than their exact positions) presaged the development of topology. The difference between the actual layout and the graph schematic is a good example of the idea that topology is not concerned with the rigid shape of objects. In the United Kingdom AS level Mathematics includes Eulerian Theory in the Route Inspection section of the D1 (Decision Maths 1) module.
Variations
The classic statement of the problem, given above, uses unidentified nodesthat is, they are all alike except for the way in which they are connected. There is a variation in which the nodes are identifiedeach node is given a unique name or color. The northern bank of the river is occupied by the Schlo, or castle, of the Blue Prince; the southern by that of the Red Prince. The east bank is home to the Bishop's Kirche, or church; and on the small island in the center is a Gasthaus, or inn. It is understood that the problems to follow should be taken in order, and begin with a statement of the original problem: It being customary among the townsmen, after some hours in the Gasthaus, to attempt to walk the bridges, many have returned for more refreshment claiming success. However, none have been able to repeat the feat by the light of day.
Seven Bridges of Knigsberg 8: The Blue Prince, having analyzed the town's bridge system by means of graph theory, concludes that the bridges cannot be walked. He contrives a stealthy plan to build an eighth bridge so that he can begin in the evening at his Schlo, walk the bridges, and end at the Gasthaus to brag of his victory. Of course, he wants the Red Prince to be unable to duplicate the feat from the Red Castle. Where does the Blue Prince build the eighth bridge? 9: The Red Prince, infuriated by his brother's Gordian solution to the problem, wants to build a ninth bridge, enabling him to begin at his Schlo, walk the bridges, and end at the Gasthaus to rub dirt in his brother's face. As an extra bit of revenge, his brother should then no longer be able to walk the bridges starting and ending at his Schloss as before. Where does the Red Prince build the ninth bridge? 10: The Bishop has watched this furious bridge-building with dismay. It upsets the town's Weltanschauung and, worse, contributes to excessive drunkenness. He wants to build a tenth bridge that allows all the inhabitants to walk the bridges and return to their own beds. Where does the Bishop build the tenth bridge?
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Solutions
Reduce the city, as before, to a graph. Color each node. As in the classic problem, no Euler walk is possible; coloring does not affect this. All four nodes have an odd number of edges. 8: Euler walks are possible if exactly zero or two nodes have an odd number of edges. If we have 2 nodes with an odd number of edges, the walk must begin at one such node and end at the other. Since there are only 4 nodes in the puzzle, the solution is simple. The walk desired must begin at the blue node and end at the orange node. Thus, a new edge is drawn between the other two nodes. Since they each formerly had an odd number of edges, they must now have an even number of edges, fulfilling all conditions. This is a change in parity from an odd to even degree.
The colored graph
The 8th edge
38 9: The 9th bridge is easy once the 8th is solved. The desire is to enable the red castle and forbid the blue castle as a starting point; the orange node remains the end of the walk and the white node is unaffected. To change the parity of both red and blue nodes, draw a new edge between them. 10: The 10th bridge takes us in a slightly different direction. The Bishop wishes every citizen to return to his starting point. This is an Euler circuit and requires that all nodes be of even degree. After the solution of the 9th bridge, the red and the orange nodes have odd degree, so their parity must be changed by adding a new edge between them.
The 9th edge
The 10th edge
8th, 9th, and 10th bridges
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Present state of the bridges

Two of the seven original bridges were destroyed during the bombing of Knigsberg in World War II. Two others were later demolished and replaced by a modern highway. The three other bridges remain, although only two of them are from Euler's time (one was rebuilt in 1935).[2] Thus, as of 2000, there are now five bridges in Kaliningrad. In terms of graph theory, two of the nodes now have degree 2, and the other two have degree 3. Therefore, an Eulerian path is now possible, but since it must begin on one island and end on the other, it is impractical for tourists.[3] At Canterbury University, in Christchurch, New Zealand, a model of the bridges is incorporated in a grass area between the old Physical Sciences Library and the Erskine Building, housing the Departments of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science.[4]
References
[1] The Euler Archive (http:/ / www. math. dartmouth. edu/ ~euler/ pages/ E053. html), commentary on publication, and original text, in Latin. [2] Taylor, Peter (December 2000). "What Ever Happened to Those Bridges?" (http:/ / www. amt. canberra. edu. au/ koenigs. html). Australian Mathematics Trust. . Retrieved 2006-11-11. [3] Stallmann, Matthias (July 2006). "The 7/5 Bridges of Koenigsberg/Kaliningrad" (http:/ / www. csc. ncsu. edu/ faculty/ stallmann/ SevenBridges/ ). . Retrieved 2006-11-11. [4] "About Mathematics and Statistics University of Canterbury" (http:/ / www. math. canterbury. ac. nz/ php/ about/ ). math.canterbury.ac.nz. . Retrieved November 4, 2010.
External links
Kaliningrad and the Konigsberg Bridge Problem (http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/?pa=content& sa=viewDocument&nodeId=1310&bodyId=1452) at Convergence (http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/) Euler's original publication (http://math.dartmouth.edu/~euler/docs/originals/E053.pdf) (in Latin) The Bridges of Knigsberg (http://www.jimloy.com/puzz/konigs.htm) How the bridges of Knigsberg help to understand the brain (http://www.nonlinearbiomedphys.com/content/ 1/1/3) Euler's Knigsberg's Bridges Problem (http://www.contracosta.edu/math/konig.htm) at Math Dept. Contra Costa College (http://www.contracosta.edu/math/) Pregel A Google graphing tool named after this problem (http://googleresearch.blogspot.com/2009/06/ large-scale-graph-computing-at-google.html) The count of Knigsberg (http://web.inter.nl.net/users/pauline/Koenigsberg.htm)
Slitherlink
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Slitherlink
Slitherlink (also known as Fences, Takegaki, Loop the Loop, Loopy, Ouroboros, Suriza and Dotty Dilemma) is a logic puzzle developed by publisher Nikoli.
Rules
Slitherlink is played on a rectangular lattice of dots. Some of the squares formed by the dots have numbers inside them. The objective is to connect horizontally and vertically adjacent dots so that the lines form a simple loop with no loose ends. In addition, the number inside a square represents how many of its four sides are segments in the loop. Other types of planar graphs can be used in lieu of the standard grid, Moderately difficult Slitherlink puzzle (solution) with varying numbers of edges per vertex or vertices per polygon. These patterns include snowflake, Penrose, Laves and Altair tilings. These add complexity by varying the number of possible paths from an intersection, and/or the number of sides to each polygon; but similar rules apply to their solution.
Solution methods
Notation
Whenever the number of lines around a cell matches the number in the cell, the other potential lines must be eliminated. This is usually indicated by marking an X on lines known to be empty. Another useful notation when solving Slitherlink is a ninety degree arc between two adjacent lines, to indicate that exactly one of the two must be filled. A related notation is a double arc between adjacent lines, indicating that both or neither of the two must be filled. These notations are not necessary to the solution, but can be helpful in deriving it.
Arc notation around a 2 in a corner.
Many of the methods below can be broken down into two simpler steps by use of arc notation.
Slitherlink
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Exactly 2 or 0 lines at each point

A key to many deductions in Slitherlink is that every point has either exactly two lines connected to it, or no lines. So if a point which is in the centre of the grid, not at an edge or corner, has three incoming lines which are X'd out, the fourth must also be X'd out. This is because the point cannot have just one line - it has no exit route from that point. Similarly, if a point on the edge of the grid, not at a corner, has two incoming lines which are X'd out, the third must also be X'd out. And if a corner of the grid has one incoming line which is X'd out, the other must also be X'd out. Application of this simple rule leads to increasingly complex deductions. Recognition of these simple patterns will help greatly in solving Slitherlink puzzles. Corners If a 1 is in a corner, the actual corner's lines may be X'd out, because a line that entered said corner could not leave it except by passing by the 1 again. This also applies if two lines leading into the 1-box at the same corner are X'd out.
A 1 in a corner.
If a 3 is in a corner, the two outside edges of that box can be filled in because otherwise the rule above would have to be broken.
A 3 in a corner.
If a 2 is in a corner, two lines must be going away from the 2 at the border.
A 2 in a corner.
Slitherlink Rules for squares with 3 If a 3 is adjacent to a 0, either horizontally or vertically, then all edges of that 3 can be filled except for the one touching the 0. In addition, the two lines perpendicular to the adjacent boxes can be filled.
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A 3 adjacent to an 0.
If two 3s are adjacent to each other horizontally or vertically, their common edge must be filled in, because the only other option is a closed oval that is impossible to connect to any other line. Second, the two outer lines of the group (parallel to the common line) must be filled in. Thirdly, the line through the 3s will always wrap around in an "S" shape. Therefore, the line between the 3s cannot continue in a straight line, and those sides which are in a straight line from the middle line can be X'd out.
Two adjacent 3s.
If a 3 is adjacent to a 0 diagonally, both sides of the 3 that meet the 0's corner must be filled. This is because if either of those sides were open, the line ending in the corner of the 0 would have no place to go. This is similar to the 3-in-a-corner rule.
3 diagonally next to 0.
Slitherlink Similarly, if a 3 has a corner with Xs in both directions going away from that corner, then both sides of the 3 that meet that corner must be filled. This is because if one of those two sides of the 3 were open, the other would have to be filled (because the 3 can only have one open side) but would meet 3 Xs at that corner, which is impossible because each point on the grid must have exactly 2 or 0 lines. If a line reaches a corner of a 3, there must be lines on both sides of the 3 that said corner is not adjacent to, because if the 3's sole empty space were not adjacent to it, the corner would have three lines connected to it. Furthermore, the segment leading away from the 3 at the corner reached by the line must be empty; if it were filled, neither of the remaining 2 undetermined sides of the 3 would be able to contain a line.
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A 3 next to a line.
Diagonals of 3s and 2s If two 3s are adjacent diagonally, the edges which do not run into the common point must be filled in.
Two diagonal 3s.
Similarly, if two 3s are in the same diagonal, but separated by any number of 2s (and only 2s) the outside edges of the 3s must be filled in, just as if they were adjacent diagonally.
Slitherlink
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Diagonal 3s with 2 between them.
If there is a series of 2s in a diagonal line and an angled line meets the corner of the 2 at one end of the series, a matching angled line can be drawn all the way up the series.
One or more diagonal 2s terminated by two filled lines pointing into them.
Here there is a diagonal series of 2s ending in a 3. This example combines several of the rules illustrated above. The 2 at the end of the diagonal has an angled line which includes one (but not both) of the sides at its outer corner: the corner of the angle is at the 2's furthest corner from 3. This implies that both of the outer sides of the three must be filled. This is because: (i) the right-end side of the lower 2 must be empty so (ii) either the left or top line of the lower 2 must be filled so (iii) the middle 2 cannot have lines on both its right and bottom side (otherwise 3 lines would meet at its bottom right corner, which is not allowed) so (iv) it must have a line on either its top or left side so (v) the 3 must have both its top and left sides filled (see above). A similar chain of logic can be applied to any diagonal of 2s ending in a 3.
Slitherlink
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A diagonal of 2s ending in a 3.
Diagonals of a 3 and 1 If a 1 and a 3 are adjacent diagonally and the outer two sides of the 1 are X'd out, then the outer two sides of the 3 must be filled in.
Diagonals of a 3 and 1
The opposite is the same: if the outer two corners of the 3 are filled in, then the outer two corners of the 1 must be X'd out.
Diagonals of a 3 and 1 opposite
Slitherlink A rule for squares with 2 If a 2 has any surrounding line Xd, then a line coming into either of the two corners not adjacent to the Xd out line cannot immediately exit at right angles away from the 2, as then two lines around the 2 would be impossible, and can therefore be Xd. This means that the incoming line must continue on one side of the 2 or the other. This in turn means that the second line of the 2 must be on the only remaining free side, adjacent to the originally Xd line, so that can be filled in. Conversely, if a 2 has a line on one side, and an adjacent Xd out line, then the second line must be in one of the two remaining sides, and exit from the opposite corner (in either direction). If either of those two exits is Xd out, then it must take the other route.
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A 2 next to a line.
Rules for squares with 1 If a line comes into a corner of a 1 and if one of the three remaining directions that the line can continue, the one that is not a side of the 1 is a known blank, then the two sides of the 1 opposite that corner can be X'd out.
A 1 next to a line.
This also applies in reverse. That is, if a line comes into the corner of a 1, and the two opposite edges of the 1 are already X'd out, the line cannot go away from the 1 since that would put Xs around all sides of the 1.
Slitherlink
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A 1 next to a line (opposite)
If two 1s are diagonally adjacent, then of the eight segments around those two cells, either the "inner" set of four segments sharing a common endpoint (the point shared by the 1s) or the other "outer" set of four segments must all be X'd out. Thus if any two inner or outer segments in one 1 are X'd, the respective inner or outer segments of the other 1 must also be X'd.
Diagonally adjacent 1s
Diagonally adjacent 1s
If two 1s are adjacent along the edge of the grid, the line between them can be X'd out, because there would be no direction for it to continue when it reached the edge.
Slitherlink
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An even number of ends in a closed region

In a closed-off region of the lattice (from which there is no path for any lines to "escape"), there cannot exist an odd number of unconnected segment-ends, since all of the segment-ends must connect to something. Often, this will rule out one or more otherwise feasible options.
Jordan curve theorem

In an exceptionally difficult puzzle, one may use the Jordan curve theorem, which states that any open curve that starts and ends outside of a closed curve must intersect the closed curve an even number of times. In particular, this means that any row of the grid must have an even number of vertical lines and any column must have an even number of horizontal lines. When only one potential line segment in one of these groups is unknown, you can determine whether it is part of the loop or not with this theorem. A simple strategy to assist in using this theorem is to "paint" (sometimes called "shade") the outside and the inside areas. When you see two outside cells, or two inside cells next to each other, then you know that there is not a line between them. The converse is also true: if you know there is no line between two cells, then those cells must be the same "color" (both inside or both outside). Similarly, if an outside cell and an inside cell are adjacent, you know there must be a filled line between them; and again the converse is true.
History
Slitherlink is an original puzzle of Nikoli; it first appeared in Puzzle Communication Nikoli #26 (June 1989). The editor combined two original puzzles contributed there. At first, every square contained a number.
Videogames
Slitherlink video games have been featured for the Nintendo DS handheld game console, with Hudson Soft releasing Puzzle Series Vol. 5: Slitherlink in Japan on November 16, 2006, and Agetec including Slitherlink in its Nikoli puzzle compilation, Brain Buster Puzzle Pak, released in North America on June 17, 2007.[1]
References
[1] Puzzle - Brain Buster Puzzle Pak - Agetec, Inc (http:/ / www. agetec. com/ catalog/ product_info. php?products_id=37)
External links
Nikoli's English page on Slitherlink (http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/slitherlink/) On the NP-completeness of the Slitherlink Puzzle (http://fano.ics.uci.edu/cites/Document/ On-the-NP-completeness-of-the-Slither-Link-Puzzle.html) - Slitherlink is NP-complete Site discussing non-grid forms of Slitherlink including snowflake, penrose, laves and altair (http://www. krazydad.com/slitherlink/) KwontomLoop (http://www.kwontomloop.com) - A free site with daily slitherlink puzzles varying in difficulty. Also includes a ranking system with other players.
Water, gas, and electricity
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The classical mathematical puzzle known as water, gas, and electricity, the (three) utilities problem, or sometimes the three cottage problem, can be stated as follows: Suppose there are three cottages on a plane (or sphere) and each needs to be connected to the gas, water, and electric companies. Using a third dimension or sending any of the connections through another company or cottage are disallowed. Is there a way to make all nine connections without any of the lines crossing each other? This is intended as an abstract mathematical puzzle and imposes constraints that would not be issues in a practical engineering scenario.
Solution
The answer to the strict puzzle posed above is no; It is impossible to connect the three cottages with the three different utilities without at least one of the connections crossing another. More generalised questions may have different answers.[1] The problem is part of the mathematical field of topological graph theory which studies the embedding of graphs on surfaces. In more formal graph-theoretic terms, the problem asks whether the complete bipartite graph K3,3 is planar. This graph is often referred to as the utility graph in reference to the problem.[2] The graph is equivalent to the circulant graph Ci6(1,3). Kazimierz Kuratowski proved in 1930 that K3,3 is nonplanar, and thus that the problem has no solution.
The utility graph, also known as the Thomsen graph or K3,3
One proof of the impossibility of finding a planar embedding of K3,3 uses a case analysis involving the Jordan curve theorem, in which one examines different possibilities for the locations of the vertices with respect to the 4-cycles of the graph and shows that they are all inconsistent with a planar embedding. Alternatively, it is possible to show that any bridgeless bipartite planar graph with n vertices and m edges has m 2n 4 by combining the Euler formula n m + f = 2 (where f is the number of faces of a planar embedding) with the observation that the number of faces is at most half the number of edges (because each face has at least four edges and each edge belongs to exactly two faces). In the utility graph, m=9 and 2n4=8, violating this inequality, so the utility graph cannot be planar. Two important characterizations of planar graphs, Kuratowski's theorem that the planar graphs are exactly the graphs that contain neither K3,3 nor the complete graph K5 as a subdivision, and Wagner's theorem that the planar graphs are exactly the graphs that contain neither K3,3 nor K5 as a minor, encompass this result.
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Generalizations
K3,3 is toroidal, which means it can be embedded on the torus. In terms of the three cottage problem this means the problem can be solved by punching two holes through the plane (or the sphere) and connecting them with a tube. This changes the topological properties of the surface and using the tube we can connect the three cottages without crossing lines. An equivalent statement is that the graph genus of the utility graph is one, and therefore it cannot be embedded in a surface of genus less than one. A surface of genus one is equivalent to a torus. Pl Turn's "brick factory problem" asks more generally for a formula for the minimum number of crossings in a drawing of the complete bipartite graph Ka,b in terms of the numbers of vertices a and b on the two sides of the bipartition. The K3,3 drawn with only one utility graph K3,3 may be drawn with only one crossing, but not with zero crossings, crossing. so its crossing number is one. A toroidal embedding of K3,3 may be obtained by replacing the crossing by a tube, as described above, in which the two holes where the tube connects to the plane are placed along one of the crossing edges on either side of the crossing.
Other graph-theoretic properties

The utility graph K3,3 is, like all other complete bipartite graphs, a well-covered graph, meaning that every maximal independent set has the same size. In this graph, the only two maximal independent sets are the two sides of the bipartition, and obviously they are equal. K3,3 is one of only seven 3-regular 3-connected well-covered graphs.[3] It is also a Laman graph, meaning that it forms a minimally rigid system when it is embedded (with crossings) in the plane. It is the smallest example of a nonplanar Laman graph, as the other minimal nonplanar graph, K5, is not minimally rigid.
Notes
[1] Gas Water Electric Puzzle (http:/ / puzzles. nigelcoldwell. co. uk/ twentysix. htm) from puzzles.nigelcoldwell.co.uk [2] Utility Graph (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ UtilityGraph. html) from mathworld.wolfram.com [3] Campbell, S. R.; Ellingham, M. N.; Royle, Gordon F. (1993), "A characterisation of well-covered cubic graphs", Journal of Combinatorial Mathematics and Combinatorial Computing 13: 193212, MR1220613.
External links
Utility Graph (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/UtilityGraph.html) at MathWorld The Utilities Puzzle (http://www.archimedes-lab.org/How_to_Solve/Water_gas.html) explained and 'solved' at Archimedes-lab.org 3 Utilities Puzzle (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/3Utilities.shtml) at cut-the-knot Proof That the Impossible Puzzle is Impossible (http://www.jimloy.com/puzz/puzzle2.htm)
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Grid determination puzzles

Battleship puzzle
The Battleship puzzle (sometimes called Bimaru, Solitaire Battleships. or Battleship Solitaire) is a logic puzzle based on the Battleship guessing game. It and its variants have appeared in several puzzle contests, including the World Puzzle Championship,[1] and puzzle magazines, such as Games magazine.[2] Solitaire Battleship was invented in Argentina by Jaime Poniachik and was first featured in 1982 in the Argentine magazine Humor & Juegos. Battleship gained more widespread popularity after its international debut at the first World Puzzle Championship in New York City in 1992. Battleship appeared in Games magazine the following year and remains a regular feature of the magazine. Variants of Battleship have emerged since the puzzle's inclusion in the first World Puzzle Championship.
Example of a solved Solitaire Battleships puzzle
Battleship is played in a grid of squares that hides ships of different sizes. Numbers alongside the grid indicate how many squares in a row or column are occupied by part of a ship.
History
The solitaire version of Battleship was invented in Argentina in 1982 under the name Batalla Naval, with the first published puzzles appearing in 1982 in the Spanish magazine Humor & Juegos. Battleship was created by Jaime Poniachik, founder of Humor & Juegos, and Eduardo Abel Gimenez, Jorge Varlotta, and Daniel Samoilovich, who were editors of the magazine. After 1982, no more Battleship puzzles were published until five years later in 1987, when Battleship puzzles were published in Juegos Para Gente De Mente, a renamed version of Humor & Juegos. The publishing company of Juegos Para Gente de Mente regularly publishes Battleship puzzles in its monthly magazine Enigmas Lgicos. Battleship made its international debut at the first World Puzzle Championship in New York in 1992 and met with success. The next World Puzzle Championship in 1993 featured a variant of Battleship that omitted some of the row and column numbers. Other variants have emerged since then, including Hexagonal Battleship, 3D Battleship, and Diagonal Battleship.[3][4] Battleship was first published in Games magazine in 1993, the year after the first World Puzzle Championship.
Battleship puzzle
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Rules
In Battleship, an armada of battleships is hidden in a square grid of 1010 small squares. The armada includes one battleship four squares long, two cruisers three squares long, three destroyers two squares long, and four submarines one square in size. Each ship occupies a number of contiguous squares on the grid, arranged horizontally or vertically. The boats are placed so that no boat touches any other boat, not even diagonally. The goal of the puzzle is to discover where the ships are located. A grid may start with clues in the form of squares that have already been solved, showing a submarine, an end piece of a ship, a middle piece of a ship, or water. Each row and column also has a number beside it, indicating the number of squares occupied by ship parts in that row or column, respectively.[5] Variants of the standard form of solitaire battleship have included using larger or smaller grids (with comparable changes in the size of the hidden armada), as well as using a hexagonal grid.
Strategy
The basic solving strategy for a Battleship puzzle is to add segments to incomplete ships where appropriate, draw water in squares that are known not to contain a ship segment, and to complete ships in a row or column whose number is the same as the number of unsolved squares in that row or column, respectively. More advanced strategies include looking for places where the largest ship that has not yet been located can fit into the grid, and looking for rows and columns that are almost complete and determining if there is only one way to complete them.[5]
Computers and Battleship

Battleship is an NP-complete problem.[6] In 1997, former contributing editor to the Battleship column in Games Magazine[7] Moshe Rubin released Fathom It!, a popular Windows implementation of Battleship.[8]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] http:/ / wpc. puzzles. com/ history/ 2000. htm http:/ / www. gamesmagazine-online. com/ http:/ / www. mountainvistasoft. com/ variations. htm http:/ / www. conceptispuzzles. com/ index. aspx?uri=puzzle/ battleships/ history Gordon, Peter; Mike Shenk. "Introduction". Yubotu: Sink the Fleet in these Addictive Battleship Puzzles. Conceptis Puzzles. New York City, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. pp.56. ISBN1-4027-4189-8. [6] Sevenster, M. 2004, ' Battleships as Decision Problem (http:/ / www. mountainvistasoft. com/ docs/ BattleshipsAsDecidabilityProblem. pdf)', ICGA Journal [Electronic], Vol. 27, No. 3, pp.142-149. ISSN 1389-6911. Accessed: September 5, 2007 [7] http:/ / www. mountainvistasoft. com/ author. htm [8] http:/ / www. mountainvistasoft. com/ reviews. htm
Further reading
Gordon, Peter; Mike Shenk. Yubotu: Sink the Fleet in these Addictive Battleship Puzzles. Conceptis Puzzles. New York City, NY: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc.. ISBN1-4027-4189-8. Gordon, Peter; Mike Shenk. Solitaire Battleships: 108 Challenging Logic Puzzles.
External links
The Battleship Omnibus (http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/omnibus.htm) - Extensive information on variants, competitions, and strategies. Battleships at Conceptis Puzzles (http://www.conceptispuzzles.com/index.aspx?uri=puzzle/battleships) History, rules, tutorial, techniques.
Heyawake
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Heyawake
Heyawake (Japanese: , "divided rooms") is a binary-determination logic puzzle published by Nikoli. As of 2011, four books consisting entirely of Heyawake puzzles have been published by Nikoli. It first appeared in Puzzle Communication Nikoli #39 (September 1992).
Rules
Heyawake is played on a rectangular grid of cells with no standard size; the grid is divided into variously sized rectangular "rooms" by bold lines following the edges of the cells. Some rooms may contain a single number, typically printed in their upper-left cell; as originally designed, every room was numbered, but this is rarely necessary for solving and is no longer followed. Some of the cells in the puzzle are to be painted black; the object of the puzzle is to determine for each cell if it must be painted or must be left blank (remaining white). In practice, it is often easier to mark known "blank" cells in some wayfor example, by placing a dot in the center of the cell. The following rules determine which cells are which: Rule 1: Painted cells may never be orthogonally connected (they may not share a side, although they can touch diagonally). Rule 2: All white cells must be interconnected (form a single polyomino). Rule 3: A number indicates exactly how many painted cells there must be in that particular room. Rule 4: A room which has no number may contain any number of painted cells, or none. Rule 5: Where a straight (orthogonal) line of connected white cells is formed, it must not contain cells from more than two roomsin other words, any such line of white cells which connects three or more rooms is forbidden.
Solution methods
Note that the first two rules also apply to (for example) Hitori puzzles, and thus these puzzles share some of their solving methods: If it is discovered that a cell is painted, it is immediately known that all of the four (orthogonally) adjacent cells must be white (from Rule 1). A section of (orthogonally) contiguous white cells cannot be cut off from the rest of the grid (from Rule 2). Black cells may not form a diagonal split across the grid nor a closed loop; any cell that would complete such a "short circuit" must be white instead. More complex puzzles require combining Rule 1 and Rule 2 to make progress without guessing; the key is recognizing where the cells must assume one of two checkered patterns and one leads to a short circuit. The remaining rules differentiate Heyawake from other "dynasty" puzzles: Rule 5 is the defining rule of the puzzle; black cells must be placed to prevent any (orthogonal) lines of white cells that cross two room borders ("spanners"). Numbered rooms typically provide solvers a starting place, among other deductions. The following are the simplest examples of rooms defined at the onset: A 22 room in the corner of the grid containing a '2' must have one painted cell in the grid corner and the second painted square diagonally outward from the corner. As painted squares may not share a side (Rule 1), the only alternative would disconnect the forced white cell in the corner, violating Rule 2. A 23 room with the 3-cell side along a grid border containing a '3' must have a painted cell in the center of the 3-cell side along the border and the other two in the opposite corners of the room, for similar reasons to the above.
Heyawake A 33 room containing a '5' must have a checkered pattern, with painted cells in all corners and the center.
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Computational complexity
The computational complexity of Heyawake has been analyzed recently[1]: deciding for a given instance of Heyawake whether there exists a solution to the puzzle is NP-complete. An interpretation of this theoretical result in layman's terms is that this puzzle is as hard to solve as the Boolean satisfiability problem, which is a well studied difficult problem in computer science.
Notes
[1] M. Holzer, O. Ruepp (2007)
References
Holzer, Markus; Ruepp, Oliver (2007). "The Troubles of Interior DesignA Complexity Analysis of the Game Heyawake". Proceedings, 4th International Conference on Fun with Algorithms, LNCS 4475. Springer, Berlin/Heidelberg. pp.198212. doi:10.1007/978-3-540-72914-3_18. ISBN978-3-540-72913-6.
External links
Nikoli's page on Heyawake (http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/heyawake/)
Kuromasu
Kuromasu (Japanese: kurodoko) is a binary-determination logic puzzle published by Nikoli. As of 2005, one book consisting entirely of Kuromasu puzzles has been published by Nikoli.
Rules
Kuromasu is played on a rectangular grid. Some of these cells have numbers in them. Each cell may be either black or white. The object is to determine what type each cell is. The following rules determine which cells are which: Each number on the board represents the number of white cells that can be seen from that cell, including itself. A cell can be seen from another cell if they are in the same row or column, and there are no black cells between them in that row or column. Numbered cells may not be black. No two black cells may be horizontally or vertically adjacent. All the white cells must be connected horizontally or vertically.
Moderately difficult Kuromasu puzzle
Kuromasu
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Solution methods
Any cell with a number in it must be white. This is very important. For example, suppose there is a 2 cell with another numbered cell next to it. Then clearly both the 2 cell and the other cell can be seen from the 2 cell. No other cells can be visible from the 2, or else we'd exceed the count. Therefore, all other neighboring cells to the 2 must be black. Also, the cell beyond the other numbered cell must be black. This is a good way to start some puzzles. Suppose a 2 and another numbered cell or white cell are in the same row or column with just one space between them. Then the cell in the middle must be black, because if it were white, the 2 would be able to see at least 3 cells. This can also get you started on some puzzles quickly.
Solution to puzzle
Contrariwise, if the number inside a cell is equal to the maximum number of cells it could possibly see, then all those cells must be white in order for that maximum to be possible. For example, in a 77 puzzle, the maximum number you can have in any cell is 13 (the cell itself, plus six others in the row, plus six other in the column). If a 13 appears in a cell of a 77 puzzle, all cells in the same row or column as the 13 must be white. This is often represented by placing dots in those cells. There are other methods.
History
Kuromasu is an original puzzle of Nikoli; it first appeared in Puzzle Communication Nikoli #34 (June 1991). The English language Nikoli website uses Engrish to translate the name as "Where is Black Cells".
References
Nikoli's English page [1]
External links
Where is Black Cells [1] page on Nikoli site Comparing Methods for Solving Kuromasu Puzzles [2] Kuromasu Solver using Java [3]
Kuromasu
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References
[1] http:/ / www. nikoli. co. jp/ en/ puzzles/ where_is_black_cells/ [2] http:/ / www. liacs. nl/ assets/ Bachelorscripties/ 20-TimvanMeurs. pdf [3] http:/ / hoshan. org/ kuromasu-solver-using-java/
Nonogram
Nonograms, also known as Hanjie, Paint by Numbers, or Griddlers, are picture logic puzzles in which cells in a grid have to be colored or left blank according to numbers given at the side of the grid to reveal a hidden picture. In this puzzle type, the numbers measure how many unbroken lines of filled-in squares there are in any given row or column. For example, a clue of "4 8 3" would mean there are sets of four, eight, and three filled squares, in that order, with at least one blank square between successive groups. These puzzles are often black and white but can also have some colors. If they are colored, the number clues will also be colored in order to indicate the color of the squares. Two differently colored numbers may or may not have a space in between them. For example, a black four followed by a red two could mean four black spaces, some empty spaces, and two red spaces, or it could simply mean four black spaces followed immediately by two red ones.
Example of a nonogram puzzle being solved. Some of the steps of the process are grouped together.
There are no theoretical limits on the size of a nonogram, and they are also not restricted to square layouts.
Names
Nonograms are also known by many other names, including Paint by Numbers, Griddlers, Pic-a-Pix, Picross, PrismaPixels, Pixel Puzzles, Crucipixel, Edel, FigurePic, Grafilogika, Hanjie, HeroGlyphix, Illust-Logic, Japanese Crosswords, Japanese Puzzles, Kare Karala!, Logic Art, Logic Square, Logicolor, Logik-Puzzles, Logimage, Obrazki logiczne, Zakdovan obrzky, Maovan krovky, Oekaki Logic, Oekaki-Mate, Paint Logic, Shchor Uftor, Gobelini, Picture Logic and Tsunamii. They have also been called Paint by Sudoku and Binary Coloring Books, although these names are entirely inaccurate.
Nonogram
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History
In 1987, Non Ishida, a Japanese graphics editor, won a competition in Tokyo by designing grid pictures using skyscraper lights which are turned on or off. At the same time and with no connection, a professional Japanese puzzler named Tetsuya Nishio invented the same puzzles.[1] Paint by numbers puzzles started appearing in Japanese puzzle magazines. Nintendo picked up on this puzzle fad and in 1995 released two "Picross" (Picture Crossword) titles for the Game Boy and nine for the Super Famicom (eight of which were released in two-month intervals for the Nintendo Power Super Famicom Cartridge Writer as the "NP Picross" series) in Japan. Only one of these, Mario's Picross for the Game Boy, was released outside of Japan. In 1988, Non Ishida published three picture grid puzzles in Japan under the name of "Window Art Puzzles". In 1990, James Dalgety in the UK invented the name Nonograms after Non Ishida, and The Sunday Telegraph started publishing them on a weekly basis. In 1993, First book of Nonograms was published by Non Ishida in Japan. The Sunday Telegraph published a dedicated puzzle book titled the "Book of Nonograms". Nonograms were also published in Sweden, United States (originally by Games magazine[2]), South Africa and other countries. In 1995, paint by numbers started appearing on hand held electronic toys such as Game Boy and on other plastic puzzle toys. Increased popularity in Japan launched new publishers and by now there were several monthly magazines, some of which contained up to 100 puzzles. In 1996, the Japanese arcade game Logic Pro was released by Deniam Corp, with a sequel released the following year. In 1998, The Sunday Telegraph ran a competition to choose a new name for their puzzles. Griddlers was the winning name that readers chose. In 1999, Paint by numbers were published by Sanoma Uitgevers in Holland, Puzzler Media (formerly British European Associated Publishers) in the UK and Nikui Rosh Puzzles in Israel. In 2007, Nintendo released another version of Picross, this time for their Nintendo DS console. In 2011, UK games developer Jagex released a nonogram puzzle as part of their annual Halloween event for their java based game, Runescape. Today, magazines with nonogram puzzles are published in the USA, UK, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Hungary, Finland, Ukraine, and many other countries.
Solution techniques
In order to solve a puzzle, one needs to determine which cells are going to be boxes and which are going to be empty. Determining which cells are to be empty (called spaces) is as important as determining which are to be filled (called boxes). Later in the solving process, the spaces help to determine where a clue (continuing block of boxes and a number in the legend) may spread. Solvers usually use a dot or a cross to mark cells which they are certain are spaces. It is also important never to guess. Only cells that can be determined by logic should be filled. If guessing, a single error can spread over the entire field and completely ruin the solution. It usually comes to the surface only after a while, when it is very difficult to correct the puzzle. Usually, only advanced and experienced solvers are able to fix it completely and finish such ruined puzzles. The hidden picture plays no part in the solving process. Even if it is obvious from the picture that a cell will be a box, it is usually treacherous to rely on it. The picture, however, may help find and eliminate an error. Simpler puzzles can usually be solved by a reasoning on a single row only (or a single column) at each given time, to determine as many boxes and spaces on that row as possible. Then trying another row (or column), until there are
Nonogram rows that contain undetermined cells. Some more difficult puzzles may also require several types of "what if?" reasoning that include more than one row (or column). This works on searching for contradictions: When a cell cannot be a box, because some other cell would produce an error, it will definitely be a space. And vice versa. Advanced solvers are sometimes able to search even deeper than into the first "what if?" reasoning. It takes, however, a lot of time to get some progress.
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Simple boxes
At the beginning of the solution a simple method can be used to determine as many boxes as possible. This method uses conjunctions of possible places for each block of boxes. For example, in a row of ten cells with only one clue of 8, the bound block consisting of 8 boxes could spread from the right border, leaving two spaces to the left; the left border, leaving two spaces to the right; or somewhere in between. As a result, the block must spread through the six centermost cells in the row. The same of course applies when there are more clues in the row. For example, in a row of ten cells with clues of 4 and 3, the bound blocks of boxes could be crowded to the left, one next to the other, leaving two spaces to the right; crowded to the right, one just next to the other, leaving two spaces to the left; or somewhere between. Consequently, the first block of four boxes definitely includes the third and fourth cells, while the second block of three boxes definitely includes the eighth cell. Boxes can therefore be placed in the third, fourth and eighth cells. Important note: When determining boxes in this way, boxes can be placed in cells only when the same block overlaps; in this example, although two blocks overlap in the sixth cell, they are different blocks, and so it cannot yet be said whether or not the sixth cell will contain a box.
Simple spaces
This method consists of determining spaces by searching for cells that are out of range of any possible blocks of boxes. For example, considering a row of ten cells with boxes in the fourth and ninth cell and with clues of 3 and 1, the block bound to the clue 3 will spread through the fourth cell and clue 1 will be at the ninth cell. First, the clue 1 is complete and there will be a space at each side of the bound block. Second, the clue 3 can only spread somewhere between the second cell and the sixth cell, because it always has to include the fourth cell; however, this may leave cells that may not be boxes in any case, i.e. the first and the seventh. Note: In this example all blocks are accounted for; this is not always the case. The player must be careful for there may be clues or blocks that are not bound to each other yet.
Nonogram
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Forcing
In this method, the significance of the spaces will be shown. A space placed somewhere in the middle of an uncompleted row may force a large block to one side or the other. Also, a gap that is too small for any possible block may be filled with spaces. For example, considering a row of ten cells with spaces in the fifth and seventh cells and with clues of 3 and 2: the clue of 3 would be forced to the left, because it could not fit anywhere else. the empty gap on the sixth cell is too small to accommodate clues like 2 or 3 and may be filled with spaces. finally, the clue of 2 will spread through the ninth cell according to method Simple Boxes above.
Glue
Sometimes, there is a box near the border that is not farther from the border than the length of the first clue. In this case, the first clue will spread through that box and will be forced outward from the border. For example, considering a row of ten cells with a box in the third cell and with a clue of 5, the clue of 5 will spread through the third cell and will continue to the fifth cell because of the border. Note: This method may also work in the middle of a row, further away from the borders. A space may act as a border, if the first clue is forced to the right of that space. The first clue may also be preceded by some other clues, if all the clues are already bound to the left of the forcing space.
Joining and splitting

Boxes closer to each other may be sometimes joined together into one block or split by a space into several blocks. When there are two blocks with an empty cell between, this cell: will be a space if joining the two blocks by a box would produce a too large block; will be a box if splitting the two blocks by a space would produce a too small block that does not have enough free cells remaining. For example, considering a row of fifteen cells with boxes in the third, fourth, sixth, seventh, eleventh and thirteenth cell and with clues of 5, 2 and 2: the clue of 5 will join the first two blocks by a box into one large block, because a space would produce a block of only 4 boxes that is not enough there; and the clues of 2 will split the last two blocks by a space, because a box would produce a block of 3 continuous boxes, which is not allowed there. Note: The illustration picture also shows how the clues of 2 will be further completed. This is, however, not part of the Joining and splitting technique, but the Glue technique described above.
Nonogram
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Punctuating
To solve the puzzle, it is usually also very important to enclose each bound and/or completed block of boxes immediately by separating spaces as described in Simple spaces method. Precise punctuating usually leads to more Forcing and may be vital for finishing the puzzle. Note: The examples above did not do that only to remain simple.
Mercury
Mercury is a special case of Simple spaces technique. Its name comes from the way mercury pulls back from the sides of a container. If there is a box in a row that is in the same distance from the border as the length of the first clue, the first cell will be a space. This is because the first clue would not fit to the left of the box. It will have to spread through that box, leaving the first cell behind. Furthermore, when the box is actually a block of more boxes to the right, there will be more spaces at the beginning of the row, determined by using this method several times.
Contradictions
Some more difficult puzzles may also require advanced reasoning. When all simple methods above are exhausted, searching for contradictions may help. It is wise to use a pencil (or other color) for that in order to be able to undo the last changes. The procedure includes: 1. Trying an empty cell to be a box (or then a space). 2. Using all available methods to solve as much as possible. 3. If an error is found, the tried cell will not be the box for sure. It will be a space (or a box, if space was tried).
In this example a box is tried in the first row, which leads to a space at the beginning of that row. The space then forces a box in the first column, which glues to a block of three boxes in the fourth row. However, that is wrong because the third column does not allow any boxes there, which leads to a conclusion that the tried cell must not be a box, so it must be a space. The problem of this method is that there is no quick way to tell which empty cell to try first. Usually only a few cells lead to any progress, and the other cells lead to dead ends. Most worthy cells to start with may be: cells that have many non-empty neighbors; cells that are close to the borders or close to the blocks of spaces; cells that are within rows that consist of more non-empty cells.
Nonogram
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Deeper recursion
Some puzzles may require to go deeper with searching for the contradictions. This is, however, not possible simply by a pen and pencil, because of the many possibilities that need to be searched. This method is practical for a computer to use, due to its practically limitless memory.
Multiple rows
In some cases, reasoning over a set of rows may also lead to the next step of the solution even without contradictions and deeper recursion. However, finding such sets is usually as difficult as finding contradictions.
Multiple solutions
There are puzzles that have several feasible solutions (one such is a picture of a simple chessboard). In these puzzles, all solutions are correct by the definition, but not all must give a reasonable picture.
Nonograms in computing
Solving nonogram puzzles is an NP-complete problem.[3] This means that there is no polynomial time algorithm that solves all nonogram puzzles unless P = NP. However, certain classes of puzzles, such as those in which each row or column has only one block of cells and all cells are connected, may be solved in polynomial time by transforming the problem into an instance of 2-satisfiability.[4]
Other picture logic puzzles

Pentomino paint-by-numbers is a variant in which the twelve pentomino shapes must be placed in the grid, without touching each other (even diagonally). Triddlers[5] are an offshoot that uses triangle shapes instead of squares. Paint by pairs or Link-a-Pix consists of a grid, with numbers filling some squares; pairs of numbers must be located correctly and connected with a line filling a total of squares equal to that number. There is only one unique way to link all the squares in a properly-constructed puzzle. When completed, the squares that have lines are filled; the contrast with the blank squares reveals the picture. (As above, colored versions exist that involving matching numbers of the same color.) Fill-a-Pix also uses a grid with numbers within. In this format, each number indicates how many of the squares immediately surrounding it, and itself, will be filled. A square marked "9," for example, will have all 8 surrounding squares and itself filled. If it is marked "0" those squares are all blank. Maze-a-Pix uses a maze in a standard grid. When the single correct route from beginning to end is located, each 'square' of the solution is filled in (alternatively, all non-solution squares are filled in) to create the picture. Tile Paint is another type of picture logic puzzle by Nikoli. It works like regular nonograms except that it only specifies the total number of squares in each row or column that will be filled in and irregular sections within the grid have borders around them that indicate that, if one of the squares within it is filled in, all of them must be filled in.
Nonogram
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Video game versions

As noted above, the Game Boy saw its own version, titled Mario's Picross. The game was initially released in Japan on March 14, 1995 to decent success. However, the game failed to become a hit in the U.S. market, despite a heavy ad campaign by Nintendo. The game is of an escalating difficulty, with successive puzzle levels containing larger puzzles. Each puzzle has a limited amount of time to be cleared. Hints (line clears) may be requested at a time penalty, and mistakes made earn time penalties as well (the amount increasing for each mistake). Mario's Picross 2 was released later for Game Boy and Mario's Super Picross for the Super Famicom, neither of which were translated for the U.S. market (Mario's Super Picross was, however, later released on the Wii Virtual Console's PAL service on September 14, 2007, as part of its Hanabi Festival). Both games introduced Wario's Picross as well, featuring Mario's nemesis in the role. These rounds vary by removing the hint function, and mistakes are not penalized at the price that mistakes are not even revealed. These rounds can only be cleared when all correct boxes are marked, with no mistakes. The time limit was also removed. Nintendo also released eight Picross volumes on the Japanese Nintendo Power peripheral in Japan, each a new set of puzzles without the Mario characters. More recently, Nintendo has released Picross DS for the Nintendo DS portable system. It contains several stages of varying difficulty, from 5x5 grids to 25x20 grids. Normal mode will tell you if you made an error (with a time penalty) and free mode will not tell you whether you made an error. A hint is available before starting the puzzle in all modes; the game reveals a complete row and column at random. Additional puzzles are available through Nintendo's Wi-Fi server; some of the original Mario Picross puzzles are available. Nintendo has been making new releases available bi-weekly. Picross DS was released in Europe and Australia on 11 May 2007 and in the United States on July 30, 2007 and has been received well by critics, labelling the game "Addictive". A 3D version of the game, titled Picross 3D, was also released for the DS in Japan in 2009 and internationally in 2010.
References
[1] http:/ / puzzlemuseum. com/ griddler/ gridhist. htm [2] Games Magazine Presents Paint by Numbers (http:/ / books. google. ca/ books?id=K98BAAAACAAJ). Random House. 1994. ISBN0812923847. . [3] Ueda, Nobuhisa; Nagao, Tadaaki (1996), NP-completeness results for NONOGRAM via Parsimonious Reductions (http:/ / citeseerx. ist. psu. edu/ viewdoc/ download?doi=10. 1. 1. 57. 5277& rep=rep1& type=pdf), TR96-0008, Technical Report, Department of Computer Science, Tokyo Institute of Technology, , retrieved 2008-09-16 [4] Brunetti, Sara; Daurat, Alain (2003), "An algorithm reconstructing convex lattice sets", Theoretical computer science 304 (13): 3557, doi:10.1016/S0304-3975(03)00050-1; Chrobak, Marek; Drr, Christoph (1999), "Reconstructing hv-convex polyominoes from orthogonal projections", Information Processing Letters 69 (6): 283289, doi:10.1016/S0020-0190(99)00025-3; Kuba, Attila; Balogh, Emese (2002), "Reconstruction of convex 2D discrete sets in polynomial time", Theoretical Computer Science 283 (1): 223242, doi:10.1016/S0304-3975(01)00080-9. [5] "Triddlers rules and examples" (http:/ / forum. griddlers. net/ pages/ t_rules). Griddlers.net. . Retrieved 1 January 2010.
External links
Nonograms (Brain teasers) (http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Puzzles/Brain_Teasers/Nonograms//) at the Open Directory Project Nonograms (Video games) (http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Video_Games/Puzzle/Nonograms//) at the Open Directory Project
Nurikabe
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Nurikabe
Nurikabe (hiragana: ) is a binary determination puzzle named for an invisible wall in Japanese folklore that blocks roads and delays foot travel. Nurikabe was apparently invented and named by Nikoli; other names (and attempts at localization) for the puzzle include Cell Structure and Islands in the Stream.
Rules
The puzzle is played on a typically rectangular grid of cells, some of which contain numbers. Cells are initially of unknown color, but can only be black or white. Two same-color cells are considered "connected" if they are adjacent vertically or horizontally, but not diagonally. Connected white cells form "walls", while connected black cells form "a stream".
Example of a moderately difficult 10x9 Nurikabe puzzle
The challenge is to paint each cell black or white, subject to the following rules: 1. Each numbered cell is a wall cell, the number in it is the number of cells in that wall. 2. Each wall must contain exactly one numbered cell. 3. There must be only one stream, which is not allowed to contain "pools", i.e. 2x2 areas of black cells. Human solvers will typically dot the non-numbered cells they've determined to be certain to belong to a wall, while trying to solve the puzzle. Like most other pure-logic puzzles, a unique solution is expected, and a grid containing random numbers is highly unlikely to provide a uniquely solvable Nurikabe puzzle.
History
Nurikabe was first developed by "reenin ( )," whose pen name is the Japanese pronunciation of "Lenin" and whose autonym can be read as such, in the 33rd issue of (Puzzle Communication) Nikoli at March 1991. It soon created a sensation, and has appeared in all issues of that publication from the 38th to the present. As of 2005, seven books consisting entirely of Nurikabe puzzles have been published by Nikoli. (This paragraph mainly depends on "Nikoli complete works of interesting-puzzles( )." http://www.nikoli.co.jp/storage/addition/omopadaizen/)
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Solution methods
No blind guessing should be required to solve a Nurikabe puzzle. Rather, a series of simple procedures and rules can be developed and followed, assuming the solver is sufficiently observant to find where to apply them. The greatest mistake made by beginning solvers is to concentrate solely on determining black or white and not the other; most Nurikabe puzzles require going back and forth. Marking white cells may force other cells to be black lest a section of black be isolated, and vice versa. (Those familiar with Go can think of undetermined cells next to various regions as "liberties" and apply "atari" logic to determine how they must grow.)
Solution to the example puzzle given above
Basic strategy
Since two islands may only touch at corners, cells between two partial islands (numbers and adjacent white cells that don't total their numbers yet) must be black. This is often how to start a Nurikabe puzzle, by marking cells adjacent to two or more numbers as black. Once an island is "complete"that is, it has all the white cells its number requiresall cells that share a side with it must be black. Obviously, any cells marked with '1' at the outset are complete islands unto themselves, and can be isolated with black at the beginning. Whenever three black cells form an "elbow"an L-shapethe cell in the bend (diagonally in from the corner of the L) must be white. (The alternative is a "pool", for lack of a better term.)
A Nurikabe puzzle being solved by a human. Dots represent the cells that are known to be white.
All black cells must eventually be connected. If there is a black region with only one possible way to connect to the rest of the board, the sole connecting pathway must be black. All white cells must eventually be part of exactly one island. If there is a white region that does not contain a number, and there is only one possible way for it to connect to a numbered white region, the sole connecting pathway must be white. Some puzzles will require the location of "unreachables"cells that cannot be connected to any number, being either too far away from all of them or blocked by other numbers. Such cells must be black. Often, these cells will have only one route of connection to other black cells or will form an elbow whose required white cell (see previous bullet) can only reach one number, allowing further progress.
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Advanced strategy
If there is a square consisting of two black cells and two unknown cells, at least one of the two unknown cells must remain white according to the rules. Thus, if one of those two unknown cells (call it 'A') can only be connected to a numbered square by way of the other one (call it 'B'), then B must necessarily be white (and A may or may not be white). If an island of size N already has N-1 white cells identified, and there are only two remaining cells to choose from, and those two cells touch at their corners, then the cell between those two that is on the far side of the island must be black.
Related puzzles
The binary determination puzzles LITS and Mochikoro, also published by Nikoli, are similar to Nurikabe and employ similar solution methods. The binary determination puzzle Atsumari is similar to Nurikabe but based upon a hexagonal tiling rather than a square tiling.
References
Brandon McPhail, James D. Fix. Nurikabe is NP-Complete [1] NW Conference of the CSCC, 2004. Also presented at Reed Mathematics Colloquium, 2004. Markus Holzer, Andreas Klein and Martin Kutrib. On The NP-Completeness of The NURIKABE Pencil Puzzle and Variants Thereof [2]. Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Fun with Algorithms [3], 2004.
External links
Nikoli's English page on Nurikabe [4] Some difficult Nurikabe puzzles [5] little Nurikabe for Android Smartphones [6]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] http:/ / www. cs. umass. edu/ ~mcphailb/ papers/ 2004nurikabeposter. pdf http:/ / cage. ugent. be/ ~klein/ papers/ nurikabe. pdf http:/ / www. informatik. uni-trier. de/ ~ley/ db/ conf/ fun/ index. html http:/ / www. nikoli. co. jp/ en/ puzzles/ nurikabe/ http:/ / fabpedigree. com/ nurikabe/ http:/ / www. gameprogramming. de/ index. php?id=56
Shinro
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Shinro
A Shinro puzzle in its initial state...
...and with the hidden Holes displayed.
Shinro ( ) is a logic-based puzzle that has similarities to Sudoku and Minesweeper. The objective is to locate 12 hidden 'Holes' on an 88 grid. The board contains a variable number of arrows, each of which points to at least one Hole. A count of the number of Holes is given for each Row and Column. Originally appearing in Japanese puzzle magazines, Shinro was popularized by its appearance in Southwest Airline's Spirit Magazine[1]. It has since spawned web-based and iPhone versions.
Name
New York-based puzzle-writing company Puzzability [2] has been credited[3] with coining the name Shinro in 2007. The name Shinro ( ) translates[4] to "compass bearing", referring to the arrows that point towards the Holes.
Availability
Websites: Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine, Fun and Games section [5] Downloadable PDF with four puzzles Shinropuzzles website [6] Printable puzzles with solutions Sternenhimmel [7] (Babelfish translation [8]) German variation where each arrow points to only one Hole iPhone: Shinro Mines [9] Jabeh [10] with video tutorial Sudoku Shinro [11]
Shinro
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Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] Southwest Airlines Spirit Magazine, Fun and Games section (http:/ / www. spiritmag. com/ fun/ index. php) http:/ / www. puzzability. com/ Shinropuzzles website (http:/ / shinropuzzles. web. officelive. com) Credit given to Puzzability for coining the name 'Shinro' Google Translate translation (http:/ / translate. google. com/ translate_t?prev=hp& hl=en& js=y& text=& file=& sl=ja& tl=en) of Shinro ( ) [5] http:/ / www. spiritmag. com/ fun/ index. php [6] http:/ / shinropuzzles. web. officelive. com/ puzzles. aspx [7] http:/ / www. janko. at/ Raetsel/ Sternenhimmel/ index. htm [8] http:/ / 66. 196. 80. 202/ babelfish/ translate_url_content?. intl=us& lp=de_en& trurl=http%3a%2f%2fbabelfish. altavista. com%2fbabelfish%2ftrurl_pagecontent%3flp%3dde_en%26url%3dhttp%3a%2f%2fwww. janko. at%2fRaetsel%2fSternenhimmel%2findex. htm [9] http:/ / www. benjiware. com/ main/ Shinro_Mines. html [10] http:/ / www. jabeh. org/ [11] http:/ / web. me. com/ romancini/ Far_Apps/ Shinro. html
External links
Shinro tutorial (http://shinropuzzles.web.officelive.com/aboutus.aspx) Downloadable puzzles, Shinro tutorial, and a book (http://playshinro.com)
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Logic puzzles
Balance puzzle
A number of logic puzzles exist that are based on the balancing of similar-looking items, often coins, to determine which one is of a different value within a limited number of uses of the balance scales. These differ from puzzles where items are assigned weights, in that only the relative mass of these items is relevant.
Premise
A well-known example has nine (or fewer) items, say coins (or balls), that are identical in weight save for one, which in this example we will say is lighter than the othersa counterfeit (an oddball). The difference is only perceptible by using a pair of scales balance, but only the coins themselves can be weighed. Is it possible to isolate the counterfeit coin with only two weighings?
Solution
To find a solution to the problem we first consider the maximum number of items from which one can find the lighter one in just one weighing. The maximum number possible is three. To find the lighter one we can compare any two coins, leaving the third out. If the two coins tested weigh the same, then the lighter coin must be one of those not on the balance - otherwise it is the one indicated as lighter by the balance. Now, assume we have three coins wrapped in a bigger coin-shaped box. In one move, we can find which of the three boxes is lighter (this box would contain the lighter coin) and, in the second weighing, as was shown above, we can find which of the three coins within the box is lighter. So in two weighings we can find a single light coin from a set of . Note that we could reason along the same line, further, to see that in three weighings one can find the odd-lighter coin among 27 coins and in 4 weighings, from 81 coins.
The twelve-coin problem

A more complex version exists where there are twelve coins, eleven of which are identical and one of which is different, but it is not known whether it is heavier or lighter than the others. This time the balance may be used three times to isolate the unique coin and determine its weight relative to the others.
Solution
The procedure is less straightforward for this problem, and the second and third weighings depend on what has happened previously, although that need not be the case (see below). Four coins are put on each side. There are two possibilities: 1. One side is heavier than the other. If this is the case, remove three coins from the heavier side, move three coins from the lighter side to the heavier side, and place three coins that were not weighed the first time on the lighter side. (Remember which coins are which.) There are three possibilities:
Balance puzzle 1.a) The same side that was heavier the first time is still heavier. This means that either the coin that stayed there is heavier or that the coin that stayed on the lighter side is lighter. Balancing one of these against one of the other ten coins will reveal which of these is true, thus solving the puzzle. 1.b) The side that was heavier the first time is lighter the second time. This means that one of the three coins that went from the lighter side to the heavier side is the light coin. For the third attempt, weigh two of these coins against each other: if one is lighter, it is the unique coin; if they balance, the third coin is the light one. 1.c) Both sides are even. This means the one of the three coins that was removed from the heavier side is the heavy coin. For the third attempt, weigh two of these coins against each other: if one is heavier, it is the unique coin; if they balance, the third coin is the heavy one. 2. Both sides are even. If this is the case, all eight coins are identical and can be set aside. Take the four remaining coins and place three on one side of the balance. Place 3 of the 8 identical coins on the other side. There are three possibilities: 2.a) The three remaining coins are lighter. In this case you now know that one of those three coins is the odd one out and that it is lighter. Take two of those three coins and weigh them against each other. If the balance tips then the lighter coin is the odd one out. If the two coins balance then the third coin not on the balance is the odd one out and it is lighter. 2.b) The three remaining coins are heavier. In this case you now know that one of those three coins is the odd one out and that it is heavier. Take two of those three coins and weigh them against each other. If the balance tips then the heavier coin is the odd one out. If the two coins balance then the third coin not on the balance is the odd one out and it is heavier. 2.c) The three remaining coins balance. In this case you know that the unweighed coin is the odd one out. Weigh the remaining coin against one of the other 11 coins and this will tell you whether it is heavier or lighter. With some outside the box thinking, such as assuming that there are authentic (genuine) coins at hand, a solution may be found quicker. In fact if there is one authentic coin for reference then the suspect coins can be thirteen. Number the coins from 1 to 13 and the authentic coin number 0 and perform these weighings in any order: 0, 1, 4, 5, 6 against 7, 10, 11, 12, 13 0, 2, 4, 10, 11 against 5, 8, 9, 12, 13 0, 3, 8, 10, 12 against 6, 7, 9, 11, 13 If the scales are only off balance once, then it must be one of the coins 1, 2, 3 which only appear in one weighing. If there is never balance then it must be one of the coins 1013 that appear in all weighings. Picking out the one counterfeit coin corresponding to each of the 27 outcomes is always possible (13 coins one either too heavy or too light is 26 possibilities) except when all weighings are balanced, in which case there is no counterfeit coin (or its weight is correct). If coins 0 and 13 are deleted from these weighings they give one generic solution to the 12-coin problem. If two coins are counterfeit this procedure will in general not pick out either of these but rather some authentic coin. For instance if both coins 1 and 2 are counterfeit then either coin 4 or 5 will be wrongly picked out. In a relaxed variation of this puzzle, one only needs to find the counterfeit coin without necessarily being able to tell its weight relative to the others. In this case, clearly one extra coin can be handled. This coin will never be put on the scales, but if all weighings are balanced it will be picked as the counterfeit coin. It is not possible to do any better, since any coin that is put on the scales at some point and picked as the counterfeit coin can then always be assigned weight relative to the others.
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Balance puzzle
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In literature
Niobe, the protagonist of Piers Anthony's novel With a Tangled Skein, must solve the twelve-coin variation of this puzzle to find her son in Hell: Satan has disguised the son to look identical to eleven other demons, and he is heavier or lighter depending on whether he is cursed to lie or able to speak truthfully. The solution in the book follows the given example 1.c.
External links
A playable example of the first puzzle [1] A playable example of the second puzzle [2] Two-pan balance and generalized counterfeit coin problem [3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. puzzles. com/ PuzzlePlayground/ HeavyWeight/ HeavyWeight. htm [2] http:/ / nrich. maths. org/ public/ viewer. php?obj_id=5796 [3] http:/ / math. uni. lodz. pl/ ~andkom/ Marcel/ Kule-en. pdf
Bridge and torch problem

The bridge and torch problem (also known as The Midnight Train[1] and Dangerous crossing[2]) is a logic puzzle that deals with 4 people, a bridge and a torch. It is one of the category of river crossing puzzles, where a number of objects must move across a river, with some constraints.[3]
Story
Four people come to a river in the night. There is a narrow bridge, but it can only hold two peopleidge. Person A can cross the bridge in 1 minute, B in 2 minutes, C in 5 minutes, and D in 8 minutes. When two people cross the bridge together, they must move at the slower person's pace. The question is, can they all get across the bridge in 15 minutes or less?[2]
Solution
An obvious first idea is that the cost of returning the torch to the people waiting to cross is an unavoidable expense which should be minimized. This strategy makes A the torch bearer, shuttling each person across the bridge:[4]
Elapsed Time Starting Side 0 minutes 2 minutes 3 minutes 8 minutes 9 minutes 17 minutes ABCD CD A C D D AD A and B cross forward, taking 2 minutes A B A returns, taking 1 minute B Action Ending Side
A and C cross forward, taking 5 minutes A B C A returns, taking 1 minute BC
A and D cross forward, taking 8 minutes A B C D
This strategy does not permit a crossing in 15 minutes. To find the correct solution, one must realize that forcing the two slowest people to cross individually wastes time which can be saved if they both cross together:[4]
Bridge and torch problem
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Elapsed Time Starting Side 0 minutes 2 minutes 3 minutes 11 minutes 13 minutes 15 minutes ABCD CD A C D A AB
Action
Ending Side
A and B cross forward, taking 2 minutes A B A returns, taking 1 minute B
C and D cross forward, taking 8 minutes B C D B returns, taking 2 minutes CD
A and B cross forward, taking 2 minutes A B C D
Variations and history

Several variations exist, with cosmetic variations such as differently named people, or variation in the crossing times or time limit.[5] The torch itself may expire in a short time and so serve as the time limit. In a variation called The Midnight Train, for example, person D needs 10 minutes instead of 8 to cross the bridge, and persons A, B, C and D, now called the four Gabrianni brothers, have 17 minutes to catch the midnight train.[1] The puzzle is known to have appeared as early as 1981, in the book Super Strategies For Puzzles and Games. In this version of the puzzle, A, B, C and D take 5, 10, 20, and 25 minutes, respectively, to cross, and the time limit is 60 minutes.[6][7] In all these variations, the structure and solution of the puzzle remain the same. In the case where there are an arbitrary number of people with arbitrary crossing times, and the capacity of the bridge remains equal to two people, the problem has been completely analyzed by graph-theoretic methods.[4] This problem has been used as a method to compare the usability of programming languages.[8]
External links
Slides of the Capacity C Torch Problem [9] Paper discussing the Capacity C Torch Problem [10]
References
[1] "MURDEROUS MATHS BRAINBENDERS" (http:/ / www. murderousmaths. co. uk/ books/ BKMMPxbb. htm). . Retrieved 2008-02-08. [2] Gleb Gribakin. "Some simple and not so simple maths problems" (http:/ / web. am. qub. ac. uk/ users/ g. gribakin/ problems. html). . Retrieved 2008-02-08. [3] Tricky Crossings (http:/ / www. sciencenews. org/ articles/ 20031213/ mathtrek. asp), Ivars Peterson, Science News, 164, #24 (December 13, 2003); accessed on line February 7, 2008. [4] Rote, Gnter (2002). "Crossing the bridge at night" (http:/ / page. mi. fu-berlin. de/ ~rote/ Papers/ pdf/ Crossing+ the+ bridge+ at+ night. pdf). Bulletin of the European Association for Theoretical Computer Science 78: pp.241246. [5] "The Bridge Crossing Puzzle" (http:/ / www. visi. com/ cgi-bin/ cgiwrap/ ~heyyousir/ bridge. cgi). . [6] Torsten Sillke (September 2001). "Crossing the bridge in an hour" (http:/ / www. mathematik. uni-bielefeld. de/ ~sillke/ PUZZLES/ crossing-bridge). . Retrieved 2008-02-09. [7] Levmore, Saul X.; Cook, Elizabeth Early (1981). Super strategies for puzzles and games. Garden City, New York: Doubleday & Company. ISBN0-385-17165-X [8] Erwig, Martin. "Escape from Zurg" (http:/ / web. engr. oregonstate. edu/ ~erwig/ papers/ Zurg_JFP04. pdf). [9] http:/ / aps. cs. nott. ac. uk/ wp-content/ uploads/ 2008/ 05/ capacity-c-torch-problem-aps-club. pdf [10] http:/ / www. cs. nott. ac. uk/ ~rcb/ MPC/ GeneralTorchProblem. ps
Bulls and cows
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Bulls and cows

Bulls and Cows -- also known as Cows and Bulls or Pigs and Bulls or Bulls and Cleots -- is an old code-breaking paper and pencil game for two players, predating the similar commercially-marketed board game Master Mind. It is a game with numbers that may date back a century or more. It is played by two opponents. The game can also be played with 3 digits instead of 4. On a sheet of paper, the players each write a 4-digit secret number. The digits must be all different. Then, in turn, the players try to guess their opponent's number who gives the number of matches. If the matching digits are on their right positions, they are "bulls", if on different positions, they are "cows". Example: Secret number: 4271 Opponent's try: 1234 Answer: 1 bull and 2 cows. (The bull is "2", the cows are "4" and "1".)
4digits, an Open Source version of Bulls and Cows.
The first one to reveal the other's secret number wins the game. As the "first one to try" has a logical advantage, on every game the "first" player changes. In some places, the winner of the previous game will play "second". Sometimes, if the "first" player finds the number, the "second" has one more move to make and if he also succeeds, the result is even. The secret numbers for bulls and cows are usually 4-digit-numbers, but the game can be played with 3 to 6 digit numbers (in every case it is more difficult than with 4). The game may also be played by two teams of 2-3 players. The players of every team discuss before making their move, much like in chess. A computer program moo, written in 1970 by J. M. Grochow at MIT in the PL/I computer language for the Multics operating system, was amongst the first Bulls and Cows computer implementations, inspired by a similar program written by Frank King in 1968 and running on the Cambridge University mainframe. Because the game has simple rules, while it is difficult and entertaining, there are many computer variants; it is often included in telephones and PDAs. It's proven that any number could be solved for up to seven turns. Minimal average game length is 26274/5040=5.2131 turns [1].
External links
4digits, an Open Source version of Bulls and Cows [2] Page with the PL/1 code for Moo by J.M. Grochow [3] Description of Bulls and Cows with numbers, and a Web playable version [4] Online version of Bulls and Cows game [5] Knuth, D. E. "The Computer as a Master Mind." J. Recr. Math. 9, 1-6, 1976-77 [6] Francis, J. "Strategies for playing MOO, or 'Bulls and Cows'" [7]
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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Optimal algorithms for bulls and cows game. (http:/ / bulls-cows. sourceforge. net/ bullscows. pdf) http:/ / fourdigits. sourceforge. net http:/ / ftp. stratus. com/ vos/ multics/ pg/ pg. html http:/ / www. pencilandpapergames. com/ show?1 http:/ / bulls-cows. sourceforge. net/ play. html http:/ / www. dcc. fc. up. pt/ ~sssousa/ RM09101. pdf http:/ / www. jfwaf. com/ Bulls%20and%20Cows. pdf
Fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle

The fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle is a river-crossing puzzle. It dates back to at least the 9th century,[1] and has entered the folklore of a number of ethnic groups.[2]
The story
Once upon a time a farmer went to market and purchased a fox, a goose, and a bag of beans. On his way home, the farmer came to the bank of a river and hired a boat. But in crossing the river by boat, the farmer could carry only himself and a single one of his purchases - the fox, the goose, or the bag of the beans. If left alone, the fox would eat the goose, and the goose would eat the beans. The farmer's challenge was to carry himself and his purchases to the far bank of the river, leaving each purchase intact. How did he do it?
Solution
The first step must be to bring the goose across the river, as any other will result in the goose or the beans being eaten. When the farmer returns to the original side, he has the choice of bringing either the fox or the beans across. If he brings the fox across, he must then return to bring the beans over, resulting in the fox eating the goose. If he brings the beans across, he will need to return to get the fox, resulting in the beans being eaten. Here he has a dilemma, solved by bringing the fox (or the beans) over and bringing the goose back. Now he can bring the beans (or the fox) over, leaving the goose, and finally return to fetch the goose. His actions in the solution are summarised in the following steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Bring goose over Return Bring fox or beans over Bring goose back Bring beans or fox over Return Bring goose over
Thus there are seven crossings, four forward and three back.
Fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle
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Occurrence and variations

The puzzle is one of a number of river crossing puzzles, where the object is to move a set of items across a river subject to various restrictions. In the earliest known occurrence of this problem, in the medieval manuscript Propositiones ad Acuendos Juvenes, the three objects are a wolf, a goat, and a cabbage. Other cosmetic variations of the puzzle also exist, such as wolf, sheep, and cabbage;[3];[2], p.26 fox, chicken, and grain;,[4] fox, goose and corn[5] and panther, pig, and porridge.[6] The logic of the puzzle, in which there are three objects, A, B, and C, such that neither A and B nor B and C can be left together, remains the same. The puzzle has been found in the folklore of African-Americans, Cameroon, the Cape Verde Islands, Denmark, Ethiopia, Ghana, Italy, Russia, Romania, Scotland, the Sudan, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.[2], pp.2627;[7] It has been given the index number H506.3 in Stith Thompson's motif index of folk literature, and is ATU 1579 in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther classification system.[8] The puzzle was a favorite of Lewis Carroll,[9] and has been reprinted in various collections of recreational mathematics.[2], p.26. A variation of the puzzle also appears in the Nintendo DS puzzle game Professor Layton and the Curious Village. In some parts of Africa, variations on the puzzle have been found in which the boat can carry two objects instead of only one. When the puzzle is weakened in this way it is possible to introduce the extra constraint that no two items, including A and C, can be left together.[2], p.27.
References
[1] Pressman, Ian; David Singmaster (June 1989). ""The Jealous Husbands" and "The Missionaries and Cannibals"". The Mathematical Gazette (The Mathematical Association) 73 (464): 7381. doi:10.2307/3619658. JSTOR3619658. [2] Ascher, Marcia (February 1990). "A River-Crossing Problem in Cross-Cultural Perspective". Mathematics Magazine (Mathematical Association of America) 63 (1): 2629. doi:10.2307/2691506. JSTOR2691506. [3] Alcuin's Transportation Problems and Integer Programming (http:/ / www. zib. de/ Publications/ Reports/ SC-95-27. ps. Z), Ralf Borndrfer, Martin Grtschel, and Andreas Lbel, preprint SC-95-27 (November 1995), Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fr Informationstechnik Berlin. [4] The Classic River Crossing Puzzle (http:/ / alloy. mit. edu/ tutorial3/ sidenote-RC-puzzle. html) [5] Mary Jane Sterling, Math Word Problems for Dummies, P.313 [6] Stewart, Ian (1998). The Magical Maze. Phoenix. ISBN0753805146. [7] 235. Three Zande Texts (http:/ / links. jstor. org/ sici?sici=0025-1496(196210)1:62<149:2TZT>2. 0. CO;2-6), E. E. Evans-Pritchard, Man, 62 (October 1962), pp. 149152. [8] "Carrying a Wolf, a Goat, and a Cabbage across the Stream. Metamorphoses of ATU 1579" (http:/ / www. folklore. ee/ Folklore/ vol35/ voolaid. pdf), Piret Voolaid, Folklore: Electronic Journal of Folklore 35 (2007), pp. 111130. Tartu: Eesti Kirjandusmuuseum. [9] p. 17, Rediscovered Lewis Carroll Puzzles, Lewis Carroll, compiled by Edward Wakeling, Courier Dover Publications, 1996, ISBN 0486288617.
External links
Goat, Cabbage and Wolf (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/ctk/GoatCabbageWolf.shtml) A Java simulation
Hat puzzle
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Hat puzzle
Hat puzzles are logic problems that date back to 1961 if not earlier.[1] A number of players, at least 3, are each wearing a hat, which may be of various specified colours. Players can see the colours of at least some other players' hats, but not that of their own. With highly restricted communication or none, some of the players must guess the colour of their hat. The problem is to find a strategy for the players to determine the colours of their hats based on the hats they see and what the other players do. In some versions, they compete to be the first to guess correctly; in others, they can work out a strategy beforehand to cooperate and maximise the probability of correct guesses.[2] One variation received some new publicity as a result of Todd Ebert's 1998 Ph.D. thesis at the University of California, Santa Barbara.[3] It is a strategy question about a cooperative game, which has connections to algebraic coding theory.[4] By 2009, hat problems were "all the rage".[2]
A competitive version
Three players are told that each of them will receive either a red hat or a blue hat. They are to raise their hands if they see a red hat on another player. The first to guess the colour of his or her hat correctly wins. All three players get red hats, so all three raise their hands. After the players have seen each other for a few minutes without guessing, one player announces "Red", and wins. How did the winner do it? If player 1 sees a blue hat on player 2, then player 1 knows his or her own hat must be red. Otherwise 1 and 2 would have blue hats, and 3's hand would not be raised. Thus any player who sees a blue hat can guess at once. The winner realizes that since no one guesses, there must be no blue hats, so every hat must be red.[5]
A cooperative version
In the case where every player has to make a guess, but they are free to choose when to guess, there is a cooperative strategy that allows every player to guess correctly. Each player should act as follows: Count the numbers b of black hats and w of white hats that you see. Wait min(b,w) seconds. If nobody has yet spoken, guess that your hat is black if you can see fewer black hats than white hats, or white if you can see fewer white hats than black hats. If you have not yet spoken, guess that your hat is of the opposite colour to that of one of the first people to speak. Suppose that in total there are B black hats and W white hats. There are three cases. If B = W then those players wearing black hats see B1 black hats and B white hats, so wait B1 seconds then correctly guess that they are wearing a black hat. Similarly, those players wearing a white hat will wait W1 seconds before guessing correctly that they are wearing a white hat. So all players make a correct guess at the same time. If B < W then those wearing a black hat will see B1 black hats and W white hats, whilst those wearing a white hat will see B black hats and W1 white hats. Since B1 < B W1, those players wearing a black hat will be the first to speak, guessing correctly that their hat is black. The other players then guess correctly that their hat is white. The case where W < B is similar.
Hat puzzle
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Ebert's version and Hamming codes

Ebert's version of the problem states that all players who guess must guess at the same predetermined time, but that not all players are required to guess. Now not all players can guess correctly, so the players win if at least one player guesses and all of those who guess do so correctly. How can the players maximise their chance of winning? One strategy for solving this version of the hat problem employs Hamming codes, which are commonly used to detect and correct errors in data transmission. The probability for winning will be much higher than 50%, depending on the number of players in the puzzle configuration: for example, a winning probability of 87.5% for 7 players. Similar strategies can be applied to team sizes of N = 2k1 and achieve a win rate (2k-1)/2k. Thus the Hamming code strategy yields greater win rates for larger values of N. In this version of the problem, any individual guess has a 50% chance of being right. However, the Hamming code approach works by concentrating wrong guesses together onto certain distributions of hats. For some cases, all the players will guess incorrectly; whereas for the other cases, only one player will guess, but correctly. While half of all guesses are still incorrect, this results in the players winning more than 50% of the time. A simple example of this type of solution with three players is instructive. With three players, there are eight possibilities; in two of them all players have the same colour hat, and in the other six, two players have one colour and the other player has the other colour. The players can guarantee that they win in the latter cases (75% of the time) with the following strategy: 1. Any player who observes two hats of two different colours remains silent. 2. Any player who observes two hats of the same colour guesses the opposite colour. In the two cases when all three players have the same hat colour, they will all guess incorrectly. But in the other six cases, only one player will guess, and correctly, that his hat is the opposite of his fellow players'.[6]
References
[1] Hardin, Christopher; Taylor, Alan D. (2008). "An introduction to Infinite Hat Problems" (http:/ / www. math. union. edu/ ~hardinc/ pub/ introinf. pdf). Mathematical Intelligencer 30 (4). . [2] Brown, Ezra; Tanton, James (April 2009). "A Dozen Hat Problems" (http:/ / www. math. vt. edu/ people/ brown/ doc/ dozen_hats. pdf). Math Horizons. . Retrieved 2011-10-08. [3] Winkler, Peter (2004). Mathematical Puzzles: A Connoisseur's Collection (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=R6qkdCHM7_EC& lpg=PA125& dq=hat puzzle todd& pg=PA125#v=onepage& q=hat puzzle todd& f=false). A K Peters. pp.125126. . [4] Biography of Todd Ebert at California State University, Long Beach (http:/ / www. csulb. edu/ colleges/ coe/ cecs/ views/ personnel/ fulltime/ ebert. shtml) [5] Gardner, Martin (1978). Aha! Insight (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=EV2y4z95_KQC& pg=RA1-PA102#v=onepage& q& f=false). Scientific American. p.102. ISBN0894540017. . Retrieved 2011-10-08. [6] Havil, Julian (2008). Impossible? Surprising Solutions to Counterintuitive Conundrums (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=Ux5QcdVXo6oC& pg=PA50#v=onepage& q& f=false). Princeton University Press. pp.5059. ISBN0-691-13131-3. . Retrieved 2011-10-08.
Further reading
Andrew Liu, "Two Applications of a Hamming Code" The College Mathematics Journal 40 (2009) 2-5.
Induction puzzles
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Induction puzzles
Induction Puzzles are logic puzzles which are solved via the application of the principle of induction. In most cases, the puzzle's scenario will involve several participants with reasoning capability (typically people) and the solution to the puzzle will be based on identifying what would happen in an obvious case, and then repeating the reasoning that: "as soon as one of the participants realises that the obvious case has not happened, they can eliminate it from their reasoning, so creating a new obvious case". Typical tell-tale features of these puzzles include any puzzle in which each participant has a given piece of information about all other participants but not themselves. Also, usually some kind of hint is given to suggest that the participants can trust each others intelligence.
Examples
The King's Wise Men: The King called the three wisest men in the country to his court to decide who would become his new advisor. He placed a hat on each of their heads, such that each wise man could see all of the other hats, but none of them could see their own. Each hat was either white or blue. The king gave his word to the wise men that at least one of them was wearing a blue hat - in other words, there could be one, two, or three blue hats, but not zero. The king also announced that the contest would be fair to all three men. The wise men were also forbidden to speak to each other. The king declared that whichever man stood up first and announced the color of his own hat would become his new advisor. The wise men sat for a very long time before one stood up and correctly announced the answer. What did he say, and how did he work it out? Josephine's Problem: In Josephine's Kingdom every woman has to pass a logic exam before being allowed to marry. Every married woman knows about the fidelity of every man in the Kingdom except for her own husband, and etiquette demands that no woman should tell another about the fidelity of her husband. Also, a gunshot fired in any house in the Kingdom will be heard in any other house. Queen Josephine announced that unfaithful men had been discovered in the Kingdom, and that any woman knowing her husband to be unfaithful was required to shoot him at midnight following the day after she discovered his infidelity. How did the wives manage this? Alice at the Convention of Logicians: At the Secret Convention of Logicians, the Master Logician placed a band on each attendee's head, such that everyone else could see it but the person themselves could not. There were many, many different colors of band. The Logicians all sat in a circle, and the Master instructed them that a bell was to be rung in the forest at regular intervals: at the moment when a Logician knew the color on his own forehead, he was to leave at the next bell. Anyone who left at the wrong bell was clearly not a true Logician but an evil infiltrator and would be thrown out of the Convention post haste; but the Master reassures the group by stating that the puzzle would not be impossible for anybody present. How did they do it?
Solutions
The King's Wise Men: This is one of the simplest induction puzzles and one of the clearest indicators to the method used. Suppose that you are one of the wise men. Looking at the other wise men, you see they are both wearing white hats. Since there are only three hats in total and the king specified that there was at least one blue hat, you would immediately know that your own hat must be blue. Now suppose that you see the other wise men, and one is wearing a white hat and the other is wearing a blue hat. If your own hat was white, then the man you can see wearing the blue hat would be himself seeing two white hats and would - by the logic above - have immediately declared his hat colour. If he doesn't do this, it can only be because your hat isn't white, therefore it must be blue.
Induction puzzles Now suppose that you see the other wise men and both are wearing blue hats. You can't work anything out from this. However, if your own hat was white, then one of the two other wise men would be seeing a blue and a white hat, and would have declared his hat colour by the rule above. Thus, if he hasn't done so, he must also be seeing two blue hats and thus your hat must be blue. Please note, that this problem has a subtle but major flaw: time. Exactly how long should one of the King's Wise Men wait before inferring anything from the other wise mens' lack of action? This flaw is rightly eliminated in the statement of Josephine's Problem (with its midnights) and the Alice at the Convention of Logicians problem (with its regular intervals). It can also be eliminated by the men realising only someone wearing a blue hat could win, and thus all hats must be blue for it to be a fair test. Josephine's Problem: This is another good example of a general case. If there is only 1 unfaithful husband, then every woman in the Kingdom knows that except for his wife, who believes that everyone is faithful. Thus, as soon as she hears from the Queen that unfaithful men exist, she knows her husband must be unfaithful, and shoots him. If there are 2 unfaithful husbands, then both their wives believe there is only 1 unfaithful husband (the other one). Thus, they will expect that the case above will apply, and that the other husband's wife will shoot him at midnight on the next day. When no gunshot is heard, they will realise that the case above did not apply, thus there must be more than 1 unfaithful husband and (since they know that everyone else is faithful) the extra one must be their own husband. If there are 3 unfaithful husbands, each of their wives believes there to be only 2, so they will expect that the case above will apply and both husbands will be shot on the second day. When they hear no gunshot, they will realize that the case above did not apply, thus there must be more than 2 unfaithful husbands and as before their own husband is the only candidate to be the extra one. In general, if there are n unfaithful husbands, each of their wives will believe there to be n-1 and will expect to hear a gunshot at midnight on the n-1th day. When they don't, they know their own husband was the nth. This problem is also known as the Cheating Husbands Problem, the Unfaithful Wives Problem or the Muddy Children Problem. Please note that strictly, the process needs to be explicitly terminated, otherwise all husbands who survive the first night of shooting will be shot at midnight the next day. For example, Queen Josephine could announce, on the day after all the unfaithful husbands have been eliminated, that there are no longer any unfaithful husbands left. Otherwise, the day after the shooting all wives know of zero unfaithful husbands and if the assumption that unfaithful husbands exist is not removed, the argument relating to exactly one unfaithful husband, as given above, will apply - each wife with a surviving husband will deduce that her husband is guilty and shoot him. Alice at the convention of Logicians: This is general induction plus a leap of logic. Leap of logic: Every colour must appear at least twice around the circle. This is because the Master stated that it would not be impossible for any Logician to solve the puzzle. If any colour existed only once around the circle, the Logician who bore it would have no way of knowing that the colour even existed in the problem, and it would be impossible for them to answer. Each of the Logicians can look around the circle and count the number of times they see each colour. Suppose that you are one of the Logicians and you see another colour only once. Since you know each colour must exist at least twice around the circle, the only explanation for a singleton colour is that it is the colour of your own band. For the same reason, there can only be one such singleton colour, and so you would leave on the first bell. Likewise any Logicians who see another colour only once should be able to determine their own colour, and will either leave with dignity or be thrown out as an infiltrator. Equivalently, any colour for which there are only two bands of that colour will be eliminated after the first bell has rung. Thereafter there must be at least three bands of any remaining colour.
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Induction puzzles Suppose you do not see any colour once, but you do see a colour twice. If these were the only bands of this colour, then these two Logicians ought to have left at the first bell. Since they didn't, that can only be because your own band is the same colour, so you can leave at the second bell. The induction proceeds following the same pattern as used in Josephine's Problem.
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Knights and Knaves

Knights and Knaves is a type of logic puzzle devised by Raymond Smullyan. On a fictional island, all inhabitants are either knights, who always tell the truth, or knaves, who always lie. The puzzles involve a visitor to the island who meets small groups of inhabitants. Usually the aim is for the visitor to deduce the inhabitants' type from their statements, but some puzzles of this type ask for other facts to be deduced. The puzzle may also be to determine a yes/no question which the visitor can ask in order to discover what he needs to know. An early example of this type of puzzle involves three inhabitants referred to as A, B and C. The visitor asks A what type he is, but does not hear A's answer. B then says "A said that he is a knave" and C says "Don't believe B: he is lying!" To solve the puzzle, note that no inhabitant can say that he is a knave. Therefore B's statement must be untrue, so he is a knave, making C's statement true, so he is a knight. Since A's answer invariably would be "I'm a knight", it is not possible to determine whether A is a knight or knave from the information provided. In some variations, inhabitants may also be alternators, who alternate between lying and telling the truth, or normals, who can say whatever they want (as in the case of Knight/Knave/Spy puzzles). A further complication is that the inhabitants may answer yes/no questions in their own language, and the visitor knows that "bal" and "da" mean "yes" and "no" but does not know which is which. These types of puzzles were a major inspiration for what has become known as "the hardest logic puzzle ever".
Examples
A large class of elementary logical puzzles can be solved using the laws of Boolean algebra and logic truth tables. Familiarity with boolean algebra and its simplification process will help with understanding the following examples. John and Bill are residents of the island of knights and knaves.
Question 1
John says: We are both knaves. Who is what?
Question 2
John: We are the same kind. Bill: We are of different kinds. Who is who?
Question 3
Here is a rendition of perhaps the most famous of this type of puzzle: John and Bill are standing at a fork in the road. You know that one of them is a knight and the other a knave, but you don't know which. You also know that one road leads to Death, and the other leads to Freedom. By asking one yes/no question, can you determine the road to Freedom?
Knights and Knaves This version of the puzzle was further popularised by a scene in the 1986 fantasy film, Labyrinth, in which Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) finds herself faced with two doors each guarded by a two-headed knight. One door leads to the castle at the centre of the labyrinth, and one to certain doom. It had also appeared some ten years previously, in a very similar form, in the Doctor Who story Pyramids of Mars.
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Solution to Question 1
John is a knave and Bill is a knight. John's statement can't be true because nobody can admit to being a knave (see Liar paradox). Since John is a knave this means he must have been lying about them both being knaves, and so Bill is a knight.
Solution for Question 2

John is a knave and Bill is a knight. In this scenario they are making contradictory statements and so one must be a knight and one must be a knave. Since that is exactly what Bill said, Bill must be the knight, and John is the knave.
Solution to Question 3
There are several ways to find out which way leads to freedom. All can be determined by using Boolean algebra and a truth table. One alternative is asking the following question: "Will the other man tell me that your path leads to freedom?" If the man says "No", then the path does lead to freedom, if he says "Yes", then it does not. The following logic is used to solve the problem. If the question is asked of the knight and the knight's path leads to freedom, he will say "No", truthfully answering that the knave would lie and say "No". If the knight's path does not lead to freedom he will say "Yes", since the knave would say that the path leads to freedom. If the question is asked of the knave and the knave's path leads to freedom he will say "no" since the knight would say "yes" it does lead to freedom. If the Knave's path does not lead to freedom he would say Yes since the Knight would tell you "No" it doesn't lead to freedom. The reasoning behind this is that, whichever guardian the questioner asks, one would not know whether the guardian was telling the truth or not. Therefore one must create a situation where they receive both the truth and a lie applied one to the other. Therefore if they ask the Knight, they will receive the truth about a lie; if they ask the Knave then they will receive a lie about the truth. Note that the above solution requires that each of them know that the other is a knight/knave. An alternate solution is to ask of either man, "What would your answer be if I asked you if your path leads to freedom?' If the man says "Yes", then the path leads to freedom, if he says "No", then it does not. The reason is fairly easy to understand, and is as follows: If you ask the knight if their path leads to freedom, they will answer truthfully, with "yes" if it does, and "no" if it does not. They will also answer this question truthfully, again stating correctly if the path led to freedom or not. If you ask the knave if their path leads to freedom, they will answer falsely about their answer, with "no" if it does, and "yes" if it does not. However, when asked this question, they will lie about what their false answer would be, in a sense, lying about their lie. They would answer correctly, with their first lie canceling out the second. This question forces the knight to say a truth about a truth, and the knave to say a lie about a lie, resulting, in either case, with the truth. Another alternative is to ask: "Which path would the other guardian say leads to death?" If you ask the knight, he will tell the truth about the lie. If you ask the knave, he will tell a lie about the truth. Either way, the overall answer is a lie about which path leads to death, and therefore no matter who you ask, the answer will be the correct path to follow, the path which leads to freedom. Another alternative is to ask: "if, and only if, you agree with me in that you are both different, could you point me to Freedom?" The logic behind this being that the knave will be unable to answer since he cannot agree that both are
Knights and Knaves different because he would be telling the truth. Therefore the knight would point you in the right direction. Another alternative is to ask: "Is either one of the following statements correct? You are a Knight and at the same time this is the path to freedom; or you are a knave and this is not the path to freedom".
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More complex version

A more complex version of the puzzle, mostly using question 3, features one or both of the Characters giving the puzzle by saying something like "One of us will lie, one will not". This puzzle is much harder; the defining statement may itself be a lie.
References
George Boolos, John P. Burgess, Richard C. Jeffrey, Logic, logic, and logic (Harvard University Press, 1999).
External links
An automated Knights and Knaves puzzle generator [1] A note on some philosophical implications of the Knights and Knaves puzzle for the concept of knowability [2] A complete list and analysis of Knight, Knave, and Spy puzzles, where spies are able to lie or tell the truth. [3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. hku. hk/ cgi-bin/ philodep/ knight/ puzzle [2] http:/ / www. nottingham. ac. uk/ journals/ analysis/ preprints/ COOK. pdf [3] http:/ / newheiser. googlepages. com/ knightsandknaves
Logic puzzle
A logic puzzle is a puzzle deriving from the mathematics field of deduction.
History
The logic puzzle was first produced by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson, who is better known under his pen name Lewis Carroll, the author of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. In his book The Game of Logic he introduced a game to solve problems such as confirming the conclusion "Some greyhounds are not fat" from the statements "No fat creatures run well" and "Some greyhounds run well". Puzzles like this, where we are given a list of premises and asked what can be deduced from them, are known as syllogisms. Dodgson goes on to construct much more complex puzzles consisting of up to 8 premises. In the second half of the 20th century mathematician Raymond M. Smullyan has continued and expanded the branch of logic puzzles with books such as The Lady or the Tiger?, To Mock a Mockingbird and Alice in Puzzle-Land. He popularized the "knights and knaves" puzzles, which involve knights, who always tell the truth, and knaves, who always lie. There are also logic puzzles that are completely non-verbal in nature. Some popular forms include Sudoku, which involves using deduction to correctly place numbers in a grid; the nonogram, also called "Paint by Numbers", which involves using deduction to correctly fill in a grid with black-and-white squares to produce a picture; and logic mazes, which involve using deduction to figure out the rules of a maze.
Logic puzzle
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Logic grid puzzles

Another form of logic puzzle, popular among puzzle enthusiasts and available in magazines dedicated to the subject, is a format in which the set-up to a scenario is given, as well as the object (for example, determine who brought what dog to a dog show, and what breed each dog was), certain clues are given ("neither Misty nor Rex is the German Shepherd"), and then the reader fills out a matrix with the clues and attempts to deduce the solution. These are often referred to as "logic grid" puzzles. The most famous example may be the so-called Zebra Puzzle, which asks the question Who Owned the Zebra?. Common in logic puzzle magazines are derivatives of the logic grid puzzle called "table puzzles" that are deduced in the same manner as grid puzzles, but lack the grid either because a grid would be too large, or because some other visual aid is provided. For example, a map of a town might be present in lieu of a grid in a puzzle about the location of different shops.
Example logic puzzle grid, with the information that only Simon is 15 and Jane does not like green filled in.
This type of puzzle is often included on the Law School Admissions Test (LSAT).
External links
Puzzles [1] at the Open Directory Project Hankies, Snarks, and Triangles [2] Ivars Peterson's MathTrek Logic grid numbers and pictures puzzles by Quisoft [http://www.karuji.com Logic grid puzzles from the Karuji Puzzle Company [3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. dmoz. org/ Games/ Puzzles/ [2] http:/ / www. maa. org/ mathland/ mathland_1_13. html [3] http:/ / www. quisoft. com
Missionaries and cannibals problem
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The missionaries and cannibals problem, and the closely related jealous husbands problem, are classic river-crossing problems.[1] The missionaries and cannibals problem is a well-known toy problem in artificial intelligence, where it was used by Saul Amarel as an example of problem representation.[2][3]
The problem
In the missionaries and cannibals problem, three missionaries and three cannibals must cross a river using a boat which can carry at most two people, under the constraint that, for both banks, if there are missionaries present on the bank, they cannot be outnumbered by cannibals (if they were, the cannibals would eat the missionaries.) The boat cannot cross the river by itself with no people on board.[1] In the jealous husbands problem, the missionaries and cannibals become three married couples, with the constraint that no woman can be in the presence of another man unless her husband is also present. Under this constraint, there cannot be both women and men present on a bank with women outnumbering men, since if there were, some woman would be husbandless. Therefore, upon changing men to cannibals and women to missionaries, any solution to the jealous husbands problem will also become a solution to the missionaries and cannibals problem.[1]
Solving
Amarel devised a system for solving the Missionaries and Cannibals problem whereby the current state is represented by a simple vector <a,b,c>. The vector's elements represent the number of missionaries on the wrong side, the number of cannibals on the wrong side, and the number of boats on the wrong side, respectively. Since the boat and all of the missionaries and cannibals start on the wrong side, the vector is initialized to <3,3,1>. Actions are represented using vector subtraction/addition to manipulate the state vector. For instance, if a lone cannibal crossed the river, the vector <0,1,1> would be subtracted from the state to yield <3,2,0>. The state would reflect that there are still three missionaries and two cannibals on the wrong side, and that the boat is now on the opposite bank. To fully solve the problem, a simple tree is formed with the initial state as the root. The five possible actions (<1,0,1>, <2,0,1>, <0,1,1>, <0,2,1>, and <1,1,1>) are then subtracted from the initial state, with the result forming children nodes of the root. Any node that has more cannibals than missionaries on either bank is in an invalid state, and is therefore removed from further consideration. The valid children nodes generated would be <3,2,0>, <3,1,0>, and <2,2,0>. For each of these remaining nodes, children nodes are generated by adding each of the possible action vectors. The algorithm continues alternating subtraction and addition for each level of the tree until a node is generated with the vector <0,0,0> as its value. This is the goal state, and the path from the root of the tree to this node represents a sequence of actions that solves the problem.
Solution
The earliest solution known to the jealous husbands problem, using 11 one-way trips, is as follows. The married couples are represented as (male) and a (female), and b, and and c.[4],p.291.
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Trip number Starting bank (start) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 (finish) a a ab ab b b a b b b c c c
Travel
Ending bank
a bc a b c ac b a a a c c b c a a bc bc c c
This is a shortest solution to the problem, but is not the only shortest solution.[4],p.291. If however, only one man can get out of the boat at a time and husbands must be on the shore to count as with his wife as opposed to just being in the boat at the shore: move 5 to 6 is impossible, for as soon as has stepped out b on the shore won't be with her husband, despite him being just in the boat. As mentioned previously, this solution to the jealous husbands problem will become a solution to the missionaries and cannibals problem upon replacing men by missionaries and women by cannibals. In this case we may neglect the individual identities of the missionaries and cannibals. The solution just given is still shortest, and is one of four shortest solutions.[5] If a woman in the boat at the shore (but not on the shore) counts as being by herself (i.e. not in the presence of any men on the shore), then this puzzle can be solved in 9 one-way trips:
Trip number Starting bank Travel (start) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 (finish) c c a b b c c b c c c a a ab b b b bc c c a a a a a a a b b b c Ending bank
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Variations
An obvious generalization is to vary the number of jealous couples (or missionaries and cannibals), the capacity of the boat, or both. If the boat holds 2 people, then 2 couples require 5 trips; with 4 or more couples, the problem has no solution.[6] If the boat can hold 3 people, then up to 5 couples can cross; if the boat can hold 4 people, any number of couples can cross.[4],p.300. If an island is added in the middle of the river, then any number of couples can cross using a two-person boat. If crossings from bank to bank are not allowed, then 8n6 one-way trips are required to ferry n couples across the river;[1],p.76 if they are allowed, then 4n+1 trips are required if n exceeds 4, although a minimal solution requires only 16 trips if n equals 4.[1],p.79. If the jealous couples are replaced by missionaries and cannibals, the number of trips required does not change if crossings from bank to bank are not allowed; if they are however the number of trips decreases to 4n1, assuming that n is at least 3.[1],p.81.
History
The first known appearance of the jealous husbands problem is in the medieval text Propositiones ad Acuendos Juvenes, usually attributed to Alcuin (died 804.) In Alcuin's formulation the couples are brothers and sisters, but the constraint is still the sameno woman can be in the company of another man unless her brother is present.[1],p.74. From the 13th to the 15th century, the problem became known throughout Northern Europe, with the couples now being husbands and wives.[4],pp.291293. The problem was later put in the form of masters and valets; the formulation with missionaries and cannibals did not appear until the end of the 19th century.[1],p.81 Varying the number of couples and the size of the boat was considered at the beginning of the 16th century.[4],p.296. Cadet de Fontenay considered placing an island in the middle of the river in 1879; this variant of the problem, with a two-person boat, was completely solved by Ian Pressman and David Singmaster in 1989.[1]
References
[1] "The Jealous Husbands" and "The Missionaries and Cannibals" (http:/ / links. jstor. org/ sici?sici=0025-5572(198906)2:73:464<73:"JHA"M>2. 0. CO;2-S), Ian Pressman and David Singmaster, The Mathematical Gazette, 73, #464 (June 1989), pp. 7381. [2] On representations of problems of reasoning about actions (http:/ / www. cc. gatech. edu/ ~jimmyd/ summaries/ amarel1968-1. html), Saul Amarel, pp. 131171, Machine Intelligence 3, edited by Donald Michie, Amsterdam, London, New York: Elsevier/North-Holland, 1968. [3] p. 9, Searching in a Maze, in Search of Knowledge: Issues in Early Artificial Intelligence (http:/ / dx. doi. org/ 10. 1007/ 11829263_1), Roberto Cordeschi, pp. 123, Reasoning, Action andj Interaction in AI Theories and Systems: essays dedicated to Luigia Carlucci Aiello, edited by Oliviero Stock and Marco Schaerf, Lecture Notes in Computer Science #4155, Berlin/Heidelberg: Springer, 2006, ISBN 978-3-540-37901-0. [4] Jealous Husbands Crossing the River: A Problem from Alcuin to Tartaglia, Raffaella Franci, pp. 289306, From China to Paris: 2000 Years Transmission of Mathematical Ideas, edited by Yvonne Dold-Samplonius, Joseph W. Dauben, Menso Folkerts, and Benno van Dalen, Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2002, ISBN 3515082239. [5] Cannibals and missionaries (http:/ / portal. acm. org/ citation. cfm?id=144045. 144106), Ruby Lim, pp. 135142, Conference proceedings: APL '92, the International Conference on APL, 610 July 1992, St. Petersburg, Russia, edited by Lynne C. Shaw, et al., New York: Association for Computing Machinery, 1992, ISBN 0-89791-477-5. [6] Tricky Crossings (http:/ / www. sciencenews. org/ view/ generic/ id/ 4512/ title/ Math_Trek__Tricky_Crossings), Ivars Peterson, Science News, 164, #24 (December 13, 2003); accessed on line February 7, 2008, URL update March 12, 2011
Prisoners and hats puzzle
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The prisoners and hats puzzle is an induction puzzle (a kind of logic puzzle) that involves reasoning about the actions of other people, drawing in aspects of Game theory sometimes called the hierarchy of beliefs. There are many variations, but the central theme remains the same. Not to be confused with the similar Hat Puzzle.
The puzzle
According to the story, four prisoners are arrested for a crime, but the jail is full and the jailer has nowhere to put them. He eventually comes up with the solution of giving them a puzzle so if they succeed they can go free but if they fail they are executed. The jailer puts three of the men sitting in a line. The fourth man is put behind a screen (or in a separate room). He gives all four men party hats (as in diagram). The jailer explains that there are two red and two blue hats; that each prisoner is wearing one of the hats; and that each of the prisoners is only to see the hats in front of them but not on themselves or behind. The fourth man behind the screen can't see or be seen by any other prisoner. No communication between the prisoners is allowed. If any prisoner can figure out and say to the jailer what colour hat he has on his head all four prisoners go free. If any prisoner suggests an incorrect answer, all four prisoners are executed. The puzzle is to find how the prisoners can escape, regardless of how the jailer distributes the hats.
The solution
For the sake of explanation let's label the prisoners in line order A B and C. Thus B can see A (and A's hat color) and C can see A and B. The prisoners know that there are only two hats of each colour. So if C observes that A and B have hats of the same colour, C would deduce that his own hat is the opposite colour. However, if A and B have hats of different colours, then C can say nothing. The key is that prisoner B, after allowing an appropriate interval, and knowing what C would do, can deduce that if C says nothing the hats on A and B must be different. Being able to see A's hat he can deduce his own hat colour. (The fourth prisoner is irrelevant to the puzzle: his only purpose is to wear the fourth hat). In common with many puzzles of this type, the solution relies on the assumption that all participants are totally rational and are intelligent enough to make the appropriate deductions. After solving this puzzle, some insight into the nature of communication can be gained by pondering whether the meaningful silence of prisoner C violates the "No communication" rule (given that communication is usually defined as the "transfer of information").
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Variants
Four-Hat Variant
In a variant of this puzzle there are 3 hats of one colour and only 1 hat of another, and the 3 prisoners can see each other i.e. A sees B & C, B sees A & C and C sees A & B. (D again not to be seen and only there to wear the last hat) The solution There are two cases: in the trivial case, one of the three prisoners wears the single off-colour hat, and thus the other two can easily deduce the colour of theirs. In the non-trivial case, the three prisoners wear hats of the same colour, while D wears the off-colour hat. After a while, all four prisoners should be able to deduce that, since none of the others was able to state the colour of his own hat, D must wear the off-colour hat.
Five-Hat Variant
In another variant, only three prisoners and five hats (supposedly two black and three white) are involved. The three prisoners are ordered to stand in a straight line facing the front, with A in front and C at the back. They are told that there will be two black hats and three white hats. One hat is then put on each prisoner's head; each prisoner can only see the hats of the people in front of him and not on his own. The first prisoner that is able to announce the colour of his hat correctly will be released. No communication between the prisoners is allowed. After some time, only A is able to announce (correctly) that his hat is white. Why is that so? The solution Assuming that A wears a black hat: If B wears a black hat as well, C can immediately tell that he is wearing a white hat after looking at the two black hats in front of him. If B does not wear a black hat, C will be unable to tell the colour of his hat (since there is a black and a white). Hence, B can deduce from A's black hat and C's response that he (B) is not wearing a black hat (otherwise the above situation will happen) and is therefore wearing a white hat. This therefore proves that A must not be wearing a black hat.
Three-Hat Variant
In this variant there are 3 prisoners and 3 hats. Each prisoner is assigned a random hat, either red or blue. Each person can see the hats of two others, but not their own. On a cue, they each have to guess their own hat color or pass. They win release if at least one person guessed correctly and none guessed incorrectly (passing is neither correct nor incorrect). This puzzle doesn't have a 100% winning strategy, so the question is: What is the best strategy? Which strategy has the highest probability of winning? If you think of colors of hats as bits, this problem has some important applications in coding theory. The solution and the discussion of this puzzle can be found here [1] (also a solution to the analogous 7-hat puzzle) and other 3 variants are available on this Logic Puzzles [2] page (they are called Masters of Logic I-IV).
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Ten-Hat Variant
In this variant there are 10 prisoners and 10 hats. Each prisoner is assigned a random hat, either red or blue, but the number of each color hat is not known to the prisoners. The prisoners will be lined up single file where each can see the hats in front of him but not behind. Starting with the prisoner in the back of the line and moving forward, they must each, in turn, say only one word which must be "red" or "blue". If the word matches their hat color they are released, if not, they are killed on the spot. A friendly guard warns them of this test one hour beforehand and tells them that they can formulate a plan where by following the stated rules, 9 of the 10 prisoners will definitely survive, and 1 has a 50/50 chance of survival. What is the plan to achieve the goal? Ten-Hat Solution The prisoners can use a binary code where each blue hat = 0 and each red hat = 1. The prisoner in the back of the line adds up all the values and if the sum is even he says "blue" (blue being =0 and therefore even) and if the sum is odd he says "red". This prisoner has a 50/50 chance of having the hat color that he said, but each subsequent prisoner can calculate his own color by adding up the hats in front (and behind after hearing the answers [excluding the prisoner in the back]) and comparing it to the initial answer given by the prisoner in the back of the line. The total number of red hats has to be an even or odd number matching the initial even or odd answer given by the prisoner in back.
Countably Infinite-Hat Variant

In this variant, a countably infinite number of prisoners, each with an unknown and randomly assigned red or blue hat line up single file line. Each prisoner faces away from the beginning of the line, and each prisoner can see all the hats in front of him, and none of the hats behind. Starting from the beginning of the line, each prisoner must correctly identify the color of his hat or he is killed on the spot. As before, the prisoners have a chance to meet beforehand, but unlike before, once in line, no prisoner can hear what the other prisoners say. The question is, is there a way to ensure that only finitely many prisoners are killed? Countably Infinite-Hat Solution If one accepts the axiom of choice, the answer is yes. In fact, even if we allow an uncountable number of different colors for the hats and an uncountable number of prisoners, the axiom of choice provides a solution that guarantees that only finitely many prisoners must die. The solution for the two color case is as follows, and the solution for the uncountably infinite color case is essentially the same: The prisoners standing in line form a sequence of 0's and 1's, where 0 is taken to represent blue, and 1 is taken to represent red. Before they are put into the line, the prisoners define the following equivalence relation over all possible sequences that they might be put into: Two sequences are equivalent if they are identical after a finite number of entries. From this equivalence relation, the prisoners get a collection of equivalence classes. Using the axiom of choice, they select and memorize a representative sequence from each equivalence class. When they are put into their line, each prisoner can see what equivalence class the actual sequence of hats belongs to. They then proceed guessing their hat color as if they were in the representative sequence from the appropriate equivalence class. Since the actual sequence and the representative sequence are in the same equivalence class, their entries are the same after finitely many prisoners. All prisoners after this point are saved. Since the prisoners have no information about the color of their own hat and would make the same guess whichever color it has, each prisoner has a 50% chance of being killed. It may seem paradoxical that an infinite number of prisoners each have an even chance of being killed and yet it is certain that only a finite number are killed. However, there is no contradiction here, since this finite number can be arbitrarily large and no probability can be assigned to any particular number being killed. This is easiest to see for the case of zero prisoners being killed. This happens if and only if the actual sequence is one of the selected representative sequences. If the sequences of 0's and 1's are viewed as binary representations of a real
Prisoners and hats puzzle number between 0 and 1, the representative sequences form a non-measurable set. (This set is similar to a Vitali set, the only difference being that equivalence classes are formed with respect to numbers with finite binary representations rather than all rational numbers.) Hence no probability can be assigned to the event of zero prisoners being killed. The argument is similar for other finite numbers of prisoners being killed, corresponding to a finite number of variations of each representative.
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References
[1] http:/ / www. relisoft. com/ science/ hats. html [2] http:/ / brainden. com/ logic-puzzles. htm
River crossing puzzle

A river crossing puzzle is a type of transport puzzle in which the object is to carry items from one river bank to another. The difficulty of the puzzle may arise from restrictions on which or how many items can be transported at the same time, or from which or how many items may be safely left together.[1] The setting may vary cosmetically, for example, by replacing the river by a bridge.[1] The earliest known river-crossing problems occur in the manuscript Propositiones ad Acuendos Juvenes (English: Problems to sharpen the young), traditionally said to be written by Alcuin. The earliest copies of this manuscript date from the 9th century; it contains three river-crossing problems, including the fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle and the jealous husbands problem.[2] Well-known river-crossing puzzles include: The fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle, in which a farmer must transport a fox, goose and bag of beans from one side of a river to another using a boat which can only hold one item in addition to the farmer, subject to the constraints that the fox cannot be left alone with the goose, and the goose cannot be left alone with the beans. Equivalent puzzles have also been stated involving a fox, chicken, and bag of grain, or a wolf, goat, and cabbage, etc. The jealous husbands problem, in which three married couples must cross a river using a boat which can hold at most two people, subject to the constraint that no woman can be in the presence of another man unless her husband is also present. This is similar to the missionaries and cannibals problem, in which three missionaries and three cannibals must cross the river, with the constraint that at any time when both missionaries and cannibals are standing on either bank, the cannibals on that bank may not outnumber the missionaries. The bridge and torch problem. Propositio de viro et muliere ponderantibus plaustrum. In this problem, also occurring in Propositiones ad Acuendos Juvenes, a man and a woman of equal weight, together with two children, each of half their weight, wish to cross a river using a boat which can only carry the weight of one adult.[3] These problems may be analyzed using graph-theoretic methods,[4][5] by dynamic programming,[6] or by integer programming.[3]
River crossing puzzle
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References
[1] Peterson, Ivars (2003), "Tricky crossings" (http:/ / www. sciencenews. org/ articles/ 20031213/ mathtrek. asp), Science News 164 (24), , retrieved 2008-02-07. [2] p. 74, Pressman, Ian; Singmaster, David (1989), ""The Jealous Husbands" and "The Missionaries and Cannibals"", The Mathematical Gazette (The Mathematical Association) 73 (464): 7381, doi:10.2307/3619658, JSTOR3619658. [3] Borndrfer, Ralf; Grtschel, Martin; Lbel, Andreas (1995), Alcuin's Transportation Problems and Integer Programming (http:/ / www. zib. de/ Publications/ Reports/ SC-95-27. ps. Z), Preprint SC-95-27, Konrad-Zuse-Zentrum fr Informationstechnik Berlin, . [4] Schwartz, Benjamin L. (1961), "An analytic method for the "difficult crossing" puzzles", Mathematics Magazine 34 (4): 187193, doi:10.2307/2687980, JSTOR2687980. [5] Csorba, Pter; Hurkens, Cor A. J.; Woeginger, Gerhard J. (2008), "The Alcuin number of a graph", Algorithms: ESA 2008, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 5193, Springer-Verlag, pp.320331, doi:10.1007/978-3-540-87744-8_27. [6] Bellman, Richard (1962), "Dynamic programming and "difficult crossing" puzzles", Mathematics Magazine (Mathematical Association of America) 35 (1): 2729, doi:10.2307/2689096, JSTOR2689096.
The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever

The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever is a title coined by American philosopher and logician George Boolos in an article published in The Harvard Review of Philosophy in 1996 (an Italian translation was published earlier in the newspaper La Repubblica, under the title L'indovinello pi difficile del mondo) for the following Raymond Smullyan inspired logic puzzle: Three gods A, B, and C are called, in no particular order, True, False, and Random. True always speaks truly, False always speaks falsely, but whether Random speaks truly or falsely is a completely random matter. Your task is to determine the identities of A, B, and C by asking three yes-no questions; each question must be put to exactly one god. The gods understand English, but will answer all questions in their own language, in which the words for yes and no are da and ja, in some order. You do not know which word means which. Boolos provides the following clarifications:[1] It could be that some god gets asked more than one question (and hence that some god is not asked any question at all). What the second question is, and to which god it is put, may depend on the answer to the first question. (And of course similarly for the third question.) Whether Random speaks truly or not should be thought of as depending on the flip of a coin hidden in his brain: if the coin comes down heads, he speaks truly; if tails, falsely.[2] It is important to note the additional clarification: the solution does not involve asking any questions which do not have a yes/no answer. There is an alternate version of the puzzle involving this, see Unanswerable questions and exploding god-heads.
History
Boolos credits the logician Raymond Smullyan as the originator of the puzzle and John McCarthy with adding the difficulty of not knowing what da and ja mean. Related puzzles can be found throughout Smullyan's writings, e.g. in What is the Name of This Book?, pp.149156, he describes a Haitian island where half the inhabitants are zombies (who always lie) and half are humans (who always tell the truth) and explains that "the situation is enormously complicated by the fact that although all the natives understand English perfectly, an ancient taboo of the island forbids them ever to use non-native words in their speech. Hence whenever you ask them a yes-no question, they reply Bal or Daone of which means yes and the other no. The trouble is that we do not know which of Bal or Da means yes and which means no". There are other related puzzles in The Riddle of Sheherazade.[3] More generally this puzzle is based on Smullyan's famous Knights and Knaves puzzles (e.g. on a fictional island, all inhabitants are either knights, who always tell the truth, or knaves, who always lie. The puzzles involve a visitor to
The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever the island who must ask a number of yes/no questions in order to discover what he needs to know). A version of these puzzles was popularized by a scene in the 1986 fantasy film, Labyrinth. There are two doors with two guards. One guard lies and one guard does not. One door leads to the castle and the other leads to "certain death." The puzzle is to find out which door leads to the castle by asking one of the guards one question. In the movie the protagonist, named Sarah, does this by asking, "Would he [the other guard] tell me that this door leads to the castle?"
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The solution
Boolos provided his solution in the same article in which he introduced the puzzle. Boolos states that the "first move is to find a god that you can be certain is not Random, and hence is either True or False".[1] There are many different questions that will achieve this result. One strategy is to use complicated logical connectives in your questions (either biconditionals or some equivalent construction). Boolos' question was to ask A: Does da mean yes iff you are True iff B is Random?[1] Equivalently: Are an odd number of the following statements true: you are False, da means yes, B is Random? It was observed by Roberts (2001) -- and independently by Rabern and Rabern (2008) -- that the puzzle's solution can be simplified by using certain counterfactuals.[3][4] The key to this solution is that, for any yes/no question Q, asking either True or False the question If I asked you Q, would you say ja? results in the answer ja if the truthful answer to Q is yes, and the answer da if the truthful answer to Q is no (Rabern and Rabern (2008) call this result the embedded question lemma). The reason it works can be seen by looking at the eight possible cases. Assume that ja means yes and da means no. 1. True is asked and responds with ja. Since he is telling the truth, the truthful answer to Q is ja, which means yes. 2. True is asked and responds with da. Since he is telling the truth, the truthful answer to Q is da, which means no. 3. False is asked and responds with ja. Since he is lying it follows that if you asked him Q he would instead answer da. He would be lying, so the truthful answer to Q is ja, which means yes. 4. False is asked and responds with da. Since he is lying it follows that if you asked him Q he would in fact answer ja. He would be lying, so the truthful answer to Q is da, which means no. Assume ja means no and da means yes. 1. True is asked and responds with ja. Since he is telling the truth, the truthful answer to Q is da, which means yes. 2. True is asked and responds with da. Since he is telling the truth, the truthful answer to Q is ja, which means no. 3. False is asked and responds with ja. Since he is lying it follows that if you asked him Q he would in fact answer ja. He would be lying, so the truthful answer to Q is da, which means yes. 4. False is asked and responds with da. Since he is lying it follows that if you asked him Q he would instead answer da. He would be lying, so the truthful answer to Q is ja, which means no. The solution below constructs its three questions using the lemma described above.[3] Q1: Ask god B, "If I asked you 'Is A Random?', would you say ja?". If B answers ja, then either B is Random (and is answering randomly), or B is not Random and the answer indicates that A is indeed Random. Either way, C is not Random. If B answers da, then either B is Random (and is answering randomly), or B is not Random and the answer indicates that A is not Random. Either way, A is not Random. Q2: Go to the god who was identified as not being Random by the previous question (either A or C), and ask him: "If I asked you 'Are you True?', would you say ja?". Since he is not Random, an answer of ja indicates that he is True and an answer of da indicates that he is False.
The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever Q3: Ask the same god the question: "If I asked you 'Is B Random?', would you say ja?". If the answer is ja then B is Random; if the answer is da then the god you have not yet spoken to is Random. The remaining god can be identified by elimination.
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Random's behavior
Most readers of the puzzle assume that Random will provide completely random answers to any question asked of him; however, Rabern and Rabern (2008) have pointed out that the puzzle does not actually state this.[3] And in fact, Boolos' third clarifying remark explicitly refutes this assumption. Whether Random speaks truly or not should be thought of as depending on the flip of a coin hidden in his brain: if the coin comes down heads, he speaks truly; if tails, falsely. This says that Random randomly acts as a false-teller or a truth-teller, not that Random answers randomly. A small change to the question above yields a question which will always elicit a meaningful answer from Random. The change is as follows: If I asked you Q in your current mental state, would you say ja?[3] This effectively extracts the truth-teller and liar personalities from Random and forces him to be only one of them. By doing so the puzzle becomes completely trivial, that is, truthful answers can be easily obtained. 1. Ask god A, "If I asked you 'Are you Random?' in your current mental state, would you say ja?" 1. If A answers ja, then A is Random: Ask god B, "If I asked you 'Are you True?', would you say ja?" If B answers ja, then B is True and C is False. If B answers da, then B is False and C is True. In both cases, the puzzle is solved. 2. If A answers da, then A is not Random: Ask god A, "If I asked you 'Are you True?', would you say ja?" If A answers ja, then A is True. If A answers da, then A is False. 2. Ask god A, "If I asked you 'Is B Random?', would you say ja?" If A answers ja, then B is Random, and C is the opposite of A. If A answers da, then C is Random, and B is the opposite of A. Rabern and Rabern (2008) suggest making an amendment to Boolos' original puzzle so that Random is actually random. The modification is to replace Boolos' third clarifying remark with the following:[3] Whether Random says ja or da should be thought of as depending on the flip of a coin hidden in his brain: if the coin comes down heads, he says ja; if tails, he says da. With this modification, the puzzle's solution demands the more careful god-interrogation given at the end of the The Solution section.
Unanswerable questions and exploding god-heads

In A simple solution to the hardest logic puzzle ever,[3] B. Rabern and L. Rabern develop the puzzle further by pointing out that it is not the case that ja and da are the only possible answers a god can give. It is also possible for a god to be unable to answer at all. For example, if the question "Are you going to answer this question with the word that means no in your language?" is put to True, he cannot answer truthfully. (The paper represents this as his head exploding, "...they are infallible gods! They have but one recourse their heads explode.") Allowing the "exploding head" case gives yet another solution of the puzzle and introduces the possibility of solving the puzzle (modified and original) in just two questions rather than three. In support of a two-question solution to the puzzle, the authors solve a similar simpler puzzle using just two questions. Three gods A, B, and C are called, in some order, Zephyr, Eurus, and Aeolus. The gods always speak truly. Your task is to determine the identities of A, B, and C by asking yes-no questions; each question must be put
The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever to exactly one god. The gods understand English and will answer in English. Note that this puzzle is trivially solved with three questions. Furthermore, to solve the puzzle in two questions, the following lemma is proved. Tempered Liar Lemma. If we ask A "Is it the case that {[(you are going to answer 'no' to this question) AND (B is Zephyr)] OR (B is Eurus) }?", a response of 'yes' indicates that B is Eurus, a response of 'no' indicates that B is Aeolus, and an exploding head indicates that B is Zephyr. Hence we can determine the identity of B in one question. Using this lemma it is simple to solve the puzzle in two questions. Rabern and Rabern (2008) use a similar trick (tempering the liar's paradox) to solve the original puzzle in just two questions. In "How to solve the hardest logic puzzle ever in two questions" G. Uzquiano uses these techniques to provide a two question solution to the amended puzzle.[5][6] Two question solutions to both the original and amended puzzle take advantage of the fact that some gods have an inability to answer certain questions. Neither True nor False can provide an answer to the following question. Would you answer the same as Random would to the question 'Is Dushanbe in Kirghizia?'? Since the amended Random answers in a truly random manner, neither True nor False can predict whether Random would answer ja or da to the question of whether Dushanbe is in Kirghizia. Given this ignorance they will be unable to tell the truth or lie -- they will therefore remain silent. Random, however, who spouts random nonsense, will have no problem spouting off either ja or da. Uzquiano (2010) exploits this asymmetry to provide a two question solution to the modified puzzle. Yet, one might assume that the gods have an "oracular ability to predict Random's answers even before the coin flip in Randoms brain?"[5] In this case, a two question solution is still available by using selfreferential questions of the style employed in Rabern and Rabern (2008). Would you answer ja to the question of whether you would answer da to this question? Here again neither True nor False are able to answer this question given their commitments of truth-telling and lying, respectively. They are forced to answer ja just in case the answer they are committed to give is da and this they cannot do. Just as before they will suffer a head explosion. In contrast, Random will mindlessly spout his nonsense and randomly answer ja or da. Uzquiano (2010) also uses this asymmetry to provide a two question solution to the modified puzzle.[5][6]
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Notes
[1] George Boolos, The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever (Harvard Review of Philosophy, 6:62-65, 1996). [2] Note that the Random god in Boolos puzzle is a god who acts randomly as either a truth-teller or a liar. This is different from a god who answers yes or no randomly. One usual trick in solving many logic puzzles is to design a (perhaps composite) question that forces both a truth-teller and a liar to answer yes. For such a question, a person who randomly chooses to be a truth-teller or a liar is still forced to answer yes, but a person who answers randomly may answer yes or no. [3] Brian Rabern and Landon Rabern, A simple solution to the hardest logic puzzle ever, (Analysis 68 (298), 105112, April 2008). [4] T.S. Roberts, Some thoughts about the hardest logic puzzle ever (Journal of Philosophical Logic 30:609612(4), December 2001). [5] Gabriel Uzquiano. How to solve the hardest logic puzzle ever in two questions, (Analysis 70(1), 39-44, January 2010). [6] Brian Rabern and Landon Rabern. "In defense of the two question solution to the hardest logic puzzle ever", (unpublished).
The Hardest Logic Puzzle Ever
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References
George Boolos, The hardest logic puzzle ever (The Harvard Review of Philosophy, 6:6265, 1996). Brian Rabern and Landon Rabern, A simple solution to the hardest logic puzzle ever (Analysis 68(2), 105112, April 2008). T.S. Roberts, Some thoughts about the hardest logic puzzle ever (Journal of Philosophical Logic 30:609612(4), December 2001). Raymond Smullyan, What is the Name of This Book? (Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1978). Raymond Smullyan, The Riddle of Sheherazade (A. A. Knopf, Inc., New York, 1997). Gabriel Uzquiano, How to solve the hardest logic puzzle ever in two questions, (Analysis 70(1), 39-44, January 2010).
External links
George Boolos. The hardest logic puzzle ever. The Harvard Review of Philosophy, 6:6265, 1996. (http://www. hcs.harvard.edu/~hrp/issues/1996/Boolos.pdf) T.S. Roberts. Some thoughts about the hardest logic puzzle ever. Journal of Philosophical Logic, 30:609612(4), December 2001. (http://www.springerlink.com/content/v43v5431h2324888/) Brian Rabern and Landon Rabern. A simple solution to the hardest logic puzzle ever. Analysis 68 (298), 105112, April 2008. (http://www.blackwell-synergy.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1467-8284.2007.00723.x) Tom Ellis. Even harder than the hardest logic puzzle ever. (http://www.srcf.ucam.org/~te233/maths/puzzles/ evenharder.html) Brian Rabern and Landon Rabern. In defense of the two question solution to the hardest logic puzzle ever. (http:// philrsss.anu.edu.au/~brian/defense_HLPE.pdf) Gabriel Uzquiano. How to solve the hardest logic puzzle ever in two questions. (http://users.ox.ac.uk/ ~sfop0198/Three Gods.pdf) Walter Carnielli. Contrafactuais, contradio e o enigma lgico mais difcil do mundo. Revista Omnia Lumina. (http://www.revistaomnialumina.org.br/index.php/omnia/article/view/3/pdf_4)
Three way duel
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Three way duel

A truel is a neologism for a duel between three opponents, in which players can fire at one another in an attempt to eliminate them while surviving themselves.[1]
Game theory overview

A variety of forms of truels have been studied in game theory. Features that determine the nature of a truel include[1] the probability of each player hitting their chosen targets (often not assumed to be the same for each player) whether the players shoot simultaneously or sequentially, and, if sequentially, whether the shooting order is predetermined, or determined at random from among the survivors; the number of bullets each player has (in particular, whether this is finite or infinite); whether or not intentionally missing is allowed. There is usually a general assumption that each player in the truel wants to survive, and will behave logically in a manner that maximizes individual probabilities of survival.[1] In the widely studied form, the three have different probabilities of hitting their target.[1] If a single bullet is used, the probabilities of hitting the target are equal and deliberate missing is allowed, the best strategy for the first shooter is to deliberately miss. Since he is now disarmed, the next shooter will have no reason to shoot the first one and so will shoot at the third shooter. While the second shooter might miss deliberately, there would then be the risk that the third one would shoot him. If the first shooter does not deliberately miss, he will presumably be shot by whichever shooter remained. If an unlimited number of bullets are used, then deliberate missing may be the best strategy for a duelist with lower accuracy than both opponents. If both have better than 50% success rate, he should continue to miss until one of his opponents kills the other. Then he will get the first shot at the remaining opponent. But if the "middle" opponent is weak, it can be better to team up with him until the strongest is eliminated. The details depend on the firing order. For example, if the order is P, Q, R, with respective probabilities
and it is R's turn, R should waste his shot if:
but not do so if:
In between, R should waste his shot if:
Three way duel
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History
The earliest known mention of three-person "duels" appears to have been in A. P. Herbert's play "Fat King Melon" (1927). An extensive bibliography has been compiled by D. Marc Kilgour [2]. The word "truel" was introduced in Martin Shubik's 1964 book "Game Theory and Related Approaches to Social Behavior", page 43, and independently in Richard Epstein's 1967 book "Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic", page 343.
Truels in popular culture

In one of the most famous spaghetti westerns, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, the final showdown is played out to be a climactic truel between the three main characters: Blondie ("The Good"), Angel Eyes ("The Bad"), and Tuco ("The Ugly"). The standoff remains a signature piece for director Sergio Leone and one of the best-known scenes in film history. The climactic ending to the 1992 film Reservoir Dogs has a truel between the characters Mr. White, Nice Guy Eddie, and Joe Cabot in which only one survives. The truel is also parodied at the climax of the film Dead Again. A truel with swords is fought between Jack Sparrow, Will Turner, and James Norrington in the 2006 film Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest; all three characters survive. The short film Truel [3] explores the idea of a three-way duel.
References
[1] Kilgour, D. Marc; Brams, Stephen J. (December 1997), "The Truel", Mathematics Magazine 70 (5): 315326, doi:10.2307/2691167, JSTOR2691167 [2] "The truel list", http:/ / info. wlu. ca/ ~wwwmath/ faculty/ kilgour/ truel. htm Retrieved February 12, 2010 [3] http:/ / www. imdb. com/ title/ tt0211074/
Wason selection task
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Devised in 1966 by Peter Cathcart Wason,[1][2] the Wason selection task, one of the most famous tasks in the psychology of reasoning,[3] is a logic puzzle which most people get wrong. An example of the puzzle is: You are shown a set of four cards placed on a table, each of Which card(s) must be turned over to test the idea that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red? which has a number on one side and a colored patch on the other side. The visible faces of the cards show 3, 8, red and brown. Which card(s) must you turn over in order to test the truth of the proposition that if a card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red? A response that identifies a card that need not be inverted, or that fails to identify a card that needs to be inverted, is incorrect. Note that the original task dealt with numbers (even, odd) and letters (vowels, consonants). Evolutionary psychologists have gathered experimental evidence that people find the Wason task much easier if it is placed in the context of a social rule that the experimental subject is asked to police, suggesting that humans solve the social-rule problem with a specialized mental module that evolved to catch cheaters in a social environment.[4] The reader must be aware that the importance of the experiment is not in justifying one answer of the ambiguous problem, but in demonstrating the inconsistency of applying the logical rules by the people when the problem is set in two different contexts but with very similar connection between the facts.
Solution
The correct response was to turn the cards showing 8 and brown, but no other card. Remember how the proposition was stated: "If the card shows an even number on one face, then its opposite face is red." Only a card which has an even number on one face and which is not red on the other face can invalidate this rule. If we turn over the card labeled "3" and find that it is red, this does not invalidate the rule. Likewise, if we turn over the red card and find that it has the label "3", this also does not break the rule. On the other hand, if the brown card has the label "4", this invalidates the rule: it has an even number, but is not red. The interpretation of "if" here is that of the material conditional in classical logic.
Explanations of performance on the task

In Wason's study, not even 10% of subjects found the correct solution.[5] This result was replicated in 1993.[6] Some authors have argued that participants do not read "if... then..." as the material conditional, since the natural language conditional is not the material conditional.[7][8] (See also the paradoxes of the material conditional for more information.) However one interesting feature of the task is how participants react when the classical logic solution is explained: A psychologist, not very well disposed toward logic, once confessed to me that despite all problems in short-term inferences like the Wason Card Task, there was also the undeniable fact that he had never met an experimental subject who did not understand the logical solution when it was explained to him, and then agreed that it was correct.[9] This latter comment is also controversial, since it does not explain whether the subjects regarded their previous solution incorrect, or whether they regarded the problem sufficiently vague to have two interpretations.
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Policing social rules

As of 1983, experimenters had identified that success on the Wason selection task was highly content-dependent, but there was no theoretical explanation for which content elicited mostly correct responses and which ones elicited mostly incorrect responses.[4] Leda Cosmides and John Tooby identified that the selection task tends to produce the "correct" response when presented in a context of social relations.[4] For example, if the rule used is "If you are drinking alcohol then you must be over 18", and the cards have an age on one side and beverage on the other, e.g., "16", "drinking beer", "25", "drinking coke", most people have no difficulty in selecting the correct cards ("16" and "beer").[4] In a series of experiments in a large number of contexts, subjects demonstrated consistent superior performance when asked to police a social rule involving a benefit that was only legitimately available to someone who had qualified for that benefit.[4] Experimenters have ruled out alternative explanations, such as that people learn the rules of social exchange through practice and find it easier to apply these familiar rules than less-familiar rules.[4] This experimental evidence supports the hypothesis that a Wason task proves to be easier if the rule to be tested is one of social exchange (in order to receive benefit X you need to fulfill condition Y) and the subject is asked to police the rule, but is more difficult otherwise. Such a distinction, if empirically borne out, would support the contention of evolutionary psychologists that certain features of human psychology may be mechanisms that have evolved, through natural selection, to solve specific problems of social interaction, rather than expressions of general intelligence.[4] In this case, the module is described as a specialized cheater-detection module.[4] Alternatively, it could just mean that there are some linguistic contexts in which people tend to interpret "if" as a material conditional, and other linguistic contexts in which its most common vernacular meaning is different.
References
[1] Wason, P. C. (1966). "Reasoning". In Foss, B. M.. New horizons in psychology. Harmondsworth: Penguin. [2] Wason, P. C.; Shapiro, Diana (1971). "Natural and contrived experience in a reasoning problem". Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 23: 6371. doi:10.1080/00335557143000068. [3] "The Wason selection task has often been claimed to be the single most investigated experimental paradigm in the psychology of reasoning". Ken Manktelow (1999). Reasoning and Thinking, Hove: Psychology Press, p. 8 [4] Cosmides, L.; Tooby, J. (1992). Barkow et al.. ed. Cognitive Adaptions for Social Exchange. New York: Oxford University Press. (http:/ / www. psych. ucsb. edu/ research/ cep/ papers/ Cogadapt. pdf) [5] P.C. Wason (1977). "Self-contradictions." In: P.N. Johnson-Laird & P.C. Wason (eds.) "Thinking: Readings in cognitive science." Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. [6] J.St.B.T. Evans et al. (1993). "Human reasoning: The psychology of deduction." Hove: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. [7] Oaksford, M., & Chater, N. (1994). A rational analysis of the selection task as optimal data selection. Psychological Review, 101, 608631. [8] Stenning, K. and van Lambalgen, M. (2004). A little logic goes a long way: basing experiment on semantic theory in the cognitive science of conditional reasoning. Cognitive Science, 28(4):481530. [9] Johan van Benthem (2008). Logic and reasoning: do the facts matter? Studia Logica, 88(1), 6784
Further reading
Barkow, Jerome H.; Leda Cosmides, John Tooby (1995). The adapted mind: evolutionary psychology and the generation of culture. Oxford University Press US. pp.181184. ISBN978-0-19-510107-2.
External links
Here is the general structure of a Wason selection task (http://www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/socex/ wason.htm) from the Center for Evolutionary Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara (http:/ /www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/) CogLab: Wason Selection (http://coglab.wadsworth.com/experiments/WasonSelection.shtml) from Wadsworth CogLab 2.0 Cognitive Psychology Online Laboratory (http://coglab.wadsworth.com/)
Wason selection task Elementary My Dear Wason (http://www.philosophyexperiments.com/wason/Default.aspx) interactive version of Wason Selection Task at PhilosophyExperiments.Com
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Wine/water mixing problem

In the wine/water mixing problem, one starts with two barrels, one holding wine and the other an equal volume of water. A cup of wine is taken from the wine barrel and added to the water. A cup of the wine/water mixture is then returned to the wine barrel, so that the volumes in the barrels are again equal. The question is then posedwhich of the two mixtures is purer?[1] The problem can be solved without resorting to computation. It is not necessary to state the volumes of wine and water, as long as they are equal. The volume of the cup is irrelevant, as is any stirring of the mixtures. Also, any number of transfers can be made, as long as the volume of liquid in each barrel is the same at the end.[2]
Solution
The mixtures should be visualised as separated into their water and wine components. Conservation of substance then implies that the volume of wine in the barrel holding mostly water has to be equal to the volume of water in the barrel holding mostly wine.[2] To help in grasping this, the wine and water may be represented by, say, 100 red and 100 white marbles, respectively. If 20, say, red marbles are mixed in with the white marbles, and 20 marbles of any color are returned to the red container, then there will again be 100 marbles in each container. If there are now x white marbles in the red container, then there must be x red marbles in the white container. The mixtures will therefore be of equal purity. An example is shown below.
Time Step Red Marble Container 0 1 2 3 4 100 (84 red, 16 white) 80 (all red) 20 (16 white, 4 red) 100 (84 white, 16 red) 100 (all red) 20 (all red) 120 (100 white, 20 red) Action White Marble Container 100 (all white)
History
This puzzle was mentioned by W. W. Rouse Ball in the third, 1896, edition of his book Mathematical Recreations And Problems Of Past And Present Times, and is said to have been a favorite problem of Lewis Carroll.[3][4]
References
[1] Gamow, George; Stern, Marvin (1958), Puzzle math, New York: Viking Press, pp.103104 [2] Chapter 10, Hexaflexagons And Other Mathematical Diversions: the first Scientific American book of puzzles & games, Martin Gardner, Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press, 1988. ISBN 0-226-28254-6. [3] p. 662, Mathematical Recreations And Problems Of Past And Present Times, David Singmaster, pp. 653663 in Landmark Writings in Western Mathematics 1640-1940, edited by Ivor Grattan-Guinness, Roger Cooke, et al., Elsevier: 2005, ISBN 0444508716. [4] Mathematical recreations and problems of past and present times, W. W. Rouse Ball, London and New York: Macmillan, 1896, 3rd ed.
Zebra Puzzle
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Zebra Puzzle
The zebra puzzle is a well-known logic puzzle. It is often called Einstein's Puzzle or Einstein's Riddle because it is said to have been invented by Albert Einstein as a boy; it is sometimes claimed that only 2% of the population can solve it. [1] The puzzle is also sometimes attributed to Lewis Carroll.[2] However, there is no known evidence for Einstein's or Carroll's authorship; and the original puzzle cited below mentions brands of cigarette, such as Kools, that did not exist during Carroll's lifetime or Einstein's boyhood. There are several versions of this puzzle. The version below is quoted from the first known publication in Life International magazine on December 17, 1962. The March 25, 1963 issue contained the solution given below and the names of several hundred solvers from around the world.
Text of the original puzzle

1. 2. 3. 4. There are five houses. The Englishman lives in the red house. The Spaniard owns the dog. Coffee is drunk in the green house.
5. The Ukrainian drinks tea. 6. The green house is immediately to the right of the ivory house. 7. The Old Gold smoker owns snails. 8. Kools are smoked in the yellow house. 9. Milk is drunk in the middle house. 10. The Norwegian lives in the first house. 11. The man who smokes Chesterfields lives in the house next to the man with the fox. 12. Kools are smoked in the house next to the house where the horse is kept. [should be "... a house ...", see discussion below] 13. The Lucky Strike smoker drinks orange juice. 14. The Japanese smokes Parliaments. 15. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house. Now, who drinks water? Who owns the zebra? In the interest of clarity, it must be added that each of the five houses is painted a different color, and their inhabitants are of different national extractions, own different pets, drink different beverages and smoke different brands of American cigarets [sic]. One other thing: in statement 6, right means your right. Life International, December 17, 1962 The premises leave out some details, notably that the houses are in a row. Since neither water nor a zebra is mentioned in the clues, there exists a reductive solution to the puzzle, namely that no one owns a zebra or drinks water. If, however, the questions are read as "Given that one resident drinks water, which is it?" and "Given that one resident owns a zebra, which is it?" then the puzzle becomes a non-trivial challenge to inferential logic. (A frequent variant of the puzzle asks "Who owns the fish?") It is possible not only to deduce the answers to the two questions but to figure out who lives where, in what color house, keeping what pet, drinking what drink, and smoking what brand of cigarettes. Rule 12 leads to a contradiction. It should have read "Kools are smoked in a house next to the house where the horse is kept", as opposed the the house, since the implies that there is only one house next to the house with the horse, which implies that the house with the horse is either the leftmost or the rightmost house. The text above has been kept as it is, as it is meant to be a presentation of the text of the puzzle as originally published.
Zebra Puzzle
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Solution
House Color 1 Yellow Blue 2 Red 3 Ivory 4 5 Green Japanese
Nationality Norwegian Ukrainian Drink Smoke Pet Water Kools Fox Tea
Englishman Spaniard Milk
Orange juice Coffee Lucky Strike Parliament Dog Zebra
Chesterfield Old Gold Horse Snails
Here are some deductive steps that can be followed to derive the solution. A useful method is to try to fit known relationships into a table and eliminate possibilities. Key deductions are in italics.
Step 1
We are told the Norwegian lives in the 1st house (10). It does matter whether this is counted from the left or from the right. We need to know the direction, not the order. From (10) and (15), the 2nd house is blue. What color is the 1st house? Not green or ivory, because they have to be next to each other (6 and the 2nd house is blue). Not red, because the Englishman lives there (2). Therefore the 1st house is yellow. It follows that Kools are smoked in the 1st house (8) and the Horse is kept in the 2nd house (12). So what is drunk by the Norwegian in the 1st, yellow, Kools-filled house? Not tea since the Ukrainian drinks that (5). Not coffee since that is drunk in the green house (4). Not milk since that is drunk in the 3rd house (9). Not orange juice since the drinker of orange juice smokes Lucky Strikes (13). Therefore it is water (the missing beverage) that is drunk by the Norwegian.
Step 2
So what is smoked in the 2nd, blue house where we know a Horse is also kept? Not Kools which are smoked in the 1st house (8). Not Old Gold since that house must have snails (7). Let's suppose Lucky Strikes are smoked here, which means orange juice is drunk here (13). Then consider: Who lives here? Not the Norwegian since he lives in the 1st House (10). Not the Englishman since he lives in a red house (2). Not the Spaniard since he owns a dog (3). Not the Ukrainian since he drinks tea (4). Not the Japanese who smokes Parliaments (14). Since this is an impossible situation, Lucky Strikes are not smoked in the 2nd house. Let's suppose Parliaments are smoked here, which means the Japanese man lives here (14). Then consider: What is drunk here? Not tea since the Ukrainian drinks that (5). Not coffee since that is drunk in the green house (4). Not milk since that is drunk in the 3rd house (9). Not orange juice since the drinker of that smokes Lucky Strike (13). Again, since this is an impossible situation, Parliaments are not smoked in the 2nd house. Therefore, Chesterfields are smoked in the 2nd house. So who smokes Chesterfields and keeps a Horse in the 2nd, blue house? Not the Norwegian who lives in the 1st House (10). Not the Englishman who lives in a red house (2). Not the Spaniard who owns a dog (3). Not the Japanese who smokes Parliaments (14). Therefore, the Ukrainian lives in the 2nd House, where he drinks tea (5)!
Zebra Puzzle
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Step 3
Since Chesterfields are smoked in the 2nd house, we know from (11) that the fox is kept in either the 1st house or the 3rd house. Let us first assume that the fox is kept in the 3rd house. Then consider: what is drunk by the man who smokes Old Golds and keeps snails (7)? We have already ruled out water and tea from the above steps. It cannot be orange juice since the drinker of that smokes Lucky Strikes (13). It cannot be milk because that is drunk in the 3rd house (9), where we have assumed a fox is kept. This leaves coffee, which we know is drunk in the green house (4). So if the fox is kept in the 3rd house, then someone smokes Old Golds, keeps snails and drinks coffee in a green house. Who can this person be? Not the Norwegian who lives in the 1st house (10). Not the Ukrainian who drinks tea (5). Not the Englishman who lives in a red house (2). Not the Japanese who smokes Parliaments (14). Not the Spaniard who owns a dog (3). This is impossible. So it follows that the fox is not kept in the 3rd house, but in the 1st house.
Step 4
From what we have found so far, we know that coffee and orange juice are drunk in the 4th and 5th houses. It doesn't matter which is drunk in which; we will just call them the coffee house and the orange juice house. So where does the man who smokes Old Gold and keeps snails live? Not the orange juice house since Lucky Strike is smoked there (13). Suppose this man lives in the coffee house. Then we have someone who smokes Old Gold, keeps snails and drinks coffee in a green (4) house. Again, by the same reasoning in step 3, this is impossible. Therefore, the Old Gold-smoking, Snail-keeping man lives in the 3rd house. It follows that Parliaments are smoked in the green, coffee-drinking house, by the Japanese man (14). This means the Spaniard must be the one who drinks orange juice, smokes Lucky Strikes and keeps a dog. By extension, the Englishman must live in the 3rd house, which is red. By process of elimination, the Spaniard's house is the ivory one. By now we have filled in every variable except one, and it is clear that the Japanese is the one who keeps the zebra.
Right-to-left solution
The above solution assumed that the first house is the leftmost house. If we assume that the first house is the rightmost house, we find the following solution. Again the Japanese keeps the zebra, and the Norwegian drinks water.
House Color Ivory 5 4 Green Japanese Red 3 Blue 2 1 Yellow Norwegian Water
Nationality Spaniard Drink Smoke Pet
Englishman Ukrainian Milk Tea
Orange juice Coffee
Lucky Strike Parliament Old Gold Dog Zebra Snails
Chesterfield Kools Horse Fox
Zebra Puzzle
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A different method of solving the puzzle

The above solution uses a trial and error approach in several places whereby assumptions have to be made which will either prove correct or incorrect. An alternate method exists which does not rely on testing assumptions but in which each step can be proved from the information already known. First complete step one above. Most of the items that have not yet been allocated to a house can be paired using the information in the question. A few remain unpaired (Ivory, Zebra, Fox, Horse and Chesterfield). It can be seen that there are three unknowns in house two, the nationality, drink and cigarette. These unknowns must be either one pair and one unpaired item or three unpaired items. Excluding the pairs and unpaired items which contain a color or animal (as these are already known for house two) we are left with: Ukrainian Tea (5) Orange Juice Lucky Strike (13) Japanese Parliament (14) Chesterfield As Chesterfield is the only single, and there must be a single, Chesterfields must be smoked in house two. Then, eliminating the pairs with a cigarette, only Ukrainian Tea is left, so these must be in house two also. We are told that "The man who smokes Chesterfields lives in the house next to the man with the fox" (11), therefore the fox must be at house one. The only thing we know about house three is that milk is drunk there. The four unknown facts must consist of 2 pairs. Nothing is known about houses four or five so they must each contain two pairs and one single item. There are two single items that have not yet been allocated to a house (Ivory and Zebra). Ivory must be to the left of Green (6) so house five cannot be Ivory. Therefore house four is Ivory and house five has a Zebra. As the Green house is to the right of Ivory the Green house must be house five. As coffee is drunk in the Green house we know that Coffee is drunk in house five also. House three is now the only house for which the color hasnt been identified and so it must be Red, and therefore lived in by the English man (2). Then, taking the four unused pairs and eliminating those which contain one of the categories which are already known for house three we can see that house three must have Snails and Old Gold. The same procedure can be followed to complete the information for house five and the two remaining pairs must relate to house four.
Other versions
Other versions of the puzzle have one or more of the following differences to the original puzzle: 1. Some colors, nationalities, cigarette brands, drinks, and pets are substituted for other ones and the clues are given in different order. These do not change the logic of the puzzle. 2. One rule says that the green house is on the left of the white house, instead of on the right of it. This change has the same effect as numbering the houses from right to left instead of left to right (see section right-to-left solution above). It results only in swapping of the two corresponding houses with all their properties, but makes the puzzle a bit easier. It is also important to note that the omission of the word immediately, as in immediately to the left/right of the white house, leads to multiple solutions to the puzzle. 3. The clue "The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water" is redundant and therefore makes the puzzle even easier. Originally, this clue was only in form of the question "Who drinks water?" 4. In other versions, the smokes are replaced by cars.
Zebra Puzzle When given to children, the cigarette brands are often replaced by snacks eaten in each house. 1. The British person lives in the red house. 2. The Swede keeps dogs as pets. 3. The Dane drinks tea. 4. The green house is on the left of the white house. 5. The green homeowner drinks coffee. 6. The man who smokes Pall Mall keeps birds. 7. The owner of the yellow house smokes Dunhill. 8. The man living in the center house drinks milk. 9. The Norwegian lives in the first house. 10. The man who smokes Blend lives next to the one who keeps cats. 11. The man who keeps the horse lives next to the man who smokes Dunhill. 12. The man who smokes Bluemaster drinks beer. 13. The German smokes Prince. 14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house. 15. The man who smokes Blend has a neighbor who drinks water. Question: Who owns the fish? 1. The Englishman lives in the red house. 2. The Spaniard owns the dog. 3. Coffee is drunk in the green house. 4. The Ukrainian drinks tea. 5. The green house is immediately to the right of the ivory house. 6. The Ford driver owns the snail. 7. A Toyota driver lives in the yellow house. 8. Milk is drunk in the middle house. 9. The Norwegian lives in the first house to the left. 10. The man who drives the Chevy lives in the house next to the man with the fox. 11. A Toyota is parked next to the house where the horse is kept. 12. The Dodge owner drinks orange juice. 13. The Japanese owns a Porsche. 14. The Norwegian lives next to the blue house.
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References
[1] Stangroom, Jeremy (2009). Einstein's Riddle: Riddles, Paradoxes, and Conundrums to Stretch Your Mind. Bloomsbury USA. pp.1011. ISBN978-1-59691-665-4. [2] James Little, Cormac Gebruers, Derek Bridge, & Eugene Freuder. "Capturing Constraint Programming Experience: A Case-Based Approach" (http:/ / www. cs. ucc. ie/ ~dgb/ papers/ Little-Et-Al-2002. pdf) (PDF). Cork Constraint Computation Centre, University College, Cork, Ireland. . Retrieved 2009-09-05.
External links
Generator of logic puzzles similar to the Zebra Puzzle (http://www.mensus.net/brain/logic.shtml) Formulation and solution in ALCOIF Description Logic (http://www.iis.nsk.su/persons/ponom/ontologies/) Oz/Mozart Solution (http://www.mozart-oz.org/documentation/fdt/node23.html) Common Lisp and C/C++ solutions (http://www.weitz.de/einstein.html)
English solution (PDF) (http://www.atkielski.com/ESLPublic/Game - Who Owns the Fish Group Version. pdf) - structured as a group activity for teaching English as a foreign language
Zebra Puzzle http://www.sfr-fresh.com/unix/misc/glpk-4.45.tar.gz:a/glpk-4.45/examples/zebra.mod A GNU MathProg model for solving the problem, included with the GNU Linear Programming Kit Solution to Einstein's puzzle using the method of elimination (http://csl.sublevel3.org/einsteins_problem/) Formulation and solution in python using python-constraint (http://pointspaceslash.blogspot.com/2011/02/ this-python-script-solves-riddle-known.html) Solution of Who Owns Fish version on chessandpoker.com (http://www.chessandpoker.com/ einsteins-problem-solution.html) Some samples of logic grid puzzles in the Zebra Puzzle genre (http://www.karuji.com/Samples.html)
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Magic squares
Antimagic square
An antimagic square of order n is an arrangement of the numbers 1 to n2 in a square, such that the n rows, the n columns and the two diagonals form a sequence of 2n+2 consecutive integers. The smallest antimagic squares have order 4.
2 16 9 6
15 3 8 4
5 7 14
13 12 1
1 15 7 14
13 9 2 6
3 4 16 11
12 10 8 5
11 10
In each of these two antimagic squares of order 4, the rows, columns and diagonals sum to ten different numbers in the range 2938. Antimagic squares form a subset of heterosquares which simply have each row, column and diagonal sum different. They contrast with magic squares where each sum is the same. A sparse antimagic square (SAM) is a square matrix of size n by n of nonnegative integers whose nonzero entries are the consecutive integers for some , and whose row-sums and column-sums constitute a set of consecutive integers.[1] If the diagonals are included in the set of consecutive integers, the array is known as a sparse totally anti-magic square (STAM). Note that a STAM is not necessarily a SAM, and vice-versa.
Some open problems

How many antimagic squares of a given order exist? Do antimagic squares exist for all orders greater than 3? Is there a simple proof that no antimagic square of order 3 exists?
References
[1] Gray, I. D.; MacDougall, J.A. (2006). "Sparse anti-magic squares and vertex-magic labelings of bipartite graphs". Discrete Mathematics 306: 28782892. doi:10.1016/j.disc.2006.04.032.
External links
Mathworld (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/AntimagicSquare.html)
Associative magic square
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An associative magic square is a magic square for which every pair of numbers symmetrically opposite to the center sum up to the same value.
5 x 5 associative magic square - classic logic constraint problem

The 5x5 associative magic square is a classic problem in logic constraint. This problem presents 25 variables with 24 equations. The F1 compiler website provides a superb example of the simplicity in code writing that a logic constraint engine brings to such a problem. [1] An alternative method to find all 48,544 of these squares is shown here. [2] The source code in C++ is given as well as an executable program.
a1 a2 a3 a4 a5 b1 b2 b3 b4 b5 c1 c2 c3 c4 c5 d1 d2 d3 d4 d5 e1 e2 e3 e4 e5
24 12 22 3 1 7 9
8 6
10 11 5 25
13 17 23 4 2
21 20 19
15 16 18 14
a1 + e5 = 26 a2 + e4 = 26 a3 + e3 = 26 a4 + e2 = 26 a5 + e1 = 26 b1 + d5 = 26 b2 + d4 = 26 b3 + d3 = 26 b4 + d2 = 26 b5 + d1 = 26 c1 + c5 = 26 c2 + c4 = 26
Row and column constraints

a1 + a2 + a3 + a4 + a5 = 65 b1 + b2 + b3 + b4 + b5 = 65 c1 + c2 + c3 + c4 + c5 = 65 d1 + d2 + d3 + d4 + d5 = 65 e1 + e2 + e3 + e4 + e5 = 65 a1 + b1 + c1 + d1 + e1 = 65 a2 + b2 + c2 + d2 + e2 = 65 a3 + b3 + c3 + d3 + e3 = 65 a4 + b4 + c4 + d4 + e4 = 65 a5 + b5 + c5 + d5 + e6 = 65
Two main diagonal constraints

a1 + b2 + c3 + d4 + e5 = 65 a5 + b4 + c3 + d2 + e1 = 65
Water Retention: The associative magic squares below show zero water retention and the maximum retention of 59 units.[3]
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6 x 6 associative magic square - enumeration problem

Historically, magic square work focused on finding 1) larger magic squares 2) interesting variants and 3) enumeration. A.H. Frost in 1878 and C. Planck in 1919 produced work showing that a 6x6 associative magic square is not possible.[2] The most extensive magic square enumeration work has been furnished by Walter Trump.[4] The now historic quest for examples of large order magic squares led to the discovery of various construction methods (see magic square). Zimmermann's 2010 computing contest asked contestants to find solutions for maximum water retention for magic squares order 4 - 28. This contest effectively demonstrates that what used to be such a intriguing problem with pencil and paper for Ben Franklin (i.e. producing larger and larger magic squares) has been solved.[3] The table below[4] shows enumeration data for magic squares and associative magic squares. Note that the non-zero numbers greater than squares of size 5x5 are just estimates.
square size magic square associative magic square 3x3 4x4 5x5 6x6 7x7 8x8 9x9 10x10 1 880 275,305,224 1.77 x 1019 3.79 x 1034 5.22 x 1054 7.84 x 1079 2.41 x 10110 1 48 48,544 0 1.12 x 1018 2.52 x 1027 7.28 x 1040 0
7 x 7 associative magic square - state of the art ( 2004 - )

The number of 7x7 associative magic squares is estimated to be 1.12 x 1018. There is a subset of 20,190,684 of these squares that also have the property of being pandiagonal. [4] This data represents the present limit as to what has been accomplished in the enumeration of magic squares. Once these large data sets are available it opens up new lines of attack. One such avenue is to explore the "physical properties" of magic squares. [5] Water retention on mathematical surfaces is the physical property that has so far gotten the most traction. The entire set of these 20,190,684 squares was sorted to find the single example that retains the most water at 284 units. As a frame of reference, the known
Associative magic square maximum retention of 418 units for a normal 7x7 magic square and the three different patterns for maximum retention of number squares with 488 units retained are shown below.[3]
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26 28 23 34 29 12 33 32 6 49 8 3
15 40
21 31 27 41 15 16 24 30 37 22 5 6 7 40 38 17 1 36 18 8 39
23 39 40 38 19 12 6 45 28 9 41
37 45 11 48 7 4 30 31
26 46 13 11
46 47 2
42 17 20 21 25 24 44 32 2 5 49
19 46 14 25 36 20 43 39 5 2 47 1
11 42
25 48 3 4
18 14 43 27 8 48 7 1 35
44 18
32 14 49
45 28
13 42 17 38 21
33 12 10 43 44 13 20 26 34 35 9 23 19 29
31 10 15 47
36 29 3
10 35 41 16 27 22 24
16 33 34 30 37 22
34 33 20 49 48 47 7 3 8
35 36 1 4 9 2 5 37 6 38 47
35 34 18 49 48 7 3 8
36 37 1 4 9 2 5 38 6 39 47
35 34 18 49 48 7 3 8
36 37 1 4 9 2 5 38 6 39
10 11 39
10 11 40
10 11 40
46 12 13 14 15 16 28 45 17 18 19 41 44 43 42
46 12 13 14 15 41 45 16 17 42 19 33 44 43 32
46 12 13 14 15 41 33 19 45 16 17 42 32 44 43
8 x 8 associative magic square - the path ahead ( 2012 - )

A good effort has been put forth establishing benchmarks for the maximum retention for magic squares order 4-28. To better these numbers would be a signficant achievement. No work has been done in deciphering the patterns or solutions for maximum retention for the associated magic squares ( the 321 solution for 7x7 retention noted above will certainly be improved upon).
References External links

Associative magic square (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ AssociativeMagicSquare. html), MathWorld
Bimagic cube
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Bimagic cube
In mathematics, a P-multimagic cube is a magic cube that remains magic even if all its numbers are replaced by their k-th power for 1 k P. Thus, a magic cube is bimagic when it is 2-multimagic, and trimagic when it is 3-multimagic, tetramagic when it is 4-multimagic. [1] A P-multimagic cube is said to be semi-perfect if the k-th power cubes are perfect for 1 k < P, and the P-th power cube is semiperfect. If all P of the power cubes are perfect, the multimagic cube is said to be perfect. The first known example of a bimagic cube was given by John Hendricks in 2000; it is a semiperfect cube of order 25 and magic constant 195325. In 2003, C. Bower discovered two semi-perfect bimagic cubes of order 16, and a perfect bimagic cube of order 32.[2] MathWorld reports that only two trimagic cubes are known, discovered by C. Bower in 2003; a semiperfect cube of order 64 and a perfect cube of order 256.[3] It also reports that he discovered the only two known tetramagic cubes, a semiperfect cube of order 1024, and perfect cube of order 8192.[4]
References
[1] Weisstein, Eric W., " Bimagic cube (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ MultimagicCube. html)" from MathWorld. [2] Weisstein, Eric W., " Bimagic Cube (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ BimagicCube. html)" from MathWorld. [3] Weisstein, Eric W., " Trimagic Cube (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ TriMagic. html)" from MathWorld. [4] Weisstein, Eric W., " Tetramagic Cube (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ TetramagicCube. html)" from MathWorld.
Bimagic square
In mathematics, a P-multimagic square (also known as a satanic square) is a magic square that remains magic even if all its numbers are replaced by their kth power for 1 k P. Thus, a magic square is bimagic if it is 2-multimagic, and trimagic if it is 3-multimagic; tetramagic for 4-multimagic; and pentamagic for a 5-multimagic square.
Constants for normal squares

If the squares are normal, the constant for the power-squares can be determined as follows: Bimagic series totals for bimagic squares are also linked to the square-pyramidal number sequence is as follows :Squares 0, 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, 36, 49, .... (sequence A000290 in OEIS) Sum of Squares 0, 1, 5, 14, 30, 55, 91, 140, 204, 285, ... (sequence A000330 in OEIS) )number of units in a square-based pyramid) The bimagic series is the 1st, 4th, 9th in this series (divided by 1, 2, 3, n) etc so values for the rows and columns in order-1, order-2, order-3 Bimagic squares would be 1, 15, 95, 374, 1105, 2701, 5775, 11180, ... (sequence A052459 in OEIS) The trimagic series would be related in the same way to the hyper-pyramidal sequence of nested cubes. Cubes 0, 1, 8, 27, 64, 125, 216, ... (sequence A000578 in OEIS) Sum of Cubes 0, 1, 9, 36, 100, ... (sequence A000537 in OEIS) Value for Trimagic squares 1, 50, 675, 4624, ... (sequence A052460 in OEIS) Similarly the tetramagic sequence 4-Power 0, 1, 16, 81, 256, 625, 1296, ... (sequence A000583 in OEIS) Sum of 4-Power 0, 1, 17, 98, 354, 979, 2275, ... (sequence A000538 in OEIS) Sums for Tetramagic squares 0, 1, 177, ... (sequence A052461 in OEIS)
Bimagic square
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Bimagic square
The first known bimagic square has order 8 and magic constant 260 and a bimagic constant of 11180. It has been conjectured by Bensen and Jacoby that no nontrivial bimagic squares of order less than 8 exist. This was shown for magic squares containing the elements 1 to n2 by Boyer and Trump. However, J. R. Hendricks was able to show in 1998 that no bimagic square of order 3 exists, save for the trivial bimagic square containing the same number nine times. The proof is fairly simple: let the following be our bimagic square.
a b c d e f g h i
It is well known that a property of magic squares is that
. Similarly, . It follows that
. Therefore . The same holds for all
lines going through the center. For 44 squares, Luke Pebody was able to show by similar methods that the only 44 bimagic squares (up to symmetry) are of the form
a b c d c d a b d c b a b a d c
or
a a b b b b a a a a b b b b a a
An 88 bimagic square.
16 41 36 5 27 62 55 18 8
26 63 54 19 13 44 33 1
40 45 12 22 51 58 31 4 37 48 9
23 50 59 30 38 3
10 47 49 24 29 60 2 11 46
52 21 32 57 39 43 14 7
34 64 25 20 53 6 35
61 28 17 56 42 15
Nontrivial bimagic squares are now (2010) known for any order from eight to 64. Li Wen of China created the first known bimagic squares of orders 34, 37, 38, 41, 43, 46, 47, 53, 58, 59, 61, 62 filling the gaps of the last unknown orders.
Bimagic square
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Trimagic square
Trimagic squares of orders 12, 32, 64, 81 and 128 have been discovered so far; the only known trimagic square of order 12, given below, was found in June 2002 by German mathematician Walter Trump.
1 9 75 74 22 119 141 8 33 45 35 106 41 62 66 93 14 43 37 126 89 99 32 16 127 128 79 52 131 83 38 88 104 112 123 144 30 97 96 103 59 10 54 24 29 139 100 110 39 21 3 50 77 143 61 40 26 4 137 44 69 118 28 81 47 111 82 136 70 71 5 23 90 13 72 87 65 94
115 107 48 49 42 86 57 12 60 67
102 133 108 19 56 46 113 129 18 17 85 78 15 134 36 7 53
140 101 124 122 55 76 27 142 95 68 2 84 105 31
135 130 91 11
132 117 73 58 80 51 64 98 34 63
121 109 116 138 6 20 92 25
120 125 114
Higher order
The first 4-magic square, of order 512, was constructed in May 2001 by Andr Viricel and Christian Boyer. The first 5-magic square, of order 1024 arrived about one month later, in June 2001 again by Viricel and Boyer. They also presented a smaller 4-magic square of order 256 in January 2003. Another 5-magic square, of order 729, was constructed in June 2003 by Chinese mathematician Li Wen.
References
Weisstein, Eric W., "Bimagic Square [1]" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., "Trimagic Square [2]" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., "Tetramagic Square [3]" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., "Pentamagic Square [4]" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., "Multimagic Square [5]" from MathWorld.
External links
multimagie.com [6] puzzled.nl [7]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ BimagicSquare. html http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ TrimagicSquare. html http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ TetramagicSquare. html http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ PentamagicSquare. html http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ MultimagicSquare. html http:/ / www. multimagie. com/ indexengl. htm http:/ / www. puzzled. nl/
Frnicle standard form
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Frnicle standard form

A magic square is in Frnicle standard form, named for Bernard Frnicle de Bessy, if the following two conditions apply: 1. the element at position [1,1] (top left corner) is the smallest of the four corner elements; and 2. the element at position [1,2] (top edge, second from left) is smaller than the element in [2,1]. Frnicle's posthumously published book of 1693 described all the 880 essentially different order-4 magic squares. This standard form was devised since a magic square remains "essentially similar" if it is rotated or transposed, or flipped so that the order of rows is reversed there exists 8 different magic squares sharing one standard form. For example, the following magic squares are all essentially similar, with only the final square being in Frnicle standard form: 8 1 6 3 5 7 4 9 2 8 3 4 1 5 9 6 7 2 4 9 2 3 5 7 8 1 6 4 3 8 9 5 1 2 7 6 6 7 2 1 5 9 8 3 4 6 1 8 7 5 3 2 9 4 2 9 4 7 5 3 6 1 8 2 7 6 9 5 1 4 3 8
Generalising the concept of essentially different squares

For each group of magic squares one might identify the corresponding group of automorphisms, the group of transformations preserving the special properties of this group of magic squares. This way one can identify the number of different magic square classes. Example: From the perspective of Galois theory the most-perfect magic squares are not distinguishable. This means that the number of elements in the associated Galois group is 1. Please compare A051235 Number of essentially different most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares of order 4n. [1] with A000012 The simplest sequence of positive numbers: the all 1's sequence. [2]
384
References
[1] http:/ / www. research. att. com/ ~njas/ sequences/ A051235 [2] http:/ / www. research. att. com/ ~njas/ sequences/ A000012
Graeco-Latin square
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Graeco-Latin square
In mathematics, a Graeco-Latin square or Euler square or orthogonal Latin squares of order n over two sets S and T, each consisting of n symbols, is an nn arrangement of cells, each cell containing an ordered pair (s,t), where s is in S and t is in T, such that every row and every column contains each element of S and each element of T exactly once, and that no two cells contain the same ordered pair. The arrangement of the s-coordinates by themselves (which may be thought of as Latin characters) and of the t-coordinates (the Greek characters) each forms a Latin square. A Graeco-Latin square can therefore be decomposed into two "orthogonal" Latin squares. Orthogonality here means that every pair (s,t) from the Cartesian product ST occurs exactly once.
Orthogonal Latin squares of order 3
History
Orthogonal Latin squares have been known to predate Euler. As described by Donald Knuth in Volume 4 of TAOCP, the construction of 4x4 set was published by Jacques Ozanam in 1725 (in Recreation mathematiques et physiques) as a puzzle involving playing cards. The problem was to take all aces, kings, queens and jacks from a standard deck of cards, and arrange them in a 4x4 grid such that each row and each column contained all four suits as well as one of each face value. This problem has several solutions.
Orthogonal Latin squares of order 5
A common variant of this problem was to arrange the 16 cards so that, in addition to the row and column constraints, each diagonal contains all four face values and all four suits as well. As described by Martin Gardner in Gardner's Workout, the number of distinct solutions to this problem was incorrectly estimated by Rouse Ball to be 72, and persisted many years before it was shown to be 144 by Kathleen Ollerenshaw. Each of the 144 solutions has 8 reflections and rotations, giving 1152 solutions in total. The 144x8 solutions can be categorized into the following two classes:
Solution Normal form
Solution #1 A K Q J Q J A K J Q K A K A J Q Solution #2 A K Q J J Q K A K A J Q Q J A K
For each of the two solutions, 24x24 = 576 solutions can be derived by permuting the four suits and the four face values independently. No permutation will convert the two solutions into each other. The solution set can be seen to be complete through this proof outline: 1. Without loss of generality, let us choose the card in the top left corner to be A. 2. Now, in the second row, the first two squares can be neither ace nor spades, due to being on the same column or diagonal respectively. Therefore, one of the remaining two squares must be an ace, and the other must be a spade,
Graeco-Latin square since the card A itself cannot be repeated. 3. If we choose the cell in the second row, third column to be an ace, and propagate the constraints, we will get Solution #1 above, up to a permutation of the remaining suits and face values. 4. Conversely, if we choose the (2,3) cell to be a spade, and propagate the constraints, we will get Solution #2 above, up to a permutation of the remaining suits and face values. 5. Since no other possibilities exist for (2,3), the solution set is complete.
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Euler's work and conjecture

Orthogonal Latin squares were studied in detail by Leonhard Euler, who took the two sets to be S={A,B,C,}, the first n upper-case letters from the Latin alphabet, and T={,,,}, the first n lower-case letters from the Greek alphabethence the name Graeco-Latin square. In the 1780s Euler demonstrated methods for constructing Graeco-Latin squares where n is odd or a multiple of 4. Observing that no order-2 square exists and unable to construct an order-6 square (see thirty-six officers problem), he conjectured that none exist for any oddly even number n 2 (mod 4). Indeed, the non-existence of order-6 squares was definitely confirmed in 1901 by Gaston Tarry through exhaustive enumeration of all possible arrangements of symbols. However, Euler's conjecture resisted solution for a very long time.
Counterexamples to the conjecture of Euler

In 1959, R.C. Bose and S. S. Shrikhande constructed some counterexamples (dubbed the Euler spoilers) of order 22 using mathematical insights. Then E. T. Parker found a counterexample of order 10 through computer search on UNIVAC (this was one of the earliest combinatorics problems solved on a digital computer). In 1960, Parker, Bose, and Shrikhande showed Euler's conjecture to be false for all n 10. Thus, Graeco-Latin squares exist for all orders n3 except n = 6.
Applications
Graeco-Latin squares are used in the design of experiments, tournament scheduling and constructing magic squares. The French writer Georges Perec structured his 1978 novel Life: A User's Manual around a 1010 orthogonal square.
Mutually orthogonal Latin squares

Mutually orthogonal Latin squares arise in various problems. A set of Latin squares is called mutually orthogonal if every pair of its element Latin squares is orthogonal to each other.
Any two of text, foreground color, background color and typeface form a pair of orthogonal Latin squares: fjords jawbox phlegm qiviut zincky zincky fjords jawbox phlegm qiviut qiviut zincky fjords jawbox phlegm phlegm qiviut zincky fjords jawbox jawbox phlegm qiviut zincky fjords
Graeco-Latin square The above table shows 4 mutually orthogonal Latin squares of order 5, representing respectively: the text: fjords, jawbox, phlegm, qiviut, and zincky the foreground color: white, red, lime, blue, and yellow the background color: black, maroon, teal, navy, and silver the typeface: serif (Georgia / Times Roman), sans-serif (Verdana / Helvetica), monospace (Courier New), cursive (Comic Sans), and fantasy (Impact).
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Due to the Latin square property, each row and each column has all five texts, all five foregrounds, all five backgrounds, and all five typefaces. Due to the mutually orthogonal property, there is exactly one instance somewhere in the table for any pair of elements, such as (white foreground, monospace), or (fjords, navy background) etc., and also all possible such pairs of values and dimensions are represented exactly once each. The above table therefore allows for testing 5 values each of 4 different dimensions in only 25 observations instead of 625 observations. Note that the five 6-letter words (fjords, jawbox, phlegm, qiviut, and zincky) between them cover all 26 letters of the alphabet at least once each. The table therefore allows for examining each letter of the alphabet in five different typefaces, foreground colors, and background colors. Due to a close relation between orthogonal Latin squares and combinatorial designs, every pair of distinct cells in the 5x5 table will have exactly one of the following properties in common: a common row, or a common column, or a common text, or a common typeface, or a common background color, or a common foreground color.
In each category, every cell has 4 neighbors (4 neighbors in the same row with nothing else in common, 4 in the same column, etc.), giving 6 * 4 = 24 neighbors, which makes it a complete graph with 6 different edge colors.
The number of mutually orthogonal latin squares

The number of mutually orthogonal Latin squares that may exist for a given order n is not known for general n, and is an area of research in combinatorics. It is known that the maximum number of MOLS for any n cannot exceed (n-1), and this upper bound is achieved when n is a power of a prime number. The minimum is known to be 2 for all n except for n = 1, 2 or 6, where it is 1. For general composite numbers, the number of MOLS is not known. The first few values starting with n = 2, 3, 4... are 1, 2, 3, 4, 1, 6, 7, 8, ... (sequence A001438 in OEIS).
Bibliography
Raghavarao, Damaraju (1988). Constructions and Combinatorial Problems in Design of Experiments (corrected reprint of the 1971 Wiley ed.). New York: Dover. Raghavarao, Damaraju and Padgett, L.V. (2005). Block Designs: Analysis, Combinatorics and Applications. World Scientific. Street, Anne Penfold and Street, Deborah J. (1987). Combinatorics of Experimental Design. Oxford U. P. [Clarendon]. pp.400+xiv. ISBN0198532563.
Graeco-Latin square
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External links
Euler's work on Latin Squares and Euler Squares [1] at Convergence [2] Java Tool which assists in constructing Graeco-Latin squares (it does not construct them by itself) [3] at cut-the-knot Anything but square: from magic squares to Sudoku [4]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] http:/ / mathdl. maa. org/ convergence/ 1/ ?pa=content& sa=viewDocument& nodeId=1434& bodyId=1597 http:/ / mathdl. maa. org/ convergence/ 1/ http:/ / www. cut-the-knot. org/ Curriculum/ Algebra/ OrthoLatin. shtml http:/ / plus. maths. org/ issue38/ features/ aiden/
Heterosquare
A heterosquare of order n is an arrangement of the integers 1 to n2 in a square, such that the rows, columns, and diagonals all sum to different values. There are no heterosquares of order 2, but heterosquares exist for any order n3.
Order 3
Order 4
Order 5
Heterosquares are easily constructed, as shown in the above examples. If n is odd, filling the square in a spiral pattern will produce a heterosquare. And if n is even, a heterosquare results from writing the numbers 1 to n2 in order, then exchanging 1 and 2. It is strongly suspected that there are exactly 3120 essentially different heterosquares of order 3. An antimagic square is a special kind of heterosquare where the 2n+2 row, column and diagonal sums are consecutive integers.
Latin square
118
Latin square
In combinatorics and in experimental design, a Latin square is annn array filled withn different symbols, each occurring exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column. Here is an example:
Displaying a
Latin square, this stained
glass window honors Ronald Fisher, whose Design of Experiments discussed Latin squares. Fisher's student, A.W.F. Edwards, designed this window for Caius College, Cambridge.
A B C C A B B C A
The name "Latin square" is motivated by mathematical papers by Leonhard Euler, who used Latin characters as symbols. Of course, other symbols can be used instead of Latin letters: in the above example, the alphabetic sequence A,B,C can be replaced by the integer sequence 1,2,3.
Latin square
119
Reduced form
A Latin square is said to be reduced (also, normalized or in standard form) if both its first row and its first column are in their natural order. For example, the above Latin square is not reduced because its first column is A,C,B rather than A,B,C. We can make any Latin square reduced by permuting (reordering) the rows and columns. Here switching the above matrix's second and third rows yields
A B C B C A C A B
which is reduced: Both its first row and its first column are alphabetically ordered A,B,C.
Properties
Orthogonal array representation
If each entry of an n n Latin square is written as a triple (r,c,s), where r is the row, c is the column, and s is the symbol, we obtain a set of n2 triples called the orthogonal array representation of the square. For example, the orthogonal array representation of the first Latin square displayed above is: { (1,1,1),(1,2,2),(1,3,3),(2,1,2),(2,2,3),(2,3,1),(3,1,3),(3,2,1),(3,3,2) }, where for example the triple (2,3,1) means that in row 2 and column 3 there is the symbol 1. The definition of a Latin square can be written in terms of orthogonal arrays: A Latin square is the set of all triples (r,c,s), where 1 r, c, s n, such that all ordered pairs (r,c) are distinct, all ordered pairs (r,s) are distinct, and all ordered pairs (c,s) are distinct. For any Latin square, there are n2 triples since choosing any two uniquely determines the third. (Otherwise, an ordered pair would appear more than once in the Latin square.) The orthogonal array representation shows that rows, columns and symbols play rather similar roles, as will be made clear below.
Equivalence classes of Latin squares

Many operations on a Latin square produce another Latin square (for example, turning it upside down). If we permute the rows, permute the columns, and permute the names of the symbols of a Latin square, we obtain a new Latin square said to be isotopic to the first. Isotopism is an equivalence relation, so the set of all Latin squares is divided into subsets, called isotopy classes, such that two squares in the same class are isotopic and two squares in different classes are not isotopic. Another type of operation is easiest to explain using the orthogonal array representation of the Latin square. If we systematically and consistently reorder the three items in each triple, another orthogonal array (and, thus, another Latin square) is obtained. For example, we can replace each triple (r,c,s) by (c,r,s) which corresponds to transposing the square (reflecting about its main diagonal), or we could replace each triple (r,c,s) by (c,s,r), which is a more complicated operation. Altogether there are 6 possibilities including "do nothing", giving us 6 Latin squares called the conjugates (also parastrophes) of the original square. Finally, we can combine these two equivalence operations: two Latin squares are said to be paratopic, also main class isotopic, if one of them is isotopic to a conjugate of the other. This is again an equivalence relation, with the equivalence classes called main classes, species, or paratopy classes. Each main class contains up to 6 isotopy classes.
Latin square
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Number
There is no known easily-computable formula for the number L(n) of n n Latin squares with symbols 1,2,...,n. The most accurate upper and lower bounds known for large n are far apart. One classic result is
(this given by van Lint and Wilson). Here we will give all the known exact values. It can be seen that the numbers grow exceedingly quickly. For each n, the number of Latin squares altogether (sequence A002860 in OEIS) is n! (n-1)! times the number of reduced Latin squares (sequence A000315 in OEIS).
The numbers of Latin squares of various sizes

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 reduced Latin squares of size n 1 1 1 4 56 9408 16942080 535281401856 377597570964258816 7580721483160132811489280 all Latin squares of size n 1 2 12 576 161280 812851200 61479419904000 108776032459082956800 5524751496156892842531225600 9982437658213039871725064756920320000
11 5363937773277371298119673540771840 776966836171770144107444346734230682311065600000
For each n, each isotopy class (sequence A040082 in OEIS) contains up to (n!)3 Latin squares (the exact number varies), while each main class (sequence A003090 in OEIS) contains either 1, 2, 3 or 6 isotopy classes.
Equivalence classes of Latin squares

n 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 main classes 1 1 1 2 2 12 147 283657 19270853541 34817397894749939 isotopy classes 1 1 1 2 2 22 564 1676267 115618721533 208904371354363006
11 2036029552582883134196099 12216177315369229261482540
Latin square
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Examples
We give one example of a Latin square from each main class up to order 5.
They present, respectively, the multiplication tables of the following groups: {0} the trivial 1-element group the binary group cyclic group of order 3 the Klein four-group cyclic group of order 4 cyclic group of order 5 the last one is an example of a quasigroup, or rather a loop, which is not associative.
Applications
Latin squares are used in statistics and in mathematics. In the design of experiments, Latin squares are a special case of row-column designs for two blocking factors:[1] Many row-column designs are constructed by concatenating Latin squares.[2] In algebra, Latin squares are generalizations of groups; in fact, Latin squares are characterized as being the multiplication tables (Cayley tables) of quasigroups.
Error correcting codes

Sets of Latin squares that are orthogonal to each other have found an application as error correcting codes in situations where communication is disturbed by more types of noise than simple white noise, such as when attempting to transmit broadband Internet over powerlines.[3][4][5] Firstly, the message is sent by using several frequencies, or channels, a common method that makes the signal less vulnerable to noise at any one specific frequency. A letter in the message to be sent is encoded by sending a series of signals at different frequencies at successive time intervals. In the example below, the letters A to L are encoded by sending signals at four different frequencies, in four time slots. The letter C, for instance, is encoded by first sending at frequency 3, then 4, 1 and 2.
The encoding of the twelve letters are formed from three Latin squares that are orthogonal to each other. Now imagine that there's added noise in channels 1 and 2 during the whole transmission. The letter A would then be
Latin square picked up as:
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In other words, in the first slot we receive signals from both frequency 1 and frequency 2; while the third slot has signals from frequencies 1, 2 and 3. Because of the noise, we can no longer tell if the first two slots were 1,1 or 1,2 or 2,1 or 2,2. But the 1,2 case is the only one that yields a sequence matching a letter in the above table, the letter A. Similarly, we may imagine a burst of static over all frequencies in the third slot:
Again, we are able to infer from the table of encodings that it must have been the letter A being transmitted. The number of errors this code can spot is one less than the number of time slots. It has also been proved that if the number of frequencies is a prime or a power of a prime, the orthogonal Latin squares produce error detecting codes that are as efficient as possible.
The problem of determining if a partially filled square can be completed to form a Latin square is NP-complete.[6] The popular Sudoku puzzles are a special case of Latin squares; any solution to a Sudoku puzzle is a Latin square. Sudoku imposes the additional restriction that nine particular 33 adjacent subsquares must also contain the digits 19 (in the standard version). The more recent KenKen puzzles are also examples of Latin squares.
Heraldry
The Latin square also figures in the arms of the Statistical Society of Canada,[7] being specifically mentioned in its blazon. Also, it appears in the logo of the International Biometric Society.[8]
Notes
Bailey, R.A. (2008). "6 Row-Column designs and 9 More about Latin squares" (http:/ / www. maths. qmul. ac. uk/ ~rab/ DOEbook). Design of Comparative Experiments. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-68357-9. MR2422352. . Pre-publication chapters are available on-line. Hinkelmann, Klaus and Kempthorne, Oscar (2008). Design and Analysis of Experiments. I and II (Second ed.). Wiley (http:/ / eu. wiley. com/ WileyCDA/ WileyTitle/ productCd-0470385510. html). ISBN978-0-470-38551-7. Hinkelmann, Klaus and Kempthorne, Oscar (2008). Design and Analysis of Experiments, Volume I: Introduction to Experimental Design (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=T3wWj2kVYZgC& printsec=frontcover& cad=4_0) (Second ed.). Wiley (http:/ / eu. wiley. com/ WileyCDA/ WileyTitle/ productCd-0471727563. html). ISBN978-0-471-72756-9. . Hinkelmann, Klaus and Kempthorne, Oscar (2005). Design and Analysis of Experiments, Volume 2: Advanced Experimental Design (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=GiYc5nRVKf8C) (First ed.). Wiley (http:/ / eu. wiley. com/ WileyCDA/ WileyTitle/ productCd-0471551775. html). ISBN978-0-471-55177-5. .
Raghavarao, Damaraju (1988). Constructions and Combinatorial Problems in Design of Experiments (corrected reprint of the 1971 Wiley ed.). New York: Dover. ISBN0486656853. Raghavarao, Damaraju and Padgett, L.V. (2005). Block Designs: Analysis, Combinatorics and Applications. World Scientific. ISBN9812563601. Shah, Kirti R.; Sinha, Bikas K. (1989). "4 Row-Column Designs". Theory of Optimal Designs. Lecture Notes in Statistics (http:/ / www. springer. com/ series/ 694). 54. Springer-Verlag. pp.6684. ISBN0-387-96991-8. MR1016151. Shah, K. R.; Sinha, Bikas K. (1996). "Row-column designs". In S. Ghosh and C. R. Rao. Design and analysis of experiments. Handbook of Statistics. 13. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co.. pp.903937. ISBN0-444-82061-2. MR1492586. Street, Anne Penfold and Street, Deborah J. (1987). Combinatorics of Experimental Design. Oxford U. P. [Clarendon]. pp.400+xiv. ISBN0198532563. [3] C.J. Colbourn, T. Klve, and A.C.H. Ling, Permutation arrays for powerline communication, IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, vol. 50, pp. 12891291, 2004. [4] Euler's revolution, New Scientist, 24th of March 2007, pp 4851 [5] Sophie Huczynska, Powerline communication and the 36 officers problem, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, vol 364, p 3199.
Latin square
[6] C. Colbourn (1984). "The complexity of completing partial latin squares". Discrete Applied Mathematics 8: 2530. doi:10.1016/0166-218X(84)90075-1. [7] (http:/ / www. ssc. ca/ main/ about/ history/ arms_e. html) [8] The International Biometric Society (http:/ / www. tibs. org)
123
References
Bailey, R.A. (2008). "6 Row-Column designs and 9 More about Latin squares" (http://www.maths.qmul.ac. uk/~rab/DOEbook). Design of Comparative Experiments. Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-68357-9. MR2422352. Pre-publication chapters are available on-line. Dnes, J.; Keedwell, A. D. (1974). Latin squares and their applications. New York-London: Academic Press. pp.547. ISBN012209350X. MR351850. Dnes, J. H.; Keedwell, A. D. (1991). Latin squares: New developments in the theory and applications. Annals of Discrete Mathematics. 46. Amsterdam: Academic Press. pp.xiv+454. ISBN0444888993. MR1096296. Hinkelmann, Klaus; Kempthorne, Oscar (2008). Design and Analysis of Experiments (http://eu.wiley.com/ WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0470385510.html). I , II (Second ed.). Wiley. ISBN978-0-470-38551-7. MR2363107. Hinkelmann, Klaus; Kempthorne, Oscar (2008). Design and Analysis of Experiments, Volume I: Introduction to Experimental Design (http://books.google.com/?id=T3wWj2kVYZgC&printsec=frontcover) (Second ed.). Wiley (http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471727563.html). ISBN978-0-471-72756-9. MR2363107. Hinkelmann, Klaus; Kempthorne, Oscar (2005). Design and Analysis of Experiments, Volume 2: Advanced Experimental Design (http://books.google.com/books?id=GiYc5nRVKf8C) (First ed.). Wiley (http://eu. wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471551775.html). ISBN978-0-471-55177-5. MR2129060. Knuth, Donald (2011). Volume 4A: Combinatorial Algorithms, Part 1. The Art of Computer Programming (First ed.). Reading, Massachusetts: Addison-Wesley. pp.xv+883pp. ISBN0-201-03804-8. Laywine, Charles F.; Mullen, Gary L. (1998). Discrete mathematics using Latin squares. Wiley-Interscience Series in Discrete Mathematics and Optimization. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.. pp.xviii+305. ISBN0-471-24064-8. MR1644242. Shah, Kirti R.; Sinha, Bikas K. (1989). "4 Row-Column Designs". Theory of Optimal Designs. Lecture Notes in Statistics (http://www.springer.com/series/694). 54. Springer-Verlag. pp.6684. ISBN0-387-96991-8. MR1016151. Shah, K. R.; Sinha, Bikas K. (1996). "Row-column designs". In S. Ghosh and C. R. Rao. Design and analysis of experiments. Handbook of Statistics. 13. Amsterdam: North-Holland Publishing Co.. pp.903937. ISBN0-444-82061-2. MR1492586. Raghavarao, Damaraju (1988). Constructions and Combinatorial Problems in Design of Experiments (corrected reprint of the 1971 Wiley ed.). New York: Dover. ISBN0486656853. MR1102899. Street, Anne Penfold and Street, Deborah J. (1987). Combinatorics of Experimental Design. New York: Oxford University Press. pp.400+xiv pp.. ISBN0198532563, 0-19-853255-5. MR908490. J. H. van Lint, R. M. Wilson: A Course in Combinatorics. Cambridge University Press 1992,ISBN 0-521-42260-4, p.157
Latin square
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External links
Latin Squares (http://eom.springer.de/L/l057620.htm) in the Encyclopaedia of Mathematics Latin Squares in Java (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Algebra/Latin.shtml) at cut-the-knot Infinite Latin Square (Java) (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Combinatorics/InfiniteLatinSquare. shtml) at cut-the-knot Magic Square in Latin Square (http://www.muljadi.org/MagicSudoku.htm)
Lo Shu Square
Lo Shu Square (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: lu sh; also written ; literally: Luo (River) Book/Scroll) or the Nine Halls Diagram (simplified Chinese: ; traditional Chinese: ; pinyin: ji gng t), is the unique normal magic square of order three. Lo Shu is part of the legacy of the most ancient Chinese mathematical and divinatory (Yi Jing ) traditions, and is an important emblem in Feng Shui ( ), the art of geomancy concerned with the placement of objects in relation to the flow of qi () 'natural energy'. Chinese legends concerning the pre-historic Emperor Yu ( ) tell of the Lo Shu, often in connection with the Ho Tu ( ) figure and 8 trigrams. In ancient China there was a huge deluge: the people offered sacrifices to the god of one of the flooding rivers, the Lo river ( ), to try to calm his anger. A magical turtle emerged from the water with the curious and decidedly unnatural (for a turtle shell) Lo Shu pattern on its shell: circular dots giving unary (base 1) representations of the integers one through nine are arranged in a three-by-three grid.
The lush.
Modern representation of the Lo Shu square as a magic square
Lo Shu Square
125 The odd and even numbers alternate in the periphery of the Lo Shu pattern; the 4 even numbers are at the four corners, and the 5 odd numbers (outnumbering the even numbers by one) form a cross in the center of the square. The sums in each of the 3 rows, in each of the 3 columns, and in both diagonals, are all 15 (the number of days in each of the 24 cycles of the Chinese solar year). Since 5 is in the center cell, the sum of any two other cells that are directly through the 5 from each other is 10 (e.g., opposite corners add up to 10, the number of the Ho Tu ( )).
The Lo Shu is sometimes connected numerologically with the Ba Gua "8 trigrams", which can be arranged in the 8 outer cells, reminiscent of circular trigram diagrams. Because north is placed at the bottom of maps in China, the 3x3 magic square having number 1 at the bottom and 9 at the top is used in preference to the other rotations/reflections. As seen in the "Later Heaven" arrangement, 1 and 9 correspond with Kn "Water" and L "Fire" respectively. In the "Early Heaven" arrangement, they would correspond with Kn "Earth" and Qin "Heaven" respectively. Like the Ho Tu ( ), the Lo Shu square, in conjunction with the 8 trigrams, is sometimes used as a mandalic representation important in Feng Shui ( ) geomancy.
The Lo Shu square on the back of a small turtle (in the center), surrounded by the signs of the Chinese Zodiac and the Eight trigrams, all carried by a large turtle (which, presumably, stands for the Dragon horse that had earlier revealed the trigrams to Fu Xi). A Tibetan design.
References
Yoshio Mikami, The Development of Mathematics in China and Japan, 1913, Library of Congress 61-13497.
Further Readings
Frank J. Swetz, The Legacy of the Luoshu, A K Peters/CRC Press; 2Rev Ed edition (16 Jun 2008), ISBN 978-1568814278.
External links
Lo Shu Square: Definition, Nature and History [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. taliscope. com/ Collection_en. html
Magic cube
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Magic cube
In mathematics, a magic cube is the 3-dimensional equivalent of a magic square, that is, a number of integers arranged in a n x n x n pattern such that the sum of the numbers on each row, each column, each pillar and the four main space diagonals is equal to a single number, the so-called magic constant of the cube, denoted M3(n). It can be shown that if a magic cube consists of the numbers 1, 2, ..., n3, then it has magic constant (sequence A027441 in OEIS)
If, in addition, the numbers on every cross section diagonal also sum up to the cube's magic number, the cube is called a perfect magic cube; otherwise, it is called a semiperfect magic cube. The number n is called the order of the magic cube. If the sums of numbers on a magic cube's broken space diagonals also equal the cube's magic number, the cube is called a pandiagonal cube.
Alternate definition
In recent years, an alternate definition for the perfect magic cube has example, no slice is a magic square. In this case, gradually come into use. It is based on the fact that a pandiagonal the cube is classed as a simple magic cube. magic square has traditionally been called perfect, because all possible lines sum correctly. This is not the case with the above definition for the cube.
An example of a 333 magic cube. In this
Multimagic cubes
As in the case of magic squares, a bimagic cube has the additional property of remaining a magic cube when all of the entries are squared, a trimagic cube remains a magic cube under both the operations of squaring the entries and of cubing the entries. (Only two of these are known, as of 2005.) A tetramagic cube remains a magic cube when the entries are squared, cubed, or raised to the fourth power.
Magic cubes based on Drer's and Gaudi Magic squares

A magic cube can be built with the constraint of a given magic square appearing on one of its faces Magic cube with the magic square of Drer [1], and Magic cube with the magic square of Gaudi [2]
External links
MathWorld: Magic Cube [3] Harvey Heinz: All about Magic Cubes [4] Marian Trenkler: Magic p-dimensional cubes [5] Marian Trenkler: An algorithm for making magic cubes [6] Marian Trenkler: On additive and multiplicative magic cubes [7] Ali Skalli's magic squares and magic cubes [8]
Magic cube
127
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] http:/ / sites. google. com/ site/ aliskalligvaen/ home-page/ -magic-cube-with-duerer-s-square http:/ / sites. google. com/ site/ aliskalligvaen/ home-page/ -magic-cube-with-gaudi-s-square http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ MagicCube. html http:/ / members. shaw. ca/ hdhcubes/ index. htm http:/ / math. ku. sk/ ~trenkler/ aa-cub-01. pdf http:/ / math. ku. sk/ ~trenkler/ 05-MagicCube. pdf http:/ / www. imi. ajd. czest. pl/ zeszyty/ zeszyt13/ Trenkler. pdf http:/ / sites. google. com/ site/ aliskalligvaen/ home-page
Magic cube classes

Every magic cube may be assigned to one of six magic cube classes, based on the cube characteristics. This new system is more precise in defining magic cubes. But possibly of more importance, it is consistent for all orders and all dimensions of magic hypercubes. Minimum requirements for a cube to be magic are: All rows, columns, pillars, and 4 triagonals must sum to the same value.
The six classes

Simple: The minimum requirements for a magic cube are: All rows, columns, pillars, and 4 triagonals must sum to the same value. A Simple magic cube contains no magic squares or not enough to qualify for the next class. The smallest normal simple magic cube is order 3. Minimum correct summations required = 3m2 + 4 Diagonal: Each of the 3m planar arrays must be a simple magic square. The 6 oblique squares are also simple magic. The smallest normal diagonal magic cube is order 5. These squares were referred to as Perfect by Gardner and others! At the same time he referred to Langmans 1962 pandiagonal cube also as Perfect. Christian Boyer and Walter Trump now consider this and the next two classes to be Perfect. (See Alternate Perfect below). A. H. Frost referred to all but the simple class as Nasik cubes. The smallest normal diagonal magic cube is order 5. See Diagonal magic cube. Minimum correct summations required = 3m2 + 6m + 4 Pantriagonal: All 4m2 pantriagonals must sum correctly (that is 4 one-segment, 12(m-1) two-segment, and 4(m-2)(m-1) three-segment). There may be some simple AND/OR pandiagonal magic squares, but not enough to satisfy any other classification. The smallest normal pantriagonal magic cube is order 4. See Pantriagonal magic cube. Minimum correct summations required = 7m2. All pan-r-agonals sum correctly for r = 1 and 3. PantriagDiag: A cube of this class was first constructed in late 2004 by Mitsutoshi Nakamura. This cube is a combination Pantriagonal magic cube and Diagonal magic cube. Therefore, all main and broken triagonals sum correctly, and it contains 3m planar simple magic squares. In addition, all 6 oblique squares are pandiagonal magic squares. The only such cube constructed so far is order 8. It is not known what other orders are possible. See Pantriagdiag magic cube. Minimum correct summations required = 7m2 + 6m
Magic cube classes Pandiagonal: ALL 3m planar arrays must be pandiagonal magic squares. The 6 oblique squares are always magic (usually simple magic). Several of them MAY be pandiagonal magic. Gardner also called this (Langmans pandiagonal) a perfect cube, presumably not realizing it was a higher class then Myers cube. See previous note re Boyer and Trump. The smallest normal pandiagonal magic cube is order 7. See Pandiagonal magic cube. Minimum correct summations required = 9m2 + 4. All pan-r-agonals sum correctly for r = 1 and 2. Perfect: ALL 3m planar arrays must be pandiagonal magic squares. In addition, ALL pantriagonals must sum correctly. These two conditions combine to provide a total of 9m pandiagonal magic squares. The smallest normal perfect magic cube is order 8. See Perfect magic cube. Nasik; A. H. Frost (1866) referred to all but the simple magic cube as Nasik! C. Planck (1905) redefined Nasik to mean magic hypercubes of any order or dimension in which all possible lines summed correctly. i.e. Nasik is a preferred alternate, and less ambiguous term for the perfect class. Minimum correct summations required = 13m2. All pan-r-agonals sum correctly for r = 1, 2 and 3. Alternate Perfect Note that the above is a relatively new definition of perfect. Until about 1995 there was much confusion about what constituted a perfect magic cube (see the discussion under diagonal:) . Included below are references and links to discussions of the old definition With the popularity of personal computers it became easier to examine the finer details of magic cubes. Also more and more work was being done with higher dimension magic Hypercubes. For example, John Hendricks constructed the world's first Nasik magic tesseract in 2000. Classed as a perfect magic tesseract by Hendricks definition.
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Generalized for All Dimensions

A magic hypercube of dimension n is perfect if all pan-n-agonals sum correctly. Then all lower dimension hypercubes contained in it are also perfect. For dimension 2, The Pandiagonal Magic Square has been called perfect for many years. This is consistent with the perfect (nasik) definitions given above for the cube. In this dimension, there is no ambiguity because there are only two classes of magic square, simple and perfect. In the case of 4 dimensions, the magic tesseract, Mitsutoshi Nakamura has determined that there are 18 classes. He has determined their characteristics and constructed examples of each. And in this dimension also, the Perfect (nasik) magic tesseract has all possible lines summing correctly and all cubes and squares contained in it are also nasik magic.
Magic cube classes
129
Another definition and a table

Proper: A Proper magic cube is a magic cube belonging to one of the six classes of magic cube, but containing exactly the minimum requirements for that class of cube. i.e. a proper simple or pantriagonal magic cube would contain no magic squares, a proper diagonal magic cube would contain exactly 3m + 6 simple magic squares, etc. This term was coined by Mitsutoshi Nakamura in April, 2004.
Notes for table 1. For the diagonal or pandiagonal classes, one or possibly 2 of the 6 oblique magic squares may be pandiagonal magic. All but 6 of the oblique squares are broken. This is analogous to the broken diagonals in a pandiagonal magic square. i.e. Broken diagonals are 1-D in a 2_D square; broken oblique squares are 2-D in a 3-D cube. 2. The table shows the minimum lines or squares required for each class (i.e. Proper). Usually there are more, but not enough of one type to qualify for the next class.
Further reading
Frost, Dr. A. H., On the General Properties of Nasik Cubes, QJM 15, 1878, pp 93123 Planck, C., The Theory of Paths Nasik, Printed for private circulation, A.J. Lawrence, Printer, Rugby,(England), 1905 Heinz, H.D. and Hendricks, J. R., Magic Square Lexicon: Illustrated. Self-published, 2000, 0-9687985-0-0. Hendricks, John R., The Pan-4-agonal Magic Tesseract, The American Mathematical Monthly, Vol. 75, No. 4, April 1968, p.384. Hendricks, John R., The Pan-3-agonal Magic Cube, Journal of Recreational Mathematics, 5:1, 1972, pp5152 Hendricks, John R., The Pan-3-agonal Magic Cube of Order-5, JRM, 5:3, 1972, pp 205206 Hendricks, John R., Magic Squares to Tesseracts by Computer, Self-published 1999. 0-9684700-0-9 Hendricks, John R., Perfect n-Dimensional Magic Hypercubes of Order 2n, Self-published 1999. 0-9684700-4-1 Clifford A. Pickover (2002). The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles and Stars. Princeton Univ. Press, 2002, 0-691-07041-5. pp 101121
Magic cube classes
130
External links
Cube classes Christian Boyer: Perfect Magic Cubes [1] Harvey Heinz: Perfect Magic Hypercubes [2] Harvey Heinz: 6 Classes of Cubes [3] Walter Trump: Search for Smallest [4]
Perfect Cube Aale de Winkel: Magic Encyclopedia [5] A long quote from C. Plank (1917) on the subject of nasik as a substitute term for perfect. [6] Tesseract Classes The Square, Cube, and Tesseract Classes [7]
References
[1] http:/ / cboyer. club. fr/ multimagie/ index. htm [2] http:/ / members. shaw. ca/ hdhcubes/ cube_perfect. htm [3] http:/ / members. shaw. ca/ hdhcubes/ index. htm# [4] [5] [6] [7] http:/ / www. trump. de/ magic-squares/ magic-cubes/ cubes-1. html http:/ / www. magichypercubes. com/ Encyclopedia/ http:/ / members. shaw. ca/ hdhcubes/ cube_define. htm#Theory%20of%20Paths%20Nasik http:/ / members. shaw. ca/ tesseracts/ t_classes. htm
Magic hexagon
A magic hexagon of order n is an arrangement of numbers in a centered hexagonal pattern with n cells on each edge, in such a way that the numbers in each row, in all three directions, sum to the same magic constant. A normal magic hexagon contains the consecutive integers from 1 to 3n23n+1. It turns out that magic hexagons exist only for n=1 (which is trivial) and n=3. Moreover, the solution of order 3 is essentially unique.[1] Meng also gave a less intricate constructive proof.[2]
Order 1 M=1
Order n=3 M = 38
The order-3 magic hexagon has been published many times as a 'new' discovery. An early reference, and possibly the first discoverer, is Ernst von Haselberg (1887). Although there are no normal magical hexagons with order greater than 3, certain abnormal ones do exist. In this case, abnormal means starting the sequence of numbers other than with 1. Arsen Zahray discovered these order 4 and 5 hexagons:
Magic hexagon
131
Order 4 M = 111
Order 5 M = 244
The order 4 hexagon starts with 3 and ends with 39, its rows summing to 111. The order 5 hexagon starts with 6 and ends with 66 and sums to 244. An order 6 hexagon can be seen below. It was created by Louis Hoelbling, October 11, 2004:
It starts with 21, ends with 111, and its sum is 546. The largest magic hexagon so far was discovered using simulated annealing by Arsen Zahray on 22 March 2006:
Magic hexagon
132
It starts with 2, ends with 128 and its sum is 635. However, a slightly larger, order 8 magic hexagon was generated by Louis K. Hoelbling on February 5, 2006:
It starts with -84 and ends with 84, and its sum is 0.
Magic hexagon
133
Proof
Here is a proof sketch that no normal magic hexagons exist except those of order 1 and 3. The magic constant M of a normal magic hexagon can be determined as follows. The numbers in the hexagon are consecutive, and run from 1 to (3n^2-3n+1). Hence their sum is a triangular number, namely
There are r=(2n1) rows running along any given direction (E-W, NE-SW, or NW-SE). Each of these rows sum up to the same number M. Therefore:
Rewriting this as
shows that 5/(2n1) must be an integer. The only n1 that meet this condition are n=1 and n=3.
Another type of magic hexagon

Hexagons can also be constructed with triangles, as the following diagrams show.
Order 2
Order 2 with numbers 124
This type of configuration can be called a T-hexagon and it has many more properties than the hexagon of hexagons. As with the above, the rows of triangles run in three directions and there are 24 triangles in a T-hexagon of order 2. In general, a T-hexagon of order n has triangles. The sum of all these numbers is given by:
If we try to construct a magic T-hexagon of side n, we have to choose n to be even, because there are r=2n rows so the sum in each row must be
For this to be an integer, n has to be even. To date, magic T-hexagons of order 2, 4, 6 and 8 have been discovered. The first was a magic T-hexagon of order 2, discovered by John Baker on 13 September 2003. Since that time, John has been collaborating with David King, who discovered that there are 59,674,527 non-congruent magic T-hexagons of order 2. Magic T-hexagons have a number of properties in common with magic squares, but they also have their own special features. The most surprising of these is that the sum of the numbers in the triangles that point upwards is the same as the sum of those in triangles that point downwards (no matter how large the T-hexagon). In the above example,
Magic hexagon To find out more about magic T-hexagons, visit Hexagonia [3] or the Hall of Hexagons [4].
134
Notes
[1] <Trigg, C. W. "A Unique Magic Hexagon" (http:/ / www. mathematik. uni-bielefeld. de/ ~sillke/ PUZZLES/ magic-hexagon-trigg), Recreational Mathematics Magazine, JanuaryFebruary 1964. Retrieved on 2009-12-16. [2] <Meng, F. "Research into the Order 3 Magic Hexagon" (http:/ / www. yau-awards. org/ English/ N/ N92-Research into the Order 3 Magic Hexagon. pdf), Shing-Tung Yau Awards, October 2008. Retrieved on 2009-12-16. [3] http:/ / www. naturalmaths. com. au/ hexagonia [4] http:/ / www. drking. plus. com/ hexagons/
References
Baker. J. E. and King, D. R. (2004) "The use of visual schema to find properties of a hexagon" Visual Mathematics, Volume 5, Number 3 Baker, J. E. and Baker, A. J. (2004) "The hexagon, nature's choice" Archimedes, Volume 4
Magic hyperbeam
A magic hyperbeam (n-dimensional magic rectangle) is a variation on a magic hypercube where the orders along each direction may be different. As such a magic hyperbeam generalises the two dimensional magic rectangle and the three dimensional magic beam, a series that mimics the series magic square, magic cube and magic hypercube. This article will mimic the magic hypercubes article in close detail, and just as that article serves merely as an introduction to the topic.
Conventions
It is customary to denote the dimension with the letter 'n' and the orders of a hyperbeam with the letter 'm' (appended with the subscripted number of the direction it applies to). (n) Dimension : the amount of directions within a hyperbeam. (mk) Order : the amount of numbers along kth monagonal k = 0, ..., n1.
Further: In this article the analytical number range [0..k=0n-1mk-1] is being used.
Notations
in order to keep things in hand a special notation was developed: [ ki; k=[0..n-1]; i=[0..mk-1] ]: positions within the hyperbeam < ki; k=[0..n-1]; i=[0..mk-1] >: vectors through the hyperbeam Note: The notation for position can also be used for the value on that position. There where it is appropriate dimension and orders can be added to it thus forming: n[ki]m0,..,mn-1
Magic hyperbeam
135
Construction
Basic
Description of more general methods might be put here, I don't often create hyperbeams, so I don't know whether Knightjump or Latin Prescription work here. Other more adhoc methods suffice on occasion I need a hyperbeam.
Multiplication
Amongst the various ways of compounding, the multiplication[1] can be considered as the most basic of these methods. The basic multiplication is given by:
n
B(m..)1 *
B(m..)2 :
[ki](m..)1(m..)2 =
[ <sub>k</sub>i \ m<sub>k2</sub>(m..)1k=0n-1mk1](m..)2 + [ki % mk2](m..)2](m..)1(m..)2
(m..) abbreviates: m0,..,mn-1. (m..)1(m..)2 abbreviates: m01m02,..,mn-11mn-12.
Curiosities
all orders are either even or odd
A fact that can be easily seen since the magic sums are: Sk = mk (j=0n-1mj - 1) / 2 When any of the orders mk is even, the product is even and thus the only way Sk turns out integer is when all mk are even. Thus suffices: all mk are either even or odd. This is with the exception of mk=1 of course, which allows for general identities like: Nmt = Nm,1 * N1,m Nm = N1,m * Nm,1 Which goes beyond the scope of this introductory article
Only one direction with order = 2

since any number has but one complement only one of the directions can have mk = 2.
Aspects
A hyperbeam knows 2n Aspectial variants, which are obtained by cordinate reflection ([ki] --> [k(-i)]) effectively giving the Aspectial variant:
n
B(m0..mn-1)~R ; R =
k=0
n-1 ((reflect(k)) ? 2k : 0) ;
Where reflect(k) true iff cordinate k is being reflected, only then 2k is added to R. In case one views different orientations of the beam as equal one could view the number of aspects n! 2n just as with the magic hypercubes, directions with equal orders contribute factors depending on the hyperbeam's orders. This goes beyond the scope of this article.
Magic hyperbeam
136
Basic manipulations
Besides more specific manipulations, the following are of more general nature ^[perm(0..n-1)] : cordinate permutation (n == 2: transpose) _2axis[perm(0..m-1)] : monagonal permutation (axis [0..n-1]) Note: '^' and '_' are essential part of the notation and used as manipulation selectors.
Cordinate permutation
The exchange of cordinaat [ki] into [perm(k)i], because of n cordinates a permutation over these n directions is required. The term transpose (usually denoted by t) is used with two dimensional matrices, in general though perhaps "cordinaatpermutation" might be preferable.
Monagonal permutation
Defined as the change of [ki] into [kperm(i)] alongside the given "axial"-direction. Equal permutation along various axes with equal orders can be combined by adding the factors 2axis. Thus defining all kinds of r-agonal permutations for any r. Easy to see that all possibilities are given by the corresponding permutation of m numbers.
normal position
In case no restrictions are considered on the n-agonals a magic hyperbeam can be represented shown in "normal position" by: [ki] < [k(i+1)] ; i = 0..mk-2 (by monagonal permutation)
Qualification
Qualifying the hyperbeam is less developed then it is on the magic hypercubes in fact only the k'th monagonal direction need to sum to: Sk = mk (j=0n-1mj - 1) / 2 for all k = 0..n-1 for the hyperbeam to be qualified {magic} When the orders are not relatively prime the n-agonal sum can be restricted to: S = lcm(mi ; i = 0..n-1) (j=0n-1mj - 1) / 2 with all orders relatively prime this reaches its maximum: Smax =
j=0
n-1mj (j=0n-1mj - 1) / 2
Special hyperbeams
The following hyperbeams serve special purposes:
The "normal hyperbeam"

n
Nm0,..,mn-1 : [ki] =
k=0
n-1
i mkk
This hyperbeam can be seen as the source of all numbers. A procedure called "Dynamic numbering" [2] makes use of the isomorphism of every hyperbeam with this normal, changing the source, changes the hyperbeam. Basic multiplications of normal hyperbeams play a special role with the "Dynamic numbering" [2] of magic hypercubes of order k=0n-1 mk.
Magic hyperbeam
137
The "constant 1"

n
1m0,..,mn-1 : [ki] = 1
The hyperbeam that is usually added to change the here used "analytic" numberrange into the "regular" numberrange. Other constant hyperbeams are of course multiples of this one.
References
[1] this is a hyperbeam version of (pe.): Alan Adler magic square multiplication (http:/ / mathforum. org/ alejandre/ magic. square/ adler/ product. html) [2] http:/ / www. magichypercubes. com/ Encyclopedia/ d/ DynamicNumbering. html
External links
http://www.magichypercubes.com/Encyclopedia (http://www.magichypercubes.com/Encyclopedia) J.R.Hendricks (http://members.shaw.ca/johnhendricksmath/) Marin Trenklar Cube-Ref.html (http://math.ku.sk/~trenkler/Cube-Ref.html) Mitsutoshi Nakamura: Rectangles (http://homepage2.nifty.com/googol/magcube/en/rectangles.htm)
Further reading
Thomas R. Hagedorn, On the existence of magic n-dimensional rectangles, Discrete Mathematics 207 (1999), 53-63. Thomas R. Hagedorn, Magic retangles revisited, Discrete Mathematics 207 (1999), 65-72. Marin Trenkler, Magic rectangles, The Mathematical Gazette 83(1999), 102-105. Harvey D. Heinz & John R. Hendricks, Magic Square Lexicon: Illustrated, self-published, 2000, ISBN 0-9687985-0-0.
Magic hypercube
138
Magic hypercube
In mathematics, a magic hypercube is the k-dimensional generalization of magic squares, magic cubes and magic tesseracts; that is, a number of integers arranged in an n n n ... n pattern such that the sum of the numbers on each pillar (along any axis) as well as the main space diagonals is equal to a single number, the so-called magic constant of the hypercube, denoted Mk(n). It can be shown that if a magic hypercube consists of the numbers 1, 2, ..., nk, then it has magic number
If, in addition, the numbers on every cross section diagonal also sum up to the hypercube's magic number, the hypercube is called a perfect magic hypercube; otherwise, it is called a semiperfect magic hypercube. The number n is called the order of the magic hypercube. Five-, six-, seven- and eight-dimensional magic hypercubes of order three have been constructed by J. R. Hendricks. Marian Trenkler proved the following theorem: A p-dimensional magic hypercube of order n exists if and only if p > 1 and n is different from 2 or p = 1. A construction of a magic hypercube follows from the proof. The R programming language includes a module, library(magic), that will create magic hypercubes of any dimension (with n a multiple of 4). Change to more modern conventions here-after (basically k ==> n and n ==> m)
Conventions
It is customary to denote the dimension with the letter 'n' and the order of a hypercube with the letter 'm'. (n) Dimension : the number of directions within a hypercube. (m) Order : the number of numbers along a direction. Further: In this article the analytical number range [0..mn-1] is being used. For the regular number range [1..mn] you can add 1 to each number. This has absolutely no effect on the properties of the hypercube.
Notations
in order to keep things in hand a special notation was developed: [ ki; k=[0..n-1]; i=[0..m-1] ]: positions within the hypercube < ki; k=[0..n-1]; i=[0..m-1] >: vector through the hypercube Note: The notation for position can also be used for the value on that position. There where it is appropriate dimension and order can be added to it thus forming: n[ki]m As is indicated 'k' runs through the dimensions, while the coordinate 'i' runs through all possible values, when values 'i' are outside the range it is simply moved back into the range by adding or subtracting appropriate multiples of m, as the magic hypercube resides in n-dimensional modular space. There can be multiple 'k' between bracket, these can't have the same value, though in undetermined order, which explains the equality of: [
1
i,
j ] = [
j,
i ]
Of course given 'k' also one value 'i' is referred to. When a specific coordinate value is mentioned the other values can be taken as 0, which is especially the case when the amount of 'k's are limited using pe. #k=1 as in: [k1 ; #k=1] = [k1
j
0 ; #k=1; #j=n-1] ("axial"-neighbor of [k0])
Magic hypercube (#j=n-1 can be left unspecified) j now runs through all the values in [0..k-1,k+1..n-1]. Further: without restrictions specified 'k' as well as 'i' run through all possible values, in combinations same letters assume same values. Thus makes it possible to specify a particular line within the hypercube (see r-agonal in pathfinder section) Note: as far as I now this notation is not in general use yet(?), Hypercubes are not generally analyzed in this particular manner. Further: "perm(0..n-1)" specifies a permutation of the n numbers 0..n-1.
139
Construction
Besides more specific constructions two more general construction method are noticeable:
KnightJump construction
This construction generalizes the movement of the chessboard horses (vectors <1,2>, <1,-2>, <-1,2>, <-1,-2>) to more general movements (vectors <ki>). The method starts at the position P0 and further numbers are sequentially placed at positions V0 further until (after m steps) a position is reached that is already occupied, a further vector is needed to find the next free position. Thus the method is specified by the n by n+1 matrix: [P0, V0 .. Vn-1] This positions the number 'k' at position: Pk = P0 +
l=0
n-1((k\ml)%m) Vl; k = 0 .. mn-1.

[1]
C. Planck gives in his 1905 article "The theory of Path Nasiks" Nasik" (or modern {perfect}) hypercubes.
conditions to create with this method "Path
Latin prescription construction

(modular equations). This method is also specified by an n by n+1 matrix. However this time it multiplies the n+1 vector [x0,..,xn-1,1], After this multiplication the result is taken modulus m to achieve the n (Latin) hypercubes: LPk = (
l=0
n-1 LPk,l xl + LPk,n ) % m
of radix m numbers (also called "digits"). On these LPk's "digit changing" (?i.e. Basic manipulation) are generally applied before these LPk's are combined into the hypercube:
n
Hm =
k=0
n-1 LPk mk
J.R.Hendricks often uses modular equation, conditions to make hypercubes of various quality can be found on http:/ /www.magichypercubes.com/Encyclopedia [2] at several places (especially p-section) Both methods fill the hypercube with numbers, the knight-jump guarantees (given appropriate vectors) that every number is present. The Latin prescription only if the components are orthogonal (no two digits occupying the same position)
Magic hypercube
140
Multiplication
Amongst the various ways of compounding, the multiplication[3] can be considered as the most basic of these methods. The basic multiplication is given by:
n
Hm1 *
Hm2 :
[ki]m1m2 =
[ [[ki \ m2]m1m1n]m2 + [ki % m2]m2]m1m2
Most compounding methods can be viewed as variations of the above, As most qualfiers are invariant under multiplication one can for example place any aspectial variant of nHm2 in the above equation, besides that on the result one can apply a manipulation to improve quality. Thus one can specify pe the J. R. Hendricks / M. Trenklar doubling. These things go beyond the scope of this article.
Aspects
A hypercube knows n! 2n Aspectial variants, which are obtained by coordinate reflection ([ki] --> [k(-i)]) and coordinate permutations ([ki] --> [perm[k]i]) effectively giving the Aspectial variant:
n
Hm~R
perm(0..n-1)
; R =
k=0
n-1 ((reflect(k)) ? 2k : 0) ; perm(0..n-1) a permutation of 0..n-1
Where reflect(k) true iff coordinate k is being reflected, only then 2k is added to R. As is easy to see, only n coordinates can be reflected explaining 2n, the n! permutation of n coordinates explains the other factor to the total amount of "Aspectial variants"! Aspectial variants are generally seen as being equal. Thus any hypercube can be represented shown in "normal position" by: [k0] = min([k ; {-1,0}]) (by reflection) [k1 ; #k=1] < [k+11 ; #k=1] ; k = 0..n-2 (by coordinate permutation) (explicitly stated here: [k0] the minimum of all corner points. The axial neighbour sequentially based on axial number)
Basic manipulations
Besides more specific manipulations, the following are of more general nature #[perm(0..n-1)] : component permutation ^[perm(0..n-1)] : coordinate permutation (n == 2: transpose) _2axis[perm(0..m-1)] : monagonal permutation (axis [0..n-1]) =[perm(0..m-1)] : digit change
Note: '#', '^', '_' and '=' are essential part of the notation and used as manipulation selectors.
Component permutation
Defined as the exchange of components, thus varying the factor mk in mperm(k), because there are n component hypercubes the permutation is over these n components
Coordinate permutation
The exchange of coordinate [ki] into [perm(k)i], because of n coordinates a permutation over these n directions is required. The term transpose (usually denoted by t) is used with two dimensional matrices, in general though perhaps "coordinate permutation" might be preferable.
Magic hypercube
141
Monagonal permutation
Defined as the change of [ki] into [kperm(i)] alongside the given "axial"-direction. Equal permutation along various axes can be combined by adding the factors 2axis. Thus defining all kinds of r-agonal permutations for any r. Easy to see that all possibilities are given by the corresponding permutation of m numbers. Noted be that reflection is the special case: ~R = _R[n-1,..,0] Further when all the axes undergo the same ;permutation (R = 2n-1) an n-agonal permutation is achieved, In this special case the 'R' is usually omitted so: _[perm(0..n-1)] = _(2n-1)[perm(0..n-1)]
Digitchanging
Usually being applied at component level and can be seen as given by [ki] in perm([ki]) since a component is filled with radix m digits, a permutation over m numbers is an appropriate manner to denote these.
Pathfinders
J. R. Hendricks called the directions within a hypercubes "pathfinders", these directions are simplest denoted in a ternary number system as: Pfp where: p =
k=0
n-1 (ki + 1) 3k <==> <ki> ; i {-1,0,1}
This gives 3n directions. since every direction is traversed both ways one can limit to the upper half [(3n-1)/2,..,3n-1)] of the full range. With these pathfinders any line to be summed over (or r-agonal) can be specified: [
j
q ; #j=1 #k=r-1 ; k > j ] <
0 ; {-1,1} >
; p,q [0,..,m-1]
which specifies all (broken) r-agonals, p and q ranges could be omitted from this description. The main (unbroken) r-agonals are thus given by the slight modification of the above: [
j
-1
p ; #j=1 #k+#l=r-1 ; k,l > j ] <
-1
0 >
Qualifications
A hypercube nHm with numbers in the analytical numberrange [0..mn-1] has the magic sum:
n
Sm = m (mn - 1) / 2.
Besides more specific qualifications the following are the most important, "summing" of course stands for "summing correctly to the magic sum" {r-agonal} : all main (unbroken) r-agonals are summing. {pan r-agonal} : all (unbroken and broken) r-agonals are summing. {magic} : {1-agonal n-agonal} {perfect} : {pan r-agonal; r = 1..n}
Note: This series doesn't start with 0 since a nill-agonal doesn't exist, the numbers correspond with the usual name-calling: 1-agonal = monagonal, 2-agonal = diagonal, 3-agonal = triagonal etc.. Aside from this the number correspond to the amount of "-1" and "1" in the corresponding pathfinder. In case the hypercube also sum when all the numbers are raised to the power p one gets p-multimagic hypercubes. The above qualifiers are simply prepended onto the p-multimagic qualifier. This defines qualifications as {r-agonal
Magic hypercube 2-magic}. Here also "2-" is usually replaced by "bi", "3-" by "tri" etc. ("1-magic" would be "monomagic" but "mono" is usually omitted). The sum for p-Multimagic hypercubes can be found by using Faulhaber's formula and divide it by mn-1. Also "magic" (i.e. {1-agonal n-agonal}) is usually assumed, the Trump/Boyer {diagonal} cube is technically seen {1-agonal 2-agonal 3-agonal}. Nasik magic hypercube gives arguments for using {nasik} as synonymous to {perfect}. The strange generalization of square 'perfect' to using it synonymous to {diagonal} in cubes is however also resolve by putting curly brackets around qualifiers, so {perfect} means {pan r-agonal; r = 1..n} (as mentioned above). some minor qualifications are: {ncompact} : {all order 2 subhyper cubes sum to 2n nSm / m} {ncomplete} : {all pairs halve an n-agonal apart sum equal (to (mn - 1)} {ncompact} might be put in notation as : (k) [ji + k1] = 2n nSm / m. {ncomplete} can simply written as: [ji] + [ji + k(m/2) ; #k=n ] = mn - 1. Where: is symbolic for summing all possible k's, there are 2n possibilities for k1. (k) [ji + k1] expresses [ji] and all its r-agonal neighbors. for {complete} the complement of [ji] is at position [ji + k(m/2) ; #k=n ]. for squares: {2compact 2complete} is the "modern/alternative qualification" of what Dame Kathleen Ollerenshaw called most-perfect magic square, {ncompact ncomplete} is the qualifier for the feature in more than 2 dimensions Caution: some people seems to equate {compact} with {2compact} instead of {ncompact}. Since this introductory article is not the place to discuss these kind of issues I put in the dimensional pre-superscript n to both these qualifiers (which are defined as shown) consequences of {ncompact} is that several figures also sum since they can be formed by adding/subtracting order 2 sub-hyper cubes. Issues like these go beyond this articles scope.
142
Special hypercubes
The following hypercubes serve special purposes;
The "normal hypercube"

n
Nm : [ki] =
k=0
n-1
i mk
This hypercube can be seen as the source of all numbers. A procedure called "Dynamic numbering" [2] makes use of the isomorphism of every hypercube with this normal, changing the source, changes the hypercube. Usually these sources are limited to direct products of normal hypercubes or normal hyperbeams (defined as having possibly other orders along the various directions).
Magic hypercube
143
The "constant 1"

n
1m : [ki] = 1
The hypercube that is usually added to change the here used "analytic" number range into the "regular" number range. Other constant hypercubes are of course multiples of this one.
File format
Based on XML, the file format Xml-Hypercubes [4] is developed to describe various hypercubes to ensure human readability as well as programmatical usability. Besides full listings the format offers the ability to invoke mentioned constructions (amongst others)
References
[1] http:/ / www. magichypercubes. com/ Encyclopedia/ k/ PathNasiks. zip [2] http:/ / www. magichypercubes. com/ Encyclopedia [3] this is a n-dimensional version of (pe.): Alan Adler magic square multiplication (http:/ / mathforum. org/ alejandre/ magic. square/ adler/ product. html) [4] http:/ / www. magichypercubes. com/ Encyclopedia/ x/ XmlHypercubes. html
External links
The Magic Encyclopedia (http://www.magichypercubes.com/Encyclopedia/index.html) Articles by Aale de Winkel Magic Cubes - Introduction (http://members.shaw.ca/hdhcubes/) by Harvey D. Heinz Magic Cubes and Hypercubes - References (http://math.ku.sk/~trenkler/Cube-Ref.html) Collected by Marian Trenkler An algorithm for making magic cubes (http://math.ku.sk/~trenkler/05-MagicCube.pdf) by Marian Trenkler multimagie.com (http://www.multimagie.com/) Articles by Christian Boyer
Further reading
J.R.Hendricks: Magic Squares to Tesseract by Computer, Self-published, 1998, 0-9684700-0-9 Planck, C., M.A.,M.R.C.S., The Theory of Paths Nasik, 1905, printed for private circulation. Introductory letter to the paper
Magic series
144
Magic series
A magic series is a set of distinct positive numbers which add up to the magic constant of a magic square and a magic cube, thus potentially making up lines in magic tesseracts. So, in an n n magic square using the numbers from 1 to n2, a magic series is a set of n distinct numbers adding up to n(n2+1)/2. For n = 2, there are just two magic series, 1+4 and 2+3. The eight magic series when n = 3 all appear in the rows, columns and diagonals of a 3 3 magic square. Maurice Kraitchik gave the number of magic series up to n = 7 in Mathematical Recreations in 1942 (sequence A052456 in OEIS). In 2002, Henry Bottomley extended this up to n = 36 and independently Walter Trump up to n = 32. In 2005, Trump extended this to n = 54 (over 210111) while Bottomley gave an experimental approximation for the numbers of magic series:
In July 2006, Robert Gerbicz extended this sequence up to n = 150.
External links
Walter Trump's pages on magic series [1] Number of magic series up to order 150 [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. trump. de/ magic-squares/ magic-series/ index. html [2] http:/ / robert. gerbicz. googlepages. com/ magic. txt
Magic square
145
Magic square
In recreational mathematics, a magic square of order n is an arrangement of n2 numbers, usually distinct integers, in a square, such that the n numbers in all rows, all columns, and both diagonals sum to the same constant.[1] A normal magic square contains the integers from 1 to n2. The term "magic square" is also sometimes used to refer to any of various types of word square. Normal magic squares exist for all orders n 1 except n = 2, although the case n = 1 is trivial, consisting of a single cell containing the number 1. The smallest nontrivial case, shown below, is of order 3.
The constant sum in every row, column and diagonal is called the magic constant or magic sum, M. The magic constant of a normal magic square depends only on n and has the value
For normal magic squares of order n = 3, 4,5, ..., the magic constants are: 15, 34, 65, 111, 175, 260, ... (sequence A006003 in OEIS).
History
Magic squares were known to Chinese mathematicians, as early as 650 BCE[2] and Arab mathematicians, possibly as early as the 7th century, when the Arabs conquered northwestern parts of the Indian subcontinent and learned Indian mathematics and astronomy, including other aspects of combinatorial mathematics. The first magic squares of order 5 and 6 appear in an encyclopedia from Baghdad circa 983 CE, the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity (Rasa'il Ihkwan al-Safa); simpler magic squares were known to several earlier Arab mathematicians.[2] Some of these squares were later used in conjunction with magic letters as in (Shams Al-ma'arif) to assist Arab illusionists and magicians.[3]
Lo Shu square (33 magic square)
Iron plate with an order 6 magic square in Arabic numbers from China, dating to the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368).
Chinese literature dating from as early as 650 BC tells the legend of Lo Shu or "scroll of the river Lo".[2] In ancient China there was a huge flood. The great king Yu () tried to channel the water out to sea where then emerged from the water a turtle with a curious figure/pattern on its shell; circular dots of numbers which were arranged in a three by three grid pattern such that the sum of the numbers in each row, column and diagonal was the same: 15, which is also the number of days in each of the 24 cycles of the Chinese solar year. This pattern, in a certain way, was used by the people in controlling the river.
Magic square
146
4 9 2 3 5 7 8 1 6
The Lo Shu Square, as the magic square on the turtle shell is called, is the unique normal magic square of order three in which 1 is at the bottom and 2 is in the upper right corner. Every normal magic square of order three is obtained from the Lo Shu by rotation or reflection. The Square of Lo Shu is also referred to as the Magic Square of Saturn or Chronos.
Cultural significance
Magic squares have fascinated humanity throughout the ages, and have been around for over 4,120 years. They are found in a number of cultures, including Egypt and India, engraved on stone or metal and worn as talismans, the belief being that magic squares had astrological and divinatory qualities, their usage ensuring longevity and prevention of diseases. The Kubera-Kolam is a floor painting used in India which is in the form of a magic square of order three. It is essentially the same as the Lo Shu Square, but with 19 added to each number, giving a magic constant of 72.
23 28 21 22 24 26 27 20 25
Persia
Although a definitive judgement of early history of magic squares is not available, it has been suggested that magic squares are probably of pre-Islamic Persian origin.[4] The study of magic squares in medieval Islam in Persia is however common, and supposedly, came after the introduction of Chess in Persia.[5] For instance in the tenth century, the Persian mathematician Buzjani has left a manuscript on page 33 of which there is a series of magic squares, which are filled by numbers in arithmetic progression in such a way that the sums on each line, column and diagonal are equal.[6]
Arabia
Magic squares were known to Islamic mathematicians, possibly as early as the 7th century, when the Arabs came into contact with Indian culture, and learned Indian mathematics and astronomy, including other aspects of combinatorial mathematics. It has also been suggested that the idea came via China. The first magic squares of order 5 and 6 appear in an encyclopedia from Baghdad circa 983 AD, the Rasa'il Ikhwan al-Safa (the Encyclopedia of the Brethren of Purity); simpler magic squares were known to several earlier Arab mathematicians.[2] The Arab mathematician Ahmad al-Buni, who worked on magic squares around 1250 A.D., attributed mystical properties to them, although no details of these supposed properties are known. There are also references to the use of magic squares in astrological calculations, a practice that seems to have originated with the Arabs.[2]
Magic square
147
India
The 3x3 magic square was used as part of rituals in India from vedic times, and continues to be used to this day. The Ganesh yantra is a 3x3 magic square. A well known early 4x4 magic square in India can be seen in Khajuraho in the Parshvanath Jain temple. It dates from the 10th century.[7]
7 2 16 9 12 13 3 6 1 8 10 15 14 11 5 4
This is referred to as the Chautisa Yantra, since each row, column, diagonal, 2x2 sub-square, the corners of each 3x3 and 4x4 square, the two sets of four symmetrical numbers (1+11+16+6 and 2+12+15+5), and the sum of the middle two entries of the two outer columns and rows (12+1+6+15 and 2+16+11+5), sums to 34.
Europe
In 1300, building on the work of the Arab Al-Buni, Greek Byzantine scholar Manuel Moschopoulos wrote a mathematical treatise on the subject of magic squares, leaving out the mysticism of his predecessors.[8] Moschopoulos is thought to be the first Westerner to have written on the subject. In the 1450s the Italian Luca Pacioli studied magic squares and collected a large number of examples.[2] In about 1510 Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa wrote De Occulta Philosophia, drawing on the Hermetic and magical works of Marsilio Ficino and Pico della Mirandola, and in it he expounded on the magical virtues of seven magical squares of orders 3 to 9, each associated with one of the astrological planets. This book was very influential throughout Europe until the counter-reformation, and Agrippa's magic squares, sometimes called Kameas, continue to be used within modern ceremonial magic in much the same way as he first prescribed.[2][9]
This page from Athanasius Kircher's Oedipus Aegyptiacus (1653) belongs to a treatise on magic squares and shows the Sigillum Iovis associated with Jupiter
Sol=111 Mars=65 Jupiter=34 Saturn=15 4 3 8 9 5 1 2 7 6 4 9 5 16 14 15 7 6 1 12 8 13 11 24 4 17 7 20 8 3 16 9 6 7 32 3 34 35 8 1 30
11 27 28
12 25 5
19 14 16 15 23 24 18 20 22 21 17 13 25 29 10 36 5 33 9 4 26 12 2 31
13 21 1 19
11 10 2 3
10 18 23 6
14 22 2 15
Magic square
148
Venus=175 22 47 16 41 10 35 5 30 4
23 48 17 42 11 29 6 24 49 18 36 12 7 25 43 19 37 1 33 9 26 44 20 2 34 27 45 3 28
13 31
38 14 32 21 39 8
46 15 40
Mercury=260 8 58 59 5 4 62 63 1
49 15 14 52 53 11 10 56 41 23 22 44 45 19 18 48 32 34 35 29 28 38 39 25 40 26 27 37 36 30 31 33 17 47 46 20 21 43 42 24 9 64 55 54 12 13 51 50 16 2 3 61 60 6 7 57
Luna=369 37 78 29 70 21 62 13 54 6 47 5
38 79 30 71 22 63 14 46 7 39 80 31 72 23 55 15 8 40 81 32 64 24 56 9 41 73 33 65 25 1 42 74 34 66 2 43 75 35 3 44 76 4 45
16 48
57 17 49
26 58 18 50
67 27 59 10 51
36 68 19 60 11 52
77 28 69 20 61 12 53
Magic square
149
The most common use for these Kameas is to provide a pattern upon which to construct the sigils of spirits, angels or demons; the letters of the entity's name are converted into numbers, and lines are traced through the pattern that these successive numbers make on the kamea. In a magical context, the term magic square is also applied to a variety of word squares or number squares found in magical grimoires, including some that do not follow any obvious pattern, and even those The derivation of the sigil of Hagiel, the with differing numbers of rows and columns. They are generally planetary intelligence of Venus, drawn on the intended for use as talismans. For instance the following squares are: magic square of Venus. Each Hebrew letter The Sator square, one of the most famous magic squares found in a provides a numerical value, giving the vertices of number of grimoires including the Key of Solomon; a square "to the sigil. overcome envy", from The Book of Power;[10] and two squares from The Book of the Sacred Magic of Abramelin the Mage, the first to cause the illusion of a superb palace to appear, and the second to be worn on the head of a child during an angelic invocation:
S A T O R A R E P O T E N E T O P E R A R O T A S 6 66 848 938 8 11 544 839 1 11 383 839 2 73 774 447
H E S E B E Q A L S E B G A D A M D A R A A R A D M A D A
Albrecht Drer's magic square

The order-4 magic square in Albrecht Drer's engraving Melencolia I is believed to be the first seen in European art. It is very similar to Yang Hui's square, which was created in China about 250 years before Drer's time. The sum 34 can be found in the rows, columns, diagonals, each of the quadrants, the center four squares, and the corner squares(of the 4x4 as well as the four contained 3x3 grids). This sum can also be found in the four outer numbers clockwise from the corners (3+8+14+9) and likewise the four counter-clockwise (the locations of four queens in the two solutions of the 4 queens puzzle [11]), the two sets of four symmetrical numbers (2+8+9+15 and 3+5+12+14), the sum of the middle two entries of the two outer columns and rows (5+9+8+12 and 3+2+15+14), and in four kite or cross shaped quartets Detail of Melencolia I (3+5+11+15, 2+10+8+14, 3+9+7+15, and 2+6+12+14). The two numbers in the middle of the bottom row give the date of the engraving: 1514. The numbers 1 and 4 at either side of the date correspond to, in English, the letters 'A' and 'D' which are the initials of the artist.
Magic square
150
16 5 9 4
13 8 12 1
10 11 6 7
15 14
Drer's magic square can also be extended to a magic cube.[12] Drer's magic square and his Melencolia I both also played large roles in Dan Brown's 2009 novel, The Lost Symbol.
Sagrada Famlia magic square

The Passion faade of the Sagrada Famlia church in Barcelona, designed by sculptor Josep Subirachs, features a 44 magic square: The magic constant of the square is 33, the age of Jesus at the time of the Passion. Structurally, it is very similar to the Melancholia magic square, but it has had the numbers in four of the cells reduced by 1.
A magic square on the Sagrada Famlia church faade
1 11 8 13
14 14 7 6
4 9 5 15
10 10 2 3
While having the same pattern of summation, this is not a normal magic square as above, as two numbers (10 and 14) are duplicated and two (12 and 16) are absent, failing the 1n2 rule. Similarly to Drer's magic square, the Sagrada Familia's magic square can also be extended to a magic cube.[13]
Types and construction

There are many ways to construct magic squares, but the standard (and most simple) way is to follow certain configurations/formulas which generate regular patterns. Magic squares exist for all values of n, with only one exception: it is impossible to construct a magic square of order 2. Magic squares can be classified into three types: odd, doubly even (n divisible by four) and singly even (n even, but not divisible by four). Odd and doubly even magic squares are easy to generate; the construction of singly even magic squares is more difficult but several methods exist, including the LUX method for magic squares (due to John Horton Conway) and the Strachey method for magic squares. Group theory was also used for constructing new magic squares of a given order from one of them, please see.[14]
Magic square The number of different nn magic squares for n from 1 to 5, not counting rotations and reflections: 1, 0, 1, 880, 275305224 (sequence A006052 in OEIS). The number for n = 6 has been estimated to 1.77451019.
151
Method for constructing a magic square of odd order

A method for constructing magic squares of odd order was published by the French diplomat de la Loubre in his book A new historical relation of the kingdom of Siam (Du Royaume de Siam, 1693), under the chapter entitled The problem of the magical square according to the Indians.[15] The method operates as follows: Starting from the central column of the first row with the number 1, the fundamental movement for filling the squares is diagonally up and right, one step at a time. If a filled square is encountered, one moves vertically down one square instead, then continuing as before. When a move would leave the square, it is wrapped around to the last row or first column, respectively.
Yang Hui's construction method
step 1 1 . .
step 2 1 . 2
step 3 1 3 2
step 4 1 3 4 2
step 5 1 3 5 4 2
step 6 1 6 3 5 4 2
step 7 1 6 3 5 7 4 2
step 8 8 1 6 3 5 7 4 2
step 9 8 1 6 3 5 7 4 9 2
Starting from other squares rather than the central column of the first row is possible, but then only the row and column sums will be identical and result in a magic sum, whereas the diagonal sums will differ. The result will thus be a semimagic square and not a true magic square. Moving in directions other than north east can also result in magic squares.
Magic square
152
Order 9 47 58 69 80 57 68 79 67 78 Order 5 17 24 Order 3 8 1 6 3 5 7 4 9 2 23 4 5 6 1 7 8 15 77 6 7 8 9 1 12 23 34 45
11 22 33 44 46
10 21 32 43 54 56
18 20 31 42 53 55 66
17 19 30 41 52 63 65 76 5 15
14 16
16 27 29 40 51 62 64 75 26 28 39 50 61 72 74 36 38 49 60 71 73 37 48 59 70 81 2 3 4
13 20 22 3 9
10 12 19 21 11 18 25 2
14 25
13 24 35
The following formulae help construct magic squares of odd order

Order Squares (n) Last No. Middle No. Sum (M) Ith row and Jth column No.
Example:
Order 5 Squares (n) Last No. Middle No. Sum (M) 5 25 13 65
The "Middle Number" is always in the diagonal bottom left to top right. The "Last Number" is always opposite the number 1 in an outside column or row.
A method of constructing a magic square of doubly even order

Doubly even means that n is an even multiple of an even integer; or 4p (e.g. 4, 8, 12), where p is an integer. Generic pattern All the numbers are written in order from left to right across each row in turn, starting from the top left hand corner. The resulting square is also known as a mystic square. Numbers are then either retained in the same place or interchanged with their diametrically opposite numbers in a certain regular pattern. In the magic square of order four, the numbers in the four central squares and one square at each corner are retained in the same place and the others are interchanged with their diametrically opposite numbers. A construction of a magic square of order 4 Go left to right through the square filling counting and filling in on the diagonals only. Then continue by going left to right from the top left of the table and fill in counting down from 16 to 1. As shown below.
Magic square
153
M = Order 4 1 6 7 4
M = Order 4 1 12 8 15 14 6 7 4 9 5 16
10 11 13 16
10 11 3 2
13
An extension of the above example for Orders 8 and 12 First generate a "truth" table, where a '1' indicates selecting from the square where the numbers are written in order 1 to n2 (left-to-right, top-to-bottom), and a '0' indicates selecting from the square where the numbers are written in reverse order n2 to 1. For M = 4, the "truth" table is as shown below, (third matrix from left.)
M = Order 4 1 5 9 2 6 3 7 4 8
M = Order 4 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 8 4 7 3 6 2 9 5 1
M = Order 4 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1
M = Order 4 1 12 8 13 15 14 6 7 4 9 5 16
10 11 12
10 11 3 2
13 14 15 16
Note that a) there are equal number of '1's and '0's; b) each row and each column are "palindromic"; c) the left- and right-halves are mirror images; and d) the top- and bottom-halves are mirror images (c & d imply b.) The truth table can be denoted as (9, 6, 6, 9) for simplicity (1-nibble per row, 4 rows.) Similarly, for M=8, two choices for the truth table are (A5, 5A, A5, 5A, 5A, A5, 5A, A5) or (99, 66, 66, 99, 99, 66, 66, 99) (2-nibbles per row, 8 rows.) For M=12, the truth table (E07, E07, E07, 1F8, 1F8, 1F8, 1F8, 1F8, 1F8, E07, E07, E07) yields a magic square (3-nibbles per row, 12 rows.) It is possible to count the number of choices one has based on the truth table, taking rotational symmetries into account.
Medjig-method of constructing magic squares of even number of rows

This method is based on a 2006 published mathematical game called medjig (author: Willem Barink, editor: Philos-Spiele). The pieces of the medjig puzzle are squares divided in four quadrants on which the numbers 0, 1, 2 and 3 are dotted in all sequences. There are 18 squares, with each sequence occurring 3 times. The aim of the puzzle is to take 9 squares out of the collection and arrange them in a 3 x 3 "medjig-square" in such a way that each row and column formed by the quadrants sums to 9, along with the two long diagonals. The medjig method of constructing a magic square of order 6 is as follows: Construct any 3 x 3 medjig-square (ignoring the original game's limit on the number of times that a given sequence is used). Take the 3 x 3 magic square and divide each of its squares into four quadrants. Fill these quadrants with the four numbers from 1 to 36 that equal the original number modulo 9, i.e. x+9y where x is the original number and y is a number from 0 to 3, following the pattern of the medjig-square. Example:
Magic square
154
Medjig 3 x 3 2 3 0 2 0 2 1 0 3 1 3 1 Order 3 8 1 6 3 5 7 4 9 2 3 1 1 2 2 0 0 2 0 3 3 1 3 2 2 0 0 2 0 1 3 1 1 3 26 35 17 8
Order 6 1 19 6 24
28 10 33 15 7
30 12 14 23 25 3 21 5
32 34 16 9 2 20
31 22 27 4
13 36 18 11 29
Similarly, for any larger integer N, a magic square of order 2N can be constructed from any N x N medjig-square with each row, column, and long diagonal summing to 3N, and any N x N magic square (using the four numbers from 1 to 4N^2 that equal the original number modulo N^2).
Construction of panmagic squares

Any number p in the order-n square can be uniquely written in the form p = an + r, with r chosen from {1,...,n}. Note that due to this restriction, a and r are not the usual quotient and remainder of dividing p by n. Consequently the problem of constructing can be split in two problems easier to solve. So, construct two matching square grids of order n satisfying panmagic properties, one for the a-numbers (0,..., n1), and one for the r-numbers (1,...,n). This requires a lot of puzzling, but can be done. When successful, combine them into one panmagic square. Van den Essen and many others supposed this was also the way Benjamin Franklin (17061790) constructed his famous Franklin squares. Three panmagic squares are shown below. The first two squares have been constructed April 2007 by Barink, the third one is some years older, and comes from Donald Morris, who used, as he supposes, the Franklin way of construction.
Order 8, sum 260 62 5 4 13 51 46 20 29 35
59 54 12 21 43 38 28 3 61 36 30 19 45 6 27 37 44 22
52 14
11 53 60 64 7 2
15 49 48 18 31 33
57 56 10 23 41 40 26 1 63 34 32 17 47 8 25 39 42 24
50 16 9
55 58
Magic square
155
Order 12, sum 870 138 19 128 5 136 21 130 3 134 23 132 1 8 17 127 114 6 43 32 41 103 90 56 65 79 30 67 77 92 54
125 140 18 7
101 116 42 31
137 104 20 29
113 80 66 55 89 44 53 91 78 68
139 126 10 15
115 102 34 99 40 39 118 33
129 112 4 45
105 88 58 63 81 28 69 75 94 52
123 142 16 9
135 106 22 27
111 82 64 57 87 46 51 93 76 70
141 124 12 13
117 100 36 97 38 119 37 120 35 98
131 110 2 47
107 86 60 61 83 26 71 73 96 50
121 144 14 11
133 108 24 25
109 84 62 59 85 48 49 95 74 72
143 122
Order 12, sum 870 1 142 11 136 8 138 5 139 12 135 2 141 120 121 27 22 48 99 38 85 72 73 60 58 75 70 87 97 46 24 25 144 3 134 9 137 7 140 6 133 10 143 4
123 118 14 35
110 131 33 16
95 62 83 50 107 40
105 52 81 64 93 41
129 112 17 32
113 128 31 18
92 65 80 53 104 42
103 54 79 66 91 44
127 114 20 29
116 125 30 19
89 68 77 56 101 43
102 55 78 67 90 37
126 115 13 36
109 132 34 15
96 61 84 49 108 39 98 45
106 51 82 63 94 47 86 71 74 59
130 111 23 26
119 122 28 21
100 57 76 69 88
124 117
The order 8 square satisfies all panmagic properties, including the Franklin ones. It consists of 4 perfectly panmagic 4x4 units. Note that both order 12 squares show the property that any row or column can be divided in three parts having a sum of 290 (= 1/3 of the total sum of a row or column). This property compensates the absence of the more standard panmagic Franklin property that any 1/2 row or column shows the sum of 1/2 of the total. For the rest the order 12 squares differ a lot.The Barink 12x12 square is composed of 9 perfectly panmagic 4x4 units, moreover any 4 consecutive numbers starting on any odd place in a row or column show a sum of 290. The Morris 12x12 square lacks these properties, but on the contrary shows constant Franklin diagonals. For a better understanding of the constructing decompose the squares as described above, and see how it was done. And note the difference between the Barink constructions on the one hand, and the Morris/Franklin construction on the other hand. In the book Mathematics in the Time-Life Science Library Series, magic squares by Euler and Franklin are shown. Franklin designed this one so that any four-square subset (any four contiguous squares that form a larger square, or any four squares equidistant from the center) total 130. In Euler's square, the rows and columns each total 260, and halfway they total 130and a chess knight, making its L-shaped moves on the square, can touch all 64 boxes in consecutive numerical order.
Magic square
156
Construction similar to the Kronecker Product

There is a method reminiscent of the Kronecker product of two matrices, that builds an nm x nm magic square from an n x n magic square and an m x m magic square.[16]
The construction of a magic square using genetic algorithms

A magic square can be constructed using genetic algorithms.[17] In this process an initial population of magic squares with random values are generated. The fitness scores of these individual magic squares are calculated based on the degree of deviation in the sums of the rows, columns, and diagonals. The population of magic squares reproduce by exchanging values, together with some random mutations. Those squares with a higher fitness score are more likely to reproduce. The next generation of the magic square population is again calculated for their fitness, and this process continues until a solution has been found or a time limit has been reached.
Generalizations
Extra constraints
Certain extra restrictions can be imposed on magic squares. If not only the main diagonals but also the broken diagonals sum to the magic constant, the result is a panmagic square. If raising each number to certain powers yields another magic square, the result is a bimagic, a trimagic, or, in general, a multimagic square.
Different constraints
Sometimes the rules for magic squares are relaxed, so that only the rows and columns but not necessarily the diagonals sum to the magic constant (this is usually called a semimagic square). In heterosquares and antimagic squares, the 2n+2 sums must all be different.
Multiplicative magic squares

Instead of adding the numbers in each row, column and diagonal, one can apply some other operation. For example, a multiplicative magic square has a constant product of numbers. A multiplicative magic square can be derived from an additive magic square by raising 2 (or any other integer) to the power of each element. For example, the original Lo-Shu magic square becomes:
M = 32768 16 8 256 512 32 2 4 128 64
Other examples of multiplicative magic squares include:
M = 6720 M = 216 2 9 12 1 1 6 20 56 2 24 7 3 4 10
40 28 14 12 5 8
36 6 3
4 18
Magic square Ali Skalli's non iterative method of construction is also applicable to multiplicative magic squares. On the 7x7 example below, the products of each line, each column and each diagonal is 6,227,020,800.
Skalli multiplicative 7 x 7 27 50 66 84 13 24 52 56 9 3 2 32
157
40 54 70 11 6
20 44 36 65 1
55 72 91 4
16 36 30
24 45 60 77 12 26 5 48 63
10 22 48 39 78 7 8
18 40 33 60
Multiplicative magic squares of complex numbers

Still using Ali Skalli's non iterative method, it is possible to produce an infinity of multiplicative magic squares of complex numbers[18] belonging to set. On the example below, the real and imaginary parts are integer numbers, but they can also belong to the entire set of real numbers i.
Skalli multiplicative 7 x 7 of complex numbers 21+14i 6335i 3115i 70+30i 28+114i 1313i 939i 14i 105217i 2+6i 16+50i 311i 4949i 5+9i 414i 148i
. The product is: 352,507,340,640 400,599,719,520
211+357i 12387i 46+2i 3127i 6+2i 77+91i 73+17i 7053i 4214i
103+69i 261213i 43+247i 8+14i 102i 50+20i 63+35i 17+20i
10284i 2814i 226i 54+68i 24+22i 7+7i
525492i 2842i 48i 110+160i 24i 84189i
138165i 5698i 4616i 64i
Other magic shapes

Other shapes than squares can be considered. The general case is to consider a design with N parts to be magic if the N parts are labeled with the numbers 1 through N and a number of identical sub-designs give the same sum. Examples include magic dodecahedrons, magic triangles[19] magic stars, and magic hexagons. Going up in dimension results in magic cubes, magic tesseracts and other magic hypercubes. Edward Shineman has developed yet another design in the shape of magic diamonds. Possible magic shapes are constrained by the number of equal-sized, equal-sum subsets of the chosen set of labels. For example, if one proposes to form a magic shape labeling the parts with {1, 2, 3, 4}, the sub-designs will have to be labeled with {1,4} and {2,3}.[19]
Magic square
158
Other component elements

Magic squares may be constructed which contain geometric shapes rather than numbers, as in the "geomagic squares" introduced by Lee Sallows.[20]
Combined extensions
One can combine two or more of the above extensions, resulting in such objects as multiplicative multimagic hypercubes. Little seems to be known about this subject.
Related problems
Over the years, many mathematicians, including Euler, Cayley and Benjamin Franklin have worked on magic squares, and discovered fascinating relations.
Magic square of primes

Rudolf Ondrejka (19282001) discovered the following 3x3 magic square of primes, in this case nine Chen primes:
17 89 71 5
113 59 47
29 101
The GreenTao theorem implies that there are arbitrarily large magic squares consisting of primes. Using Ali Skalli's non-iterative method of magic squares construction, it is easy to create magic squares of primes[21] of any dimension. In the example below, many symmetries appear (including all sorts of crosses), as well as the horizontal and vertical translations of all those. The magic constant is 13665.
Skalli Primes 5 x 5 2087 2633 2803 2753 3389 2843 2729 3347 2099 2647 3359 2113 2687 2819 2687 2663 2777 2699 3373 2153 2713 3413 2129 2621 2789
It is believed that an infinite number of Skalli's magic squares of prime exist, but no demonstration exists to date. However, it is possible to easily produce a considerable number of them, not calculable in the absence of demonstration.
Magic square
159
n-Queens problem
In 1992, Demirrs, Rafraf, and Tanik published a method for converting some magic squares into n-queens solutions, and vice versa.[22]
Notes
[1] " Magic Square (http:/ / demonstrations. wolfram. com/ MagicSquare/ )" by Onkar Singh, Wolfram Demonstrations Project. [2] Swaney, Mark. (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20040807015853/ http:/ / www. netmastersinc. com/ secrets/ magic_squares. htm). [3] The most famous Arabic book in magics, named "Shams Al-ma'arif (Arabic: ,) for Ahmed bin Ali Al-boni who died about 1225 (622 AH).reprinted in Beirut in 1985 [4] J. P. Hogendijk, A. I. Sabra, The Enterprise of Science in Islam: New Perspectives, Published by MIT Press, 2003, ISBN 0262194821, p. xv. [5] Helaine Selin, Ubiratan D'Ambrosio, Mathematics Across Cultures: The History of Non-western Mathematics, Published by Springer, 2001, ISBN 140200260, p. 160. [6] Sesiano, J., Abal-Waf\rasp's treatise on magic squares (french), Z. Gesch. Arab.-Islam. Wiss. 12 (1998), 121--244. [7] Magic Squares and Cubes By William Symes Andrews, 1908, Open court publish company [8] Manuel Moschopoulos - Mathematics and the Liberal Arts (http:/ / mtcs. truman. edu/ ~thammond/ history/ ManuelMoschopoulos. html) [9] Drury, Nevill (1992). Dictionary of Mysticism and the Esoteric Traditions. Bridport, Dorset: Prism Press. ISBN1-85327-075-X. [10] "The Book of Power: Cabbalistic Secrets of Master Aptolcater, Mage of Adrianople", transl. 1724. In Shah, Idries (1957). The Secret Lore of Magic. London: Frederick Muller Ltd. [11] http:/ / www. muljadi. org/ MagicSquares. htm [12] " Magic cube with Drer's square (http:/ / sites. google. com/ site/ aliskalligvaen/ home-page/ -magic-cube-with-duerer-s-square)" Ali Skalli's magic squares and magic cubes [13] " Magic cube with Gaudi's square (http:/ / sites. google. com/ site/ aliskalligvaen/ home-page/ -magic-cube-with-gaudi-s-square)" Ali Skalli's magic squares and magic cubes [14] http:/ / www. gaspalou. fr/ magic-squares/ index. htm [15] Mathematical Circles Squared" By Phillip E. Johnson, Howard Whitley Eves, p.22 [16] Hartley, M. "Making Big Magic Squares" (http:/ / www. dr-mikes-math-games-for-kids. com/ making-big-magic-squares. html). [17] Evolving a Magic Square using Genetic Algorithms (http:/ / www. dcs. napier. ac. uk/ ~benp/ summerschool/ jdemos/ herdy/ magic_problem2. html) [18] " 8x8 multiplicative magic square of complex numbers (http:/ / sites. google. com/ site/ aliskalligvaen/ home-page/ -multiplicative-of-complex-numbers-8x8)" Ali Skalli's magic squares and magic cubes [19] Magic Designs,Robert B. Ely III, Journal of Recreational Mathematics volume 1 number 1, January 1968 [20] Magic squares are given a whole new dimension (http:/ / www. guardian. co. uk/ science/ 2011/ apr/ 03/ magic-squares-geomagic-lee-sallows), The Observer, April 3, 2011 [21] " magic square of primes (http:/ / sites. google. com/ site/ aliskalligvaen/ home-page/ -5x5-square-of-prime-numbers)" Ali Skalli's magic squares and magic cubes [22] O. Demirrs, N. Rafraf, and M.M. Tanik. Obtaining n-queens solutions from magic squares and constructing magic squares from n-queens solutions. Journal of Recreational Mathematics, 24:272280, 1992
References
Weisstein, Eric W., " Magic Square (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MagicSquare.html)" from MathWorld. Magic Squares (http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument&nodeId=528& bodyId=784) at Convergence (http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/) W. S. Andrews, Magic Squares and Cubes. (New York: Dover, 1960), originally printed in 1917 John Lee Fults, Magic Squares. (La Salle, Illinois: Open Court, 1974). Cliff Pickover, The Zen of Magic Squares, Circles, and Stars (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press) Leonhard Euler, On magic squares ( pdf (http://arxiv.org/pdf/math/0408230) ) Mark Farrar, Magic Squares ( (http://www.MagicSquaresBook.com/) ) Asker Ali Abiyev, The Natural Code of Numbered Magic Squares (1996), <http://www1.gantep.edu.tr/~abiyev/abiyeving.htm>
William H. Benson (http://cboyer.club.fr/multimagie/English/BensonDickinson.htm) and Oswald Jacoby, "New Recreations with Magic Squares". (New York: Dover, 1976).
Magic square A 'perfect' magic square (http://www.doermann.com/square/index.html) presented as a magic trick (Online Generator - Magic Square 4x4 using Javascript) Magic Squares of Order 4,5,6, and some theory (http://www.hbmeyer.de/backtrack/mag4en.htm) Evolving a Magic Square using Genetic Algorithms (http://www.dcs.napier.ac.uk/~benp/summerschool/ jdemos/herdy/magic_problem2.html) Magic squares and magic cubes (http://sites.google.com/site/aliskalligvaen/home-page): examples of magic squares and magic cubes built with Ali Skalli's non iterative method
160
Further reading
Charney, Noah The Art Thief Atria (2007), a novel with a key plot point involving a magic square. McCranie, Judson (November 1988). "Magic Squares of All Orders". Mathematics Teacher: 67478. King, J. R. (1963). Magic Square Numbers. Magic square (http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Recreations/Magic_Square/) at the Open Directory Project
Magic star
An n-pointed magic star is a star polygon with Schlfli symbol {n/2} in which numbers are placed at each of the n vertices and n intersections, such that the four numbers on each line sum to the same magic constant. A normal magic star contains the consecutive integers 1 to 2n. The magic constant of an n-pointed normal magic star is M=4n+2. No star polygons with fewer than 5 points exist, and the construction of a normal 5-pointed magic star turns out to be impossible. The smallest examples of normal magic stars are therefore 6-pointed. Some examples are given below. Notice that for specific values of n, the n-pointed magic stars are also known as magic hexagram etc.
Magic hexagram M = 26
Magic heptagram M = 30
Magic octagram M = 34
External links
Marian Trenkler's Magic Stars [1] Gianni Sarcone's Magic Star [2]
References
[1] http:/ / math. ku. sk/ ~trenkler/ MagicStars. doc [2] http:/ / www. archimedes-lab. org/ pzm58b. html
Magic tesseract
161
Magic tesseract
In mathematics, a magic tesseract is the 4-dimensional counterpart of a magic square and magic cube, that is, a number of integers arranged in an n n n n pattern such that the sum of the numbers on each pillar (along any axis) as well as the main space diagonals is equal to a single number, the so-called magic constant of the tesseract, denoted M4(n). It can be shown that if a magic tesseract consists of the numbers 1, 2, ..., n4, then it has magic constant (sequence A021003 in OEIS)
The number n is called the order of the magic tesseract.
Perfect magic tesseract

If, in addition, the numbers on every cross section diagonal also sum up to the tesseract's magic constant, the tesseract is called a perfect magic tesseract; otherwise, it is called a semiperfect magic tesseract.
Alternative Definition
The above assumes that one of the older definitions for perfect magic cubes is used. See Magic Cube Classes. The Universal Classification System for Hypercubes (John R. Hendricks) requires that for any dimension hypercube, all possible lines sum correctly for the hypercube to be considered perfect magic. Because of the confusion with the term perfect, nasik is now the preferred term for any magic hypercube where all possible lines sum to S. Nasik was defined in this manner by C. Planck in 1905. A nasik magic tesseract has 40 lines of m numbers passing through each of the m4 cells. The smallest possible nasik magic tesseract is of order 16; its magic constant is 524296. The first one was discovered by retired meteorologist John R. Hendricks from British Columbia in 1999 with the help of Cliff Pickover at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York after about ten hours of computing time on an IBM IntelliStation computer system.
References
Andrews, W.S., Magic Squares and Cubes, Dover, Publ., 1960, this is a facsimile of an Open Court 1917 edition. Two essays on 'octahedrons' (pages 351 - 375 written by Kingsley and Planck. Hendricks, John R., Magic Squares to Tesseract by Computer, Self-published, 1998, 0-9684700-0-9 Hendricks, John R., All Third-Order Magic Tesseracts, Self-published, 1999, 0-9684700-2-5 Hendricks, John R., Perfect n-Dimensional Magic Hypercubes of Order 2n, Self-published, 1999, 0-9684700-4-1. Heinz, H.D., & Hendricks, J.R., Magic Square Lexicon: Illustrated, HDH, 2000, 0-9687985-0-0 Unfortunately, all of Hendricks books (except the Lexicon) are now out-of-print. Some are available for download in PDF from his web site. All are available at the Strens Recreational Mathematics Collection (Univ. of C.)
Magic tesseract
162
External links
John Hendricks Math [1] University of Calgary, Strens Rec. Math * [http://math.ku.sk/~trenkler/06-MagicTesseract.pdf Marian Trenkler: An algorithm for magic tesseract] Collections [2] 11 pages about magic tesseracts [3]
References
[1] http:/ / members. shaw. ca/ johnhendricksmath/ [2] http:/ / www. ucalgary. ca/ lib-old/ sfgate/ strens/ index. html [3] http:/ / members. shaw. ca/ tesseracts/
Most-perfect magic square
Most-perfect magic square from the Parshvanath Jain temple in Khajuraho
7 2 16 9
12 13 3 6
1 8 10 15
14 11 5 4
transcription of the indian numerals
A most-perfect magic square of order n is a magic square containing the numbers 1 to n2 with two additional properties: 1. Each 22 subsquare sums to 2s, where s=n2+1. 2. All pairs of integers distant n/2 along a (major) diagonal sum to s.
163
Examples
Two 1212 most-perfect magic squares can be obtained adding 1 to each element of: [,1] 64 31 24 23 16 75 76 115 116 123 124 71 [,1] 4 136 73 64 1 103 112 34 43 106 115 67 [,2] 92 99 132 107 140 55 80 15 40 7 32 59 [,2] 113 33 44 105 116 66 5 135 74 63 2 102 [,3] 81 14 41 6 33 58 93 98 133 106 141 54 [,3] 14 126 83 54 11 93 122 24 53 96 125 57 [,4] 94 97 134 105 142 53 82 13 42 5 34 57 [,4] 131 15 62 87 134 48 23 117 92 45 20 84 [,5] 48 47 8 39 0 91 60 131 100 139 108 87 [,5] 3 137 72 65 0 104 111 35 42 107 114 68 [,6] 77 114 117 122 125 70 65 30 25 22 17 74 [,6] 121 25 52 97 124 58 13 127 82 55 10 94 [,7] 67 28 27 20 19 72 79 112 119 120 127 68 [,7] 31 109 100 37 28 76 139 7 70 79 142 40 [,8] 63 128 103 136 111 84 51 44 11 36 3 88 [,8] 138 8 69 80 141 41 30 110 99 38 27 77 [,9] [,10] [,11] [,12] 50 61 83 78 45 130 12 113 10 101 43 118 37 138 4 121 2 109 35 126 89 86 56 69 62 49 95 66 129 46 96 29 102 9 135 26 137 38 104 21 110 1 143 18 85 90 52 73 [,9] [,10] [,11] [,12] 21 120 32 130 119 26 108 16 90 51 101 61 47 98 36 88 18 123 29 133 86 59 75 49 129 12 140 22 17 128 6 118 60 81 71 91 89 56 78 46 132 9 143 19 50 95 39 85
[1,] [2,] [3,] [4,] [5,] [6,] [7,] [8,] [9,] [10,] [11,] [12,]
[1,] [2,] [3,] [4,] [5,] [6,] [7,] [8,] [9,] [10,] [11,] [12,]
Properties
All most-perfect magic squares are panmagic squares. Apart from the trivial case of the first order square, most-perfect magic squares are all of order 4n. In their book, Kathleen Ollerenshaw and David S. Bre give a method of construction and enumeration of all most-perfect magic squares. They also show that there is a one-to-one correspondence between reversible magic squares and most-perfect magic squares. For n=36, there are about 2.71044 essentially different most-perfect magic squares.
164
References
Kathleen Ollerenshaw, David S. Bre: Most-perfect Pandiagonal Magic Squares: Their Construction and Enumeration, Southend-on-Sea : Institute of Mathematics and its Applications, 1998, 186 pages, ISBN 0-905091-06-X T.V.Padmakumar, Number Theory and Magic Squares, Sura books [1], India, 2008, 128 pages, ISBN 978-81-8449-321-4
External links
A051235: Number of essentially different most-perfect pandiagonal magic squares of order 4n [1] from The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences
References
[1] http:/ / www. surabooks. com/ ProductDisplay. asp?RefID=2800
Multimagic cube
In mathematics, a P-multimagic cube is a magic cube that remains magic even if all its numbers are replaced by their k-th power for 1 k P. Thus, a magic cube is bimagic when it is 2-multimagic, and trimagic when it is 3-multimagic, tetramagic when it is 4-multimagic. [1] A P-multimagic cube is said to be semi-perfect if the k-th power cubes are perfect for 1 k < P, and the P-th power cube is semiperfect. If all P of the power cubes are perfect, the multimagic cube is said to be perfect. The first known example of a bimagic cube was given by John Hendricks in 2000; it is a semiperfect cube of order 25 and magic constant 195325. In 2003, C. Bower discovered two semi-perfect bimagic cubes of order 16, and a perfect bimagic cube of order 32.[2] MathWorld reports that only two trimagic cubes are known, discovered by C. Bower in 2003; a semiperfect cube of order 64 and a perfect cube of order 256.[3] It also reports that he discovered the only two known tetramagic cubes, a semiperfect cube of order 1024, and perfect cube of order 8192.[4]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] Weisstein, Eric W., " Multimagic cube (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ MultimagicCube. html)" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., " Bimagic Cube (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ BimagicCube. html)" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., " Trimagic Cube (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ TriMagic. html)" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., " Tetramagic Cube (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ TetramagicCube. html)" from MathWorld.
Multimagic square
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Multimagic square

Bimagic square
a b c d e f g h i
Multimagic square
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or
16 41 36 5 27 62 55 18 8
26 63 54 19 13 44 33 1
40 45 12 22 51 58 31 4 37 48 9
23 50 59 30 38 3
10 47 49 24 29 60 2 11 46
52 21 32 57 39 43 14 7
34 64 25 20 53 6 35
61 28 17 56 42 15
Trimagic square
1 9 75 74 22 119 141 8 33 45 35 106 41 62 66 93 14 43 37 126 89 99 32 16 127 128 79 52 131 83 38 88 104 112 123 144 30 97 96 103 59 10 54 24 29 139 100 110 39 21 3 50 77 143 61 40 26 4 137 44 69 118 28 81 47 111 82 136 70 71 5 23 90 13 72 87 65 94
115 107 48 49 42 86 57 12 60 67
102 133 108 19 56 46 113 129 18 17 85 78 15 134 36 7 53
140 101 124 122 55 76 27 142 95 68 2 84 105 31
135 130 91 11
132 117 73 58 80 51 64 98 34 63
121 109 116 138 6 20 92 25
120 125 114
Multimagic square
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Higher order
References
External links
Mystic square
The square array of the integers 1 through n2 that is generated when a method for constructing a 44 magic square is generalized was called a mystic square by Joel B. Wolowelsky and David Shakow in their article describing a method for constructing a magic square whose order is a multiple of 4.[1] A 44 magic square can be constructed by writing out the numbers from 1 to 16 consecutively in a 44 matrix and then interchanging those numbers on the diagonals that are equidistant from the center. (Figure 1). The sum of each row, column and diagonal is 34, the magic number for a 44 magic square. In general, the magic number for an nn magic square is n(n^2+1)/2.
Properties of a mystic square

As seen in the example for a 66 square (Figure 2), the properties of the mystic square are related to those of a 66 magic square. The sum of the diagonals is 111, the magic number for a 66 magic square. The sums of the rows increase arithmetically with a common difference of 12 and an average of 111. The columns also increase arithmetically with a common difference of 2 and an average of 111. The quotient of the two common differences is 6. This pattern proves true for all values of n. For the special case of n=4 (where the mystic square is already a magic square), the quotient of the common differences is the indeterminate 0/0, which may be assigned the value 4
Mystic square for consistency.
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Converting an nn mystic square to a magic square when n is a multiple of 4

As illustrated in the case where n=8, the method consists of changing the position of the numbers that lie of the sides of the square that is formed by joining the midpoints of the sides of the mystic square (Figure 3). Each of these lines is first reflected with the number on the opposite end of the same line (Figure 4). These numbers are in turn reflected across the board (Figure 5). This produces an 8x8 Magic Square. In general, (n/4)1 reflection lines are required to convert an nn mystic square into a magic square. When applying this method to a 1212 mystic square, two reflection lines are necessary (Figure 6). Note that each reflection line must contain n terms. In the case of the 1212 illustrated here, each second set (4, 15, 26, 37) contains only 4 terms, and so must be completed by adding two terms (54, 65). (In the case of a 44 mystic square, 0 reflection lines are required.)
Mystic square
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Mystic square
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References
[1] Joel Wolowelsky and David Shakow, Magic Square, The Mathematics Students Journal, published by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. Fall 1963, pp34
Nasik magic hypercube
171

A Nasik magic hypercube is a magic hypercube with the added restriction that all possible lines through each cell sum correctly to hypercube. Or, to put it more concisely, all pan-r-agonals sum correctly for r = 1...n. The above definition is the same as the Hendricks definition of perfect, but different than the Boyer/Trump definition. See Perfect magic cube Because of the confusion over the term perfect when used with reference to magic squares, magic cubes, and in general magic hypercubes, I am proposing the above as an unambiguous term. Following is an attempt to use the magic cube as a specific example. A Nasik magic cube is a magic cube with the added restriction that all 13m2 possible lines sum correctly to the magic constant. This class of magic cube is commonly called perfect (John Hendricks definition.). See Magic cube classes. However, the term perfect is ambiguous because it is also used for other types of magic cubes. Perfect magic cube demonstrates just one example of this. The term nasik would apply to all dimensions of magic hypercubes in which the number of correctly summing paths (lines) through any cell of the hypercube is P = (3n- 1)/2 A pandiagonal magic square then would be a nasik square because 4 magic line pass through each of the m2cells. This was A.H. Frosts original definition of nasik. A nasik magic cube would have 13 magic lines passing through each of its m3 cells. (This cube also contains 9m pandiagonal magic squares of order m.) A nasik magic tesseract would have 40 lines passing through each of its m4 cells. And so on. where S = the magic constant, m = the order and n = the dimension, of the
Background support
In 1866 and 1878, Rev. A. H. Frost coined the term Nasik for the type of magic square we commonly call pandiagonal and often call perfect. He then demonstrated the concept with an order-7 cube we now class as pandiagonal, and an order-8 cube we class as pantriagonal.[1][2] In another 1878 paper he showed another pandiagonal magic cube and a cube where all 13m lines sum correctly[3] i.e. Hendricks perfect.[4] He referred to all of these cubes as nasik! In 1905 Dr. Planck expanded on the nasik idea in his Theory of Paths Nasik. In the introductory to his paper, he wrote; Analogy suggest that in the higher dimensions we ought to employ the term nasik as implying the existence of magic summations parallel to any diagonal, and not restrict it to diagonals in sections parallel to the plane faces. The term is used in this wider sense throughout the present paper. C. Planck, M.A.,M.R.C.S., The Theory of Paths Nasik, 1905[5] In 1917, Dr. Planck wrote again on this subject. It is not difficult to perceive that if we push the Nasik analogy to higher dimensions the number of magic directions through any cell of a k-fold must be (3k-1). W. S. Andrews, Magic Squares and Cubes, Dover Publ., 1917, page 366 [6] In 1939, B. Rosser and R. J. Walker published a series of papers on diabolic (perfect) magic squares and cubes. They specifically mentioned that these cubes contained 13m2 correctly summing lines. They also had 3m pandiagonal magic squares parallel to the faces of the cube, and 6m pandiagonal magic squares parallel to the triagonal planes.[7]
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Conclusion
If the term nasik is adopted as the definition for a magic hypercube where all possible lines sum correctly, there will no longer be confusion over what exactly is a Perfect magic cube. And, as in Hendricks definition of perfect, all pan-r-agonals sum correctly, and all lower dimension hypercubes contained in it are nasik (Hendricks perfect).
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] Frost, A. H., Invention of Magic Cubes, Quarterly Journal of Mathematics, 7,1866, pp92-102 Frost, A. H., On the General Properties of Nasik Squares, QJM, 15, 1878, pp 34-49 Frost, A. H. On the General Properties of Nasik Cubes, QJM, 15, 1878, pp 93-123 Heinz, H.D., and Hendricks, J.R., Magic Square Lexicon: Illustrated, 2000, 0-9687985-0-0 pp 119-122 Planck, C., M.A.,M.R.C.S., The Theory of Paths Nasik, 1905, printed for private circulation. Introductory letter to the paper. Andrews, W. S., Magic Squares and Cubes, Dover Publ. 1917. Essay pages 363-375 written by C. Planck Rosser, B. and Walker, R. J., Magic Squares: Published papers and Supplement, 1939. A bound volume at Cornell University, catalogued as QA 165 R82+pt.1-4
External links
History, definitions, and examples of perfect magic cubes and other dimensions. (http://members.shaw.ca/ hdhcubes/cube_perfect.htm) An alternative definition of Perfect, with history of recent discoveries (http://multimagie.com/indexengl.htm) More on this alternative definition. (http://www.trump.de/magic-squares/magic-cubes/cubes-1.html) A Magic Hypercube encyclopedia with a broad range of material (http://www.magichypercubes.com/ Encyclopedia/index.html) A Unified classification system for hypercubes (http://members.shaw.ca/hdhcubes/index.htm#6 Classes of Cubes) An ambitious ongoing work on classifications of magic cubes and tesseracts (http://homepage2.nifty.com/ googol/magcube/en/) A variety of John R. Hendricks material, written under his direction (http://members.shaw.ca/ johnhendricksmath/) Categories
Panmagic square
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Panmagic square
A pandiagonal magic square or panmagic square (also diabolic square, diabolical square or diabolical magic square) is a magic square with the additional property that the broken diagonals, i.e. the diagonals that wrap round at the edges of the square, also add up to the magic constant. A pandiagonal magic square remains pandiagonally magic not only under rotation or reflection, but also if a row or column is moved from one side of the square to the opposite side. As such, an nn pandiagonal magic square can be regarded as having 8n2 orientations.
44 panmagic squares
The smallest non-trivial pandiagonal magic squares are 44 squares.
1 8 13 12 2 16 3 7 9 6
14 11 4 5
15 10
In 44 panmagic squares, the magic constant of 34 can be seen in a number of patterns in addition to the rows, columns and diagonals: Any of the sixteen 22 squares, including those that wrap around the edges of the whole square, e.g. 14+11+4+5, 1+12+15+6 The corners of any 33 square, e.g. 8+12+5+9 Any pair of horizontally or vertically adjacent numbers, together with the corresponding pair displaced by a (2, 2) vector, e.g. 1+8+16+9 Thus of the 86 possible sums adding to 34, 52 of them form regular patterns, compared with 10 for an ordinary 44 magic square. There are only three distinct 44 pandiagonal magic squares, namely the one above and the following:
1 8 10 15
12 13 3 6
7 2 16 9
14 11 5 4
11 14 2 16 5 7 9 4
12 13 6 3
15 10
In any 44 pandiagonal magic square, any two numbers at the opposite corners of a 33 square add up to 17. Consequently, no 44 panmagic squares are associative.
Panmagic square
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55 panmagic squares
There are many 55 pandiagonal magic squares. Unlike 44 panmagic squares, these can be associative. The following is a 55 associative panmagic square:
20 11 7 3 8 4 21 14 2
17 10 23 1 19
25 13 16 9 5
22 15 18 6
24 12
In addition to the rows, columns, and diagonals, a 55 pandiagonal magic square also shows its magic sum in four "quincunx" patterns, which in the above example are: 17+25+13+1+9 = 65 (center plus adjacent row and column squares) 21+7+13+19+5 = 65 (center plus the remaining row and column squares) 4+10+13+16+22 = 65 (center plus diagonally adjacent squares) 20+2+13+24+6 = 65 (center plus the remaining squares on its diagonals) Each of these quincunxes can be translated to other positions in the square by cyclic permutation of the rows and columns (wrapping around), which in a pandiagonal magic square does not affect the equality of the magic sums. This leads to 100 quincunx sums, including broken quincunxes analogous to broken diagonals. The quincunx sums can be proved by taking linear combinations of the row, column, and diagonal sums. Consider the panmagic square
A B C D E F G H I J
K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y
with magic sum Z. To prove the quincunx sum A+E+M+U+Y = Z (corresponding to the 20+2+13+24+6 = 65 example given above), one adds together the following: 3 times each of the diagonal sums A+G+M+S+Y and E+I+M+Q+U The diagonal sums A+J+N+R+V, B+H+N+T+U, D+H+L+P+Y,and E+F+L+R+X The row sums A+B+C+D+E and U+V+W+X+Y From this sum the following are subtracted: The row sums F+G+H+I+J and P+Q+R+S+T The column sum C+H+M+R+W Twice each of the column sums B+G+L+Q+V and D+I+N+S+X. The net result is 5A+5E+5M+5U+5Y = 5Z, which divided by 5 gives the quincunx sum. Similar linear combinations can be constructed for the other quincunx patterns H+L+M+N+R, C+K+M+O+W, and G+I+M+Q+S.
Panmagic square
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External links
Panmagic Square at MathWorld [1]
References
W. S. Andrews, Magic Squares and Cubes. New York: Dover, 1960. Originally printed in 1917. See especially ChapterX.
References
[1] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ PanmagicSquare. html
Perfect magic cube

In mathematics, a perfect magic cube is a magic cube in which not only the columns, rows, pillars and main space diagonals, but also the cross section diagonals sum up to the cube's magic constant. Perfect magic cubes of order one are trivial; cubes of orders two to four can be proven not to exist, and cubes of orders five and six were first discovered by Walter Trump and Christian Boyer on November 13 and September 1, 2003, respectively. A perfect magic cube of order seven was given by A. H. Frost in 1866, and on March 11, 1875, an article was published in the Cincinnati Commercial newspaper on the discovery of a perfect magic cube of order 8 by Gustavus Frankenstein. Perfect magic cubes of orders nine and eleven have also been constructed. The first perfect cube of order 10 has been constructed in 1988. (Li Wen, China)
An alternative definition
In recent years, an alternative definition for the perfect magic cube was proposed by John R. Hendricks. It is based on the fact that a pandiagonal magic square has traditionally been called 'perfect', because all possible lines sum correctly. This is not the case with the above definition for the cube. See Nasik magic hypercube for an unambiguous alternative term This same reasoning may be applied to hypercubes of any dimension. Simply stated; if all possible lines of m cells (m = order) sum correctly, the hypercube is perfect. All lower dimension hypercubes contained in this hypercube will then also be perfect. This is not the case with the original definition, which does not require that the planar and diagonal squares be a pandiagonal magic cube. The original definition is applicable only to magic cubes, not tesseracts, dimension 5 cubes, etc. Example: A perfect magic cube of order 8 has 244 correct lines by the old definition, but 832 correct lines by this new definition. Order 8 is the smallest possible perfect magic cube. None can exist for double odd orders. Gabriel Arnoux constructed an order 17 perfect magic cube in 1887. F.A.P.Barnard published order 8 and order 11 perfect cubes in 1888. By the modern (Hendricks) definition, there are actually six classes of magic cube; simple magic cube, pantriagonal magic cube, diagonal magic cube, pantriagdiag magic cube, pandiagonal magic cube, and perfect magic cube. Nasik; A. H. Frost (1866) referred to all but the simple magic cube as Nasik! C. Planck (1905) redefined Nasik to mean magic hypercubes of any order or dimension in which all possible lines summed correctly. i.e. Nasik is an alternative, and unambiguous term for the perfect class of any dimension of magic hypercube.
Perfect magic cube
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First known Perfect Pandiagonaal Semi-magisch Magic Cube

Thomas Krijgsman, 1982 March, 21 number 5 / link: http://www.pythagoras.nu/pyth/nummer.php?id=253 -Row 1 (4x4)- - - - - -Row 2 (4x4)- - - - - -Row 3 (4x4)- - - - - - Row 4 (4x4) [32]-[05]-[52]-[41] = [10]-[35]-[22]-[63] = [49]-[28]-[45]-[08] = [39]-[62]-[11]-[18] [03]-[42]-[31]-[54] = [37]-[64]-[09]-[20] = [30]-[07]-[50]-[43] = [60]-[17]-[40]-[13] [61]-[24]-[33]-[12] = [27]-[02]-[55]-[46] = [36]-[57]-[16]-[21] = [06]-[47]-[26]-[51] [34]-[59]-[14]-[23] = [56]-[29]-[44]-[01] = [15]-[38]-[19]-[58] = [25]-[04]-[53]-[48] 3D solution in my head, fill the numbers on graph paper, that all. Walter Trump and Christian Boyer, 2003-11-13 This cube consists of all numbers from 1 to 125. The sum of the 5 numbers in each of the 25 rows, 25 columns, 25 pillars, 30 diagonals and 4 triagonals (space diagonals) equals the magic constant 315.
1 level 2 level
3 level
4 level
5 level
References
Frost, A. H. (1878). "On the General Properties of Nasik Cubes". Quart. J. Math. 15: 93123. Planck, C., The Theory of Paths Nasik, Printed for private circulation, A.J. Lawrence, Printer, Rugby,(England), 1905 H.D, Heinz & J.R. Hendricks, Magic Square Lexicon: Illustrated, hdh, 2000, 0-9687985-0-0
External links
Frankenstein, G. (1878). "A big puzzle" [1]. Trump, Walter. "Perfect magic cube of order 6 found" [4]. Christian Boyer: Perfect magic cubes [2] MathWorld news: Perfect magic cube of order 5 discovered [3] MathWorld: Perfect magic cube [4] Harvey Heinz: Perfect Magic Hypercubes [2] Aale de Winkel: The Magic Encyclopedia [5] Impossibility Proof for doubly odd order Pandiagonal and Perfect hypercubes [5]
Perfect magic cube
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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] http:/ / www. multimagie. com/ English/ Frankenstein. htm http:/ / perso. club-internet. fr/ cboyer/ multimagie/ English/ Perfectcubes. htm http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ news/ 2003-11-18/ magiccube/ http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ PerfectMagicCube. html http:/ / members. shaw. ca/ hdhcubes/ cube_update-1. htm#Pandiagonal%20impossibility%20proof
Prime reciprocal magic square

A prime reciprocal magic square is a magic square using the decimal digits of the reciprocal of a prime number. Consider a number divided into one, like 1/3 or 1/7. In base ten, the remainder, and so the digits, of 1/3 repeats at once: 03333... However, the remainders of 1/7 repeat over six, or 7-1, digits: 1/7 = 0142857142857142857... If you examine the multiples of 1/7, you can see that each is a cyclic permutation of these six digits: 1/7 2/7 3/7 4/7 5/7 6/7 = = = = = = 01 02 04 05 07 08 4 8 2 7 1 5 2 5 8 1 4 7 8 7 5 4 2 1 5 1 7 2 8 4 7... 4... 1... 8... 5... 2...
If the digits are laid out as a square, it is obvious that each row will sum to 1+4+2+8+5+7, or 27, and only slightly less obvious that each column will also do so, and consequently we have a magic square: 1 2 4 5 7 8 4 8 2 7 1 5 2 5 8 1 4 7 8 7 5 4 2 1 5 1 7 2 8 4 7 4 1 8 5 2
However, neither diagonal sums to 27, but all other prime reciprocals in base ten with maximum period of p-1 produce squares in which all rows and columns sum to the same total. Other properties of Prime Reciprocals: Midy's theorem The repeating pattern of an even number of digits [7-1, 11-1, 13-1, 17-1, 19-1, 29-1, ...] in the quotients when broken in half are the nines-complement of each half: 1/7 = 0.142,857,142,857 ... +0.857,142 --------0.999,999 1/11 = 0.09090,90909 ... +0.90909,09090 ----0.99999,99999 1/13 = 0.076,923 076,923 ... +0.923,076 ---------
Prime reciprocal magic square 0.999,999 1/17 = 0.05882352,94117647 +0.94117647,05882352 ------------------0.99999999,99999999 1/19 = 0.052631578,947368421 ... +0.947368421,052631578 ---------------------0.999999999,999999999 Ekidhikena Purvena From: Bharati Krishna Tirtha's Vedic mathematics#By one more than the one before Concerning the number of decimal places shifted in the quotient per multiple of 1/19: 01/19 02/19 04/19 08/19 16/19 = = = = = 0.052631578,947368421 0.1052631578,94736842 0.21052631578,9473684 0.421052631578,947368 0.8421052631578,94736
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A factor of 2 in the numerator produces a shift of one decimal place to the right in the quotient. In the square from 1/19, with maximum period 18 and row-and-column total of 81, both diagonals also sum to 81, and this square is therefore fully magic: 01/19 02/19 03/19 04/19 05/19 06/19 07/19 08/19 09/19 10/19 11/19 12/19 13/19 14/19 15/19 16/19 17/19 18/19 [1] The same phenomenon occurs with other primes in other bases, and the following table lists some of them, giving the prime, base, and magic total (derived from the formula base-1 x prime-1 / 2): = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 00 01 01 02 02 03 03 04 04 05 05 06 06 07 07 08 08 09 5 0 5 1 6 1 6 2 7 2 7 3 8 3 8 4 9 4 2 5 7 0 3 5 8 1 3 6 8 1 4 6 9 2 4 7 6 2 8 5 1 7 4 0 6 3 9 5 2 8 4 1 7 3 3 6 9 2 5 8 2 5 8 1 4 7 1 4 7 0 3 6 1 3 4 6 7 9 1 2 4 5 7 8 0 2 3 5 6 8 5 1 7 3 8 4 0 6 2 7 3 9 5 1 6 2 8 4 7 5 3 1 9 7 5 3 1 8 6 4 2 0 8 6 4 2 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 9 8 8 7 7 6 6 5 5 4 4 3 3 2 2 1 1 0 4 9 4 8 3 8 3 7 2 7 2 6 1 6 1 5 0 5 7 4 2 9 6 4 1 8 6 3 1 8 5 3 0 7 5 2 3 7 1 4 8 2 5 9 3 6 0 4 7 1 5 8 2 6 6 3 0 7 4 1 7 4 1 8 5 2 8 5 2 9 6 3 8 6 5 3 2 0 8 7 5 4 2 1 9 7 6 4 3 1 4 8 2 6 1 5 9 3 7 2 6 0 4 8 3 7 1 5 2 4 6 8 0 2 4 6 8 1 3 5 7 9 1 3 5 7 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8... 9... 0... 1... 2... 3... 4... 5... 6... 7... 8...
179
Prime 19 53 53 59 67 83 89 167 199 199 211 223 293 307 383 389 397 421 487 503 587 593 631 677 757 787 811
Base 10 12 34 2 2 2 19 68 41 150 2 3 147 5 10 360 5 338 6
Total 81 286 858 29 33 41 792 5,561 3,960 14,751 105 222 21,316 612 1,719 69,646 792 70,770 1,215
420 105,169 368 107,531 3 87 592 27,090
407 137,228 759 286,524 13 3 4,716 810
977 1,222 595,848 1,033 1,187 1,307 1,499 1,877 1,933 2,011 2,027 2,141 2,539 11 135 5 11 19 5,160 79,462 2,612 7,490 16,884
146 140,070 26 2 63 2 25,125 1,013 66,340 1,269
180
3,187 3,373 3,659 3,947 4,261 4,813 5,647 6,113 6,277 7,283 8,387 97 152,928 11 16,860
126 228,625 35 2 2 67,082 2,130 2,406
75 208,902 3 2 2 2 6,112 3,138 3,641 4,193
References
Rademacher, H. and Toeplitz, O. The Enjoyment of Mathematics: Selections from Mathematics for the Amateur. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, pp.158160, 1957. Weisstein, Eric W. "Midy's Theorem." From MathWorldA Wolfram Web Resource. http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/MidysTheorem.html
References
[1] http:/ / upload. wikimedia. org/ wikipedia/ commons/ 5/ 59/ MgkSqr_1_over_19_Deva. tif
Thirty-six officers problem
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Thirty-six officers problem

The thirty-six officers problem is a mathematical puzzle proposed by Leonhard Euler in 1782.[1][2] The problem asks if it is possible to arrange 6 regiments consisting of 6 officers each of different ranks in a 6 6 square so that no rank or regiment will be repeated in any row or column. Such an arrangement would form a Graeco-Latin square. Euler correctly conjectured there was no solution to this problem, and Gaston Tarry proved this in 1901;[3][4] but the problem has led to important work in combinatorics.[5] Besides the 6 by 6 case the only other case where the equivalent problem has no solution is the 2 by 2 case, i.e. when there are 4 officers.
References
[1] Euler, L., Recherches sur une nouvelle espece de quarres magiques (1782). [2] P. A. MacMahon (1902). "Magic Squares and Other Problems on a Chess Board" (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=cuudxJgEnyEC& pg=PA54& dq=euler+ 36-officers). Proceedings of the Royal Institution of Great Britain XVII: 5063. . [3] Tarry, Gaston (1900). "Le Problme de 36 Officiers". Compte Rendu de l'Association Franaise pour l'Avancement de Science Naturel (Secrtariat de l'Association) 1: 122123. [4] Tarry, Gaston (1901). "Le Problme de 36 Officiers". Compte Rendu de l'Association Franaise pour l'Avancement de Science Naturel (Secrtariat de l'Association) 2: 170203. [5] Dougherty, Steven. "36 Officer Problem." Steven Dougherty's Euler Page (http:/ / academic. scranton. edu/ faculty/ doughertys1/ euler. htm). 4 Aug 2006.
External links
Euler's Officer Problem (http://mathdl.maa.org/convergence/1/?pa=content&sa=viewDocument& nodeId=1434&bodyId=1599) at Convergence 36 cube (http://www.thinkfun.com/36cube) A (solvable) puzzle that uses this problem. Weisstein, Eric W., " 36 Officer Problem (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/36OfficerProblem.html)" from MathWorld.
Trimagic square
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Trimagic square

Bimagic square
a b c d e f g h i
Trimagic square
183
or
16 41 36 5 27 62 55 18 8
26 63 54 19 13 44 33 1
40 45 12 22 51 58 31 4 37 48 9
23 50 59 30 38 3
10 47 49 24 29 60 2 11 46
52 21 32 57 39 43 14 7
34 64 25 20 53 6 35
61 28 17 56 42 15
Trimagic square
1 9 75 74 22 119 141 8 33 45 35 106 41 62 66 93 14 43 37 126 89 99 32 16 127 128 79 52 131 83 38 88 104 112 123 144 30 97 96 103 59 10 54 24 29 139 100 110 39 21 3 50 77 143 61 40 26 4 137 44 69 118 28 81 47 111 82 136 70 71 5 23 90 13 72 87 65 94
115 107 48 49 42 86 57 12 60 67
102 133 108 19 56 46 113 129 18 17 85 78 15 134 36 7 53
140 101 124 122 55 76 27 142 95 68 2 84 105 31
135 130 91 11
132 117 73 58 80 51 64 98 34 63
121 109 116 138 6 20 92 25
120 125 114
Trimagic square
184
Higher order
References
External links
185
Mathematical games
24 Game
The 24 Game is an arithmetical card game in which the object is to find a way to manipulate four integers so that the end result is 24. Addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division, and sometimes other operations, may be used to make four digits from one to nine equal 24. For example, card with the numbers 4,7,8,8, a possible solution is the following: (7-(8/8))*4=24. The game has been played in Shanghai since the 1960s[1], using ordinary playing cards. Robert Sun commercialised the game and copyrighted it in 1988, introducing dedicated game cards bearing four numbers each, and sold it through his company, Easton, Pennsylvania-based Suntex International Inc. There are nine official editions of Suntex's 24 Game. A tournament-style competition, referred to as the 24 Challenge, is based on the 24 game.
Original version
The original version of 24 is played with an ordinary deck of playing cards with all the face cards removed. The aces are taken to have the value 1 and the basic game proceeds by having 4 cards thrown and the first player that can achieve the number 24 exactly using only addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, and parentheses wins the hand. Some groups of players allow exponentiation, or even further operations such as roots or logarithms. For short games of 24, once a hand is won, the cards go to the player that won. If everyone gives up, the cards are shuffled back into the deck. The game ends when the deck is exhausted and the player with the most cards wins.
A Sample 24 Game Card
Longer games of 24 proceed by first dealing the cards out to the players, each of whom contributes to each set of cards exposed. A player who solves a set takes its cards and replenishes their pile, after the fashion of War; players are eliminated when they no longer have any cards. A slightly different version includes the face cards, Jack, Queen, and King, giving them the values 11, 12, and 13, respectively.
Overview of the commercial game

Cards are divided into three levels of difficulty. One-dot cards (with a single white dot in each corner, indicating an easy problem) are often solved by simple addition, or contain three digits that can make 24, plus a 1 (in which case any other digit could be multiplied or divided by 1 to create the same digit). Two-dot cards (with two red dots) are slightly more difficult, and often require more multiplication and division than one-dot cards. Three-dot cards (with three yellow dots) are the most difficult cards, often having only one solution. In most decks of Math 24 cards, the ratio of one-dot cards to two-dot cards to three-dot cards is 1:2:1.
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Variations
There have been many variations on the original Single Digits Edition 24 game, including standard 96-card editions and 48-card travel-sized editions. Some variations include: Double Digits Edition Cards include 2-digit numbers, from 1 to 24, leading to more difficulty as not as many students are as familiar with multiples of larger numbers. Variables Cards have two wheels, each has three numbers with one number "missing." The object is to find a number (any integer 1 - 9) which, when used with the other numbers on each wheel, can make 24 on both wheels.[2] Fractions/Decimals, Algebra/Exponents and Integers(negative numbers) versions are also available and are recommended for ages 9 and up. Editions for ages 7/8 and up include: Add/Subtract Primer; Multiply/Divide Primer and Factors/Multiples. Primer editions have a "self-check" feature (answer on reverse side)
Strategy
Mental arithmetic and fast thinking are necessary skills for competitive play. Pencil and paper will slow down a player, and are generally not allowed during play anyway. There are four-card "hands" when played with a standard 52-card deck[3]. It is impossible to
make 24 with some of these, for example 1,1,1,1 while others can be difficult, such as 3,3,8,8 (8/(3-(8/3))=24). With practice, the ability to spot useful patterns increases. These typically target pairs of factors (2 x 12, 3 x 8, 4 x 6), obvious pairs of summands (18 + 6, 16 + 8, and 10 + 14 appear often) or combinations of these involving the number 1 such as: 6 x 4 = 6 x (3 + 1) = 6 x 3 + 6 = 6 x (5 - 1) = 6 x 5 - 6 = (5 + 1) x 4 = 5 x 4 + 4 = (7 - 1) x 4 = 7 x 4 - 4 8 x 3 = 8 x (2 + 1) = 8 x 2 + 8 = 8 x (4 - 1) = 8 x 4 - 8 = (7 + 1) x 3 = 7 x 3 + 3 = (9 - 1) x 3 = 9 x 3 - 3 The number 1 (or Ace) is also useful as a throwaway card. Since a number times 1 (or divided by 1) is itself, a solution in which only three digits are needed to create 24 is possible by multiplying the 1 by any of the remaining cards. If a 1 is not provided on the card, two numbers may be subtracted (such as 8-7) or divided (6/6) to make a 1. Possible solutions can be found on the back of 24 Game deck boxes.
Tournament
In the 1980s through 2008, there were 24 Challenge tournaments held throughout the United States and in other countries. The tournaments were very popular in Pennsylvania, where many participating schools held school competitions. Each school then sent one or two students to compete at a regional level, and the top four went on to the state level Championship. In many states, there was no state-level competition. Official, Suntex-sposored tournament events were suspended after the 2008 season due to lack of corporate funding, which had provided 24 Challenge Math Program materials to participating schools. Today, many schools continue to conduct their own 24 Challenge events. Over a period of months preceding the event, teachers use the 24 Game in their classrooms to help students hone their mathematics skills. Schools or districts that hold regional or district-wide events schedule playoffs to determine which students will advance to their Championship event. In tournament play, several extra rules apply: A player, upon tapping the card, must state the final operation they used to reach 24 first. They then proceed to list the operations in normal order, subsequently repeating the final operation. If a player forgets to state the final operation first, they receive a penalty flag. If, in mentioning all steps they used to reach the card, they do not use the same final operation, they receive a penalty flag.
24 Game Tapping a card with one finger, four or five fingers, or slapping with the whole hand results in a penalty flag, or a relinquishment of a card. Players must keep their hands (usually, only the tapping two or three fingers) on the blue region in the mat, about eight inches away from the card. Touching inside this area results in a penalty flag. Fake cards with no solution were included in "Tournament Decks"* in the first round to discourage impulsive tappers. Tapping one of these fake cards results in an automatic penalty flag. *(Special Tournament Decks (with non-working cards) were only used at official Suntex-sponsored events, and were not distributed to the general public or sold.) When a player receives three penalty flags, they are disqualified from further play in that round, but they keep any points they have earned up to that point. In order to win, the player must earn more points than everyone else in the competition. Usually there are two rounds. The players move from table to table playing other students in their same level. For each card that they receive, they get more points. The points are distributed based on the number of dots found in the corner of each card. The player at the end with the most points wins.
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Platinum Series
Several variations of Math 24 cards exist, and are used in the Platinum stages of tournaments. This level of play is highest in the 24 game, and only 7/8 graders can participate. The cards used are Algebra/exponents, fractions/decimals, and integers. They can be purchased at 24 game.com ( link located here [4]). These numbers are treated the same way as regular digits, and must be used in a solution once. A special "integers" deck uses negative digits alongside positive numerals. (Cards in this version may be solved for positive or negative 24.) However, in the tournament, positive 24 must be found. Algebra version cards contain values with a variable, such as 3y or 2x-4. In solving a problem, the player must state what each variable represents, then give the solution using that variable in it. Cards may contain more than one variable on a side; three-dot cards commonly use x, y, and z all on one card. The "Exponent" version of Math 24 integrates roots and powers into game play. These cards have a special center marking, indicating that one digit (or result from a previous equation) must be squared, cubed, or have the square root or cube root taken. This results in a card requiring four operations, instead of the usual three. For example, a card with the digits 2, 3, 4, and 8 might be solved by stating that 2x8=16, the square root of 16 is 4, 4+4=8, and 8x3=24. The last form of platinum play are the "fraction" cards. They involve fractions along with usually whole numbers, except in the case of some level three cards.
Online Game
In addition to the game produced by Suntex on small cards, there is also a 24 game online at firstinmath.com. The First In Math Online Program (FIM) was introduced in 2002. The backbone of the FIM program is the 24 Game, but the 24 editions available online range from Addition Only to multi-step Algebra, and are organized into eight SKILL SETS. Each Skill Set comprises three sequential 24 Games, labeled 1, 2 and 3. Each game builds upon the skills acquired in previous games. After completing certain Skill Set requirements, students can play BONUS GAMES. Bonus games offer various types of skill-building activities, such as sequencing and working with tens. Bonus Games are targeted to skills students need to master at each grade level, based on common core math standards. A Pre-test/Post-test module called JUST THE FACTS records each students proficiency with basic facts, as players try to complete the addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division tables in under 5 minutes. Three KNOW & SHOW modules provide a unique way for students to experience the type of problems found in standardized tests.
24 Game Students solve problems from nine categories that tie to national math standards. A workout GYM module helps build automaticity with addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts, and progress to include fractions, decimals and integers. MEASUREMENT WORLD showcases games and activities that focus on Money, Time, Length, Distance, Area, Volume and Weights. The First In Math site allows players to compete individually or as a classroom "Team" and then compare their score to other players on their Team, in their school, school district, state and nationally. Players earn virtual "stickers" that accrue to their personal and classroom score by correctly solving problems on the site. With the increasing popularity of tablets and smart phones, a number of 24 applications have been ported to mobile devices such as S60 phones with J2ME support, iPhone/iPad and Android. These games use different user interfaces due to limited screen size, yet they're able to achieve the core objective of Game 24. The officially-licensed version of the 24 Game became available on iTunes in December of 2010. Currently, only the Single Digits version is available.
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References
[1] Rules of Card Games: Twenty-Four: introduction (http:/ / www. pagat. com/ adders/ 24. html#introduction) [2] 24game.com - 24 Game 96 Card Decks (http:/ / www. 24game. com/ s-2-24-game-96-card-decks. aspx) [3] Facts on 24 the Math Game (http:/ / www. 24theory. com/ 24_game/ facts) [4] http:/ / 24game. com
External links
Distinct solutions to all solvables (http://www.24theory.com/solutions/allsolutions/) www.24game.com The Official 24 Game website (http://www.24game.com/) 24 at Pagat (http://www.pagat.com/adders/24.html) A fast 24 game solver: both executable program and source code (http://code.google.com/p/solve24game/) Online 24 Game (http://www.firstinmath.com) 24 Math Practice - A comprehensive iPhone App to practice finding 24 (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/ 24-math-practice/id428032592?mt=8&ls=1) iMath24s - A 24 game for S60 smartphones (http://www.handango.com/catalog/ProductDetails. jsp?storeId=2218&deviceId=1989&platformId=20&productId=269284&sectionId=7619) Slide 24 - The 24 game for iPod Touch and iPhone (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/slide-24/ id350488771?mt=8) 24.roundskylab.com the iphone version of 24 (http://24.roundskylab.com) Cards Math by virtuesoft.com the iphone version of 24 (http://virtuesoft.com) TwentyFour! - A multiplayer version of 24 for the iPhone (http://www.twentyfourgame.com) 24 game scorers in over 40 different programming languages on the Rosetta Code site (http://rosettacode.org/ wiki/24_game) 24 game solvers in over 23 different programming languages on the Rosetta Code site (http://rosettacode.org/ wiki/24_game/Solve) itestu.com/24 (http://itestu.com/24/) An online 24 card game where users are ranked by how fast they solve a set of problems. game24.apphb.com (http://game24.apphb.com) An online 24 game and solver. App (https:/ / chrome. google. com/ webstore/ detail/
Also available as a Google Chrome mbhaabmkfolkogcoklcmphpdiggodfkk).
Black Path Game
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Black Path Game

The Black Path Game (also known by various other names, such as Brick) is a two-player board game described and analysed in Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays. It was invented by Larry Black in 1960.
Rules
The Black Path Game is played on a board ruled into squares. Any square that is not empty is filled with one of the following configurations:
These tiles are the three ways to join the sides of the square in pairs. The first two are the tiles of the Truchet tiling. One edge on the boundary of the board is designated to be the start of the path. The players alternate filling the square just after the end of the current path with one of the three configrations above, extending the path. The path may return to a previously filled square and follow the yet-unused segment on that square. The player who first causes the path to run back into the edge of the board loses the game.
Strategy
The first player has a winning strategy on any rectangular board with at least one side-length even. Imagine the board covered with dominoes. The first player should always play so that the end of the path falls on the middle of one of the dominoes. If both sides of the board are odd, the second player can instead win by using a domino tiling including every square but the one containing the first player's first move.
Cayley's mousetrap
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Cayley's mousetrap
Mousetrap is the name of a game introduced by the English mathematician Arthur Cayley. In the game, cards numbered one through are placed in some random permutation. Then, starting with the left-most card, the player begins counting "1, 2, 3, ...", moving to the next card as they increment their count. If at any point the player's current count matches the number on the card currently being pointed to, that card is removed, and the player starts over at one on the next card. When the player reaches the end of the cards (the right-most card), they simply wrap around to the left-most card and continue counting. If the player ever removes all of the cards from the permutation in this manner, then the player wins. If the player reaches and cards still remain, then the cards win. The number of ways the cards can be arranged such that at least one card is in the proper place for n = 1, 2, ..., are 1, 1, 4, 15, 76, 455, ... This is sequence A002467 in the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences.
External links
Cayley's MouseTrap [1] Weisstein, Eric W., "Mousetrap [2]" from MathWorld.
References
[1] http:/ / members. lycos. co. uk/ rickycayley/ CayleysMouseTrap. swf [2] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Mousetrap. html
Chomp
Chomp is a 2-player game of strategy played on a rectangular "chocolate bar" made up of smaller square blocks (rectangular cells). The players take it in turns to choose one block and "eat it" (remove from the board), together with those that are below it and to its right. The top left block is "poisoned" and the player who eats this loses. The chocolate-bar formulation of Chomp is due to David Gale, but an equivalent game expressed in terms of choosing divisors of a fixed integer was published earlier by Frederik "Fred" Schuh. Chomp is a special case of a Poset Game where the Posetis a Lattice (chocolate-bar) with the minimal element (poisonous block) removed.
Example game
Below shows the sequence of moves in a typical game starting with a 3 5 bar:
Initially Player A Player B Player A Player B
Player A must eat the last block and so loses. Note that since it is provable that player A can win, at least one of A's moves is a mistake.
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Who wins?
Chomp belongs to the category of impartial 2-player perfect information games. It turns out that for any rectangular starting position bigger than 1 1 the 1st player can win. This can be shown using a strategy-stealing argument: assume that the 2nd player has a winning strategy against any initial 1st player move. Suppose then, that the 1st player takes only the bottom right hand square. By our assumption, the 2nd player has a response to this which will force victory. But if such a winning response exists, the 1st player could have played it as his first move and thus forced victory. The 2nd player therefore cannot have a winning strategy. Computers can easily calculate winning moves for this game on two-dimensional boards of reasonable size.
Generalisations of Chomp
3-dimensional Chomp has an initial chocolate bar of a cuboid of blocks indexed as (i,j,k). A move is to take a block together with any block all of whose indices are greater or equal to the corresponding index of the chosen block. In the same way Chomp can be generalised to any number of dimensions. Chomp is sometimes described numerically. An initial natural number is given, and players alternate choosing positive proper divisors of the initial number, but may not choose 1 or a multiple of a previously chosen divisor. This game models n-dimensional Chomp, where the initial natural number has n prime factors and the dimensions of the Chomp board are given by the exponents of the primes in its prime factorization. Ordinal Chomp is played on an infinite board with some of its dimensions ordinal numbers: for example a 2 ( + 4) bar. A move is to pick any block and remove all blocks with both indices greater than or equal the corresponding indices of the chosen block. The case of Chomp is a notable open problem; a $100 reward has been offered[1] for finding a winning first move. More generally, Chomp can be played on any partially ordered set with a least element. A move is to remove any element along with all larger elements. A player loses by taking the least element. All varieties of Chomp can also be played without resorting to poison by using the misre play convention: The player who eats the final chocolate block is not poisoned, but simply loses by virtue of being the last player. This is identical to the ordinary rule when playing Chomp on its own, but differs when playing the disjunctive sum of Chomp games, where only the last final chocolate block loses.
References
[1] p. 482 in: Games of No Chance (R. J. Nowakowski, ed.), Cambridge University Press, 1998.
External links
More information about the game (http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/games/chomp.html) A freeware version for windows (http://www.ossiemanners.co.uk) Play Chomp online (http://lpcs.math.msu.su/~pentus/abacus.htm)
Conway's Soldiers
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Conway's Soldiers
Conway's Soldiers or the checker-jumping problem is a one-person mathematical game or puzzle devised and analyzed by mathematician John Horton Conway in 1961. A variant of peg solitaire, it takes place on an infinite checkerboard. The board is divided by a horizontal line that extends indefinitely. Above the line are empty cells and below the line are an arbitrary number of game pieces, or "soldiers". As in peg solitaire, a move consists of one soldier jumping over an adjacent soldier into an empty cell, vertically or horizontally (but not diagonally), and removing the soldier which was jumped over. The goal of the puzzle is to place a soldier as far above the horizontal line as possible.
Conway proved that, regardless of the strategy used, there is no finite series of moves that will allow a soldier to advance more than four rows above the horizontal line. His argument uses a carefully chosen weighting of cells (involving the golden ratio), and he proved that the total weight can only decrease or remain constant. This argument has been reproduced in a number of popular math books. Simon Tatham and Gareth Taylor have shown that the fifth row can be reached via an infinite series of moves [1]; this result is also in a paper by Pieter Blue and Stephen Hartke [2]. If diagonal jumps are allowed, the 8th row can be reached but not the 9th row. It has also been shown that, in the n-dimensional version of the game, the highest row that can be reached is 3n-2. Conway's weighting argument demonstrates that the row 3n-1 cannot be reached. It is considerably harder to show that row 3n-2 can be reached (see the paper by Eriksson and Lindstrom).
Proof that the fifth row is inaccessible

Notation and definitions
Let the target square be labeled , and all other squares be labeled , where is the number of squares away (horizontally and vertically, as in manhattan distance) from the target square. If we consider the starting configuration of soldiers, below the thick red line, we can assign a score based on the sum of the values under each soldier, (e.g., etc.) When a soldier jumps over another soldier, there are three cases to consider: 1. A Positive jump: this is when a soldier jumps towards the target square over another soldier. Let the value of the soldier's square be , then the total change in score after a positive jump is . 2. A Neutral jump; this is when a soldier jumps over another soldier but remains an equal distance from the target square after his jump (should this be necessary). In this case the change in score is . 3. A Negative jump: this is when a soldiers jumps over another into an empty square away from the target square. Here the change in score is .
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Choosing a value of
Let us choose a value of 0 (choosing the quadratic such that the change in score for a positive jump is which gets us nowhere). Therefore, yields . We choose . Thus, we require = gives equation , and solving this with the positive root,
, as its absolute value is less than 1, which becomes useful later in the proof. Rearranging [and multiplying by , we can see that: ;]
etc... Summing this to infinity causes all terms on the right hand side to cancel apart from the 1, i.e.,
This can also be shown with the common ratio, where:
When r =
Solutions
Let us take the first example, where the target square is in the first row above the red line. We now consider the maximum possible initial score, that is when every square has a soldier on it. The sum of the squares on the first row below the red line, is . [Drawing a diagram helps to visualise this]. In the next line down, every square is one further away from the target square, and so has value times the square above it, and so on for all the rows below the line. Therefore, the total value of all the squares below the line is equal to: . At this stage we observe that from above, and thus the above expression simplifies to: , using for the last step. .
Therefore the sum of all the squares below the line when the target square is immediately above the line is
The next case we consider is when the target square is in the second row above the red line. In this case each square under the red line is one square further away from the target square than in the previous example, so the total score now is found by multiplying the total score we obtained by to give: . Similarly:
Conway's Soldiers Thus, we have shown that when the target square is five rows above the red line, the maximum possible original total score of all the soldiers is 1. In reality, with a finite number of soldiers the total will be less than one. Therefore, since a positive jump towards the target square leaves the total score unaltered, and the final score on all the soldiers must be at least 1 ( and the scores on any other soldiers left), the fifth row cannot be reached with a finite number of soldiers originally below the line. This completes the proof. .
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References
E. Berlekamp, J. Conway and R. Guy, Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays, 2nd ed., Vol. 4, Chap. 23: 803841, A K Peters, Wellesley, MA, 2004. R. Honsberger, A problem in checker jumping, in Mathematical Gems II, Chap. 3: 2328, MAA, 1976. H. Eriksson and B. Lindstrom, Twin jumping checkers in Z_d, Europ. J. Combinatorics, 16 (1995), 153157.
External links
cut-the-knot.org explains the game [3] A page describing several variations of the game, with recent references [4] Weisstein, Eric W., "Conway's Soldiers [5]" from MathWorld. Plus online magazine describes the game [6] A video game based on Conway's Soldiers [7] Tatham and Taylor's paper [8] mathproblems.info (search for #15 Checker problem) [9]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] http:/ / www. chiark. greenend. org. uk/ ~sgtatham/ solarmy/ http:/ / www. math. unl. edu/ ~shartke2/ http:/ / www. cut-the-knot. org/ proofs/ checker. shtml http:/ / home. comcast. net/ ~gibell/ pegsolitaire/ army/ index. html http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ ConwaysSoldiers. html http:/ / plus. maths. org/ issue12/ xfile/ http:/ / www. yoyogames. com/ games/ show/ 6419 http:/ / tartarus. org/ gareth/ maths/ stuff/ solarmy. pdf http:/ / mathproblems. info
Dodgem
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Dodgem
Dodgem is a simple abstract strategy game invented by Colin Vout and described in the book Winning Ways. It is played on an nn board with n-1 cars for each playertwo cars each on a 33 board is enough for an interesting game, but larger sizes are also possible.
Play
The board is initially set up with n-1 blue cars along the left edge and n-1 red cars along the bottom edge, the bottom left square remaining empty. Turns alternate: player 1 ("Left")'s turn is to move any one of the blue cars one space forwards (right) or sideways (up or down). Player 2 ("Right")'s turn is to move any one of the red cars one space forwards (up) or sideways (left or right).
Starting position for 33 Dodgem
Cars may not move onto occupied spaces. They may leave the board, but only by a forward move. A car which leaves the board is out of the game. The winner is the player who first has no legal move on their turn because all their cars are either off the board or blocked in by their opponent.
Theory
The 33 game can be completely analyzed (strongly solved) and is a win for the first playera table showing who wins from every possible position is given in Winning Ways, and given this information it is easy to read off a winning strategy. David desJardins showed in 1996 that the 44 and 55 games never end with perfect playboth players get stuck shuffling their cars from side to side to prevent the other from winning. He conjectures that this is true for all larger boards.
References
Berlekamp, Elwyn R.; Conway, John Horton; Guy, Richard K. (2003), "Dodgem", Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, 3 (2nd ed.), A.K. Peters, pp.749750, ISBN9781568811437. Gardner, Martin (1987), "Dodgem and Other Simple Games", Time Travel and Other Mathematical Bewilderments, W.H. Freeman & Company, pp.153162, ISBN0-7167-1925-8.
External links
"Dodgem" . . . any info? [1] Thread from discussion group rec.games.abstract, 1996, containing David desJardins' analysis of the 4x4 and 5x5 games
Dodgem
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References
[1] http:/ / www. ics. uci. edu/ ~eppstein/ cgt/ dodgem. html
Domineering
Domineering (also called Stop-Gate or Crosscram) is a mathematical game played on a sheet of graph paper, with any set of designs traced out. For example, it can be played on a 66 square, a checkerboard, an entirely irregular polygon, or any combination thereof. Two players have a collection of dominoes which they place on the grid in turn, covering up squares. One player, Left, plays tiles vertically, while the other, Right, plays horizontally. As in most games in combinatorial game theory, the first player who cannot move loses.
Basic examples
Single box
Other than the empty game, where there is no grid, the simplest game is a single box.
In this game, clearly, neither player can move. Since it is a second-player win, it is therefore a zero game.
Horizontal rows
This game is a 2-by-1 grid. There is a convention of assigning the game a positive number when Left is winning and a negative one when Right is winning. In this case, Left has no moves, while Right can play a domino to cover the entire board, leaving nothing, which is clearly a zero game. Thus in surreal number notation, this game is {|0} = 1. This makes sense, as this grid is a 1-move advantage for Right.
This game is also {|0} = 1, because a single box is unplayable.
This grid is the first case of a choice. Right could play the left two boxes, leaving 1. The rightmost boxes leave 1 as well. He could also play the middle two boxes, leaving two single boxes. This option leaves 0+0 = 0. Thus this game can be expressed as {|0,1}. This is 2. If this game is played in conjunction with other games, this is two free moves for Right. Vertical rows Vertical columns are evaluated in the same way. If there is a row of 2n or 2n+1 boxes, it counts as n. A column of such size counts as +n.
More complex grids
This is a more complicated game. If Left goes first, either move leaves a 12 grid, which is +1. Right, on the other hand, can move to 1. Thus the surreal number notation is {1|1}. However, this is not a surreal number because 1 > 1. This is a Game but not a number. The notation for this is 1, and it is a hot game, because each player wants to move here.
Domineering
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This is a 23 grid, which is even more complex, but, just like any Domineering game, it can be broken down by looking at what the various moves for Left and Right are. Left can take the left column (or, equivalently, the right column) and move to 1, but it is clearly a better idea to split the middle, leaving two separate games, each worth +1. Thus Left's best move is to +2. Right has four "different" moves, but they all leave the following shape in some rotation:
This game is not a hot game (also called a cold game), because each move hurts the player making it, as we can see by examining the moves. Left can move to 1, Right can move to 0 or +1. Thus this game is {1|0,1} = {1|0} = . Our 23 grid, then, is {2|}, which can also be represented by the mean value, , together with the bonus for moving (the "temperature"), 1, thus:
High-level play
The Mathematical Sciences Research Institute held a Domineering tournament, with a $500 prize for the winner. This game was played on an 88 board, which proved sufficiently large to be interesting. The winner was mathematician Dan Calistrate, who defeated David Wolfe in the final. The tournament was detailed in Richard J. Nowakowski's Games of No Chance (p.85).
Winning strategy
An interesting problem about Domineering is to compute the winning strategy for large boards, and particularly square boards. In 2000, Dennis Breuker, Jos Uiterwijk and Jaap van den Herik computed and published the solution for the 8x8 board[1]. The 9x9 board followed soon after some improvements of their program. Then, in 2002, Nathan Bullock solved the 10x10 board, as part of his thesis on Domineering[2]. Interestingly, Domineering is a first-player win for the 6x6, 7x7, 8x8, 9x9 and 10x10 square boards. The other known values for rectangular boards can be found on the site of Nathan Bullock[3].
Cram
Cram is the impartial version of Domineering. The only difference in the rules is that each player may place their dominoes in either orientation. It seems only a small variation in the rules, but it results in a completely different game, that can be analyzed with the SpragueGrundy theorem. This game is detailed in Cram (games).
References
[1] D. Breuker, J. Uiterwijk, J. Herik Solving 8x8 domineering (http:/ / portal. acm. org/ citation. cfm?id=323507), Theoretical Computer Science, vol. 230, Jan. 2000 [2] Nathan Bullock Domineering:Solving Large Combinatorial Search Spaces (http:/ / webdocs. cs. ualberta. ca/ ~games/ domineering/ thesis. ps) M.Sc. thesis, 2002 [3] Nathan Bullock'site : Updated Game Theoretic Values for Domineering Boards (http:/ / webdocs. cs. ualberta. ca/ ~games/ domineering/ updated. html)
Albert, Michael H.; Nowakowski, Richard J.; Wolfe, David (2007). Lessons in Play: An Introduction to Combinatorial Game Theory. A K Peters, Ltd.. ISBN1-56881-277-9. Berlekamp, Elwyn R.; Conway, John H.; Guy, Richard K. (2003). Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays. A K Peters, Ltd.. ISBN0120911507.
Domineering Gardner, Martin (1974). "Mathematical Games: Cram, crosscram and quadraphage: new games having elusive winning strategies". Scientific American 230 (2): 106108.
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External links
Stop-gate (http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7450) at BoardGameGeek ICGA (http://ticc.uvt.nl/icga/journal/contents/content25-2.htm#DOMINERING) Playable version at Pencil and Paper Games (http://www.pencilandpapergames.com/show?1TX6)
Dots and Boxes

Dots and Boxes (also known as Boxes, Squares, Paddocks, Square-it, Dots and Dashes, Dots, Smart Dots, Dot Boxing, or, simply, the Dot Game) is a pencil and paper game for two players (or sometimes, more than two) first published in 1889 by douard Lucas. Starting with an empty grid of dots, players take turns, adding a single horizontal or vertical line between two unjoined adjacent dots. A player who completes the fourth side of a 11 box earns one point and takes another turn. (The points are typically recorded by placing in the box an identifying mark of the player, such as an initial). The game ends when no more lines can be placed. The winner of the game is the player with the most points. The board may be of any size. When short on time, 22 boxes (created by a square of 9 dots) is good for beginners, and 66 is good for experts. In games with an even number of boxes, it is conventional that if the game is tied then the win should be awarded to the second player (this offsets the advantage of going first).
Game of dots and boxes on the 22 board. The diagram on the right shows a game being played on the 22 board. The second player (B) plays the mirror image of the first player's move, hoping to divide the board into two pieces and tie the game. The first player (A) makes a sacrifice at move 7; B accepts the sacrifice, getting one box. However, B must now add another line, and connects the center dot to the center-right dot, causing the remaining boxes to be joined together in a chain as shown at the end of move 8. With A's next move, A gets them all, winning 31.
Dots and Boxes
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Strategy
At the start of a game, play is more or less random, the only strategy is to avoid adding the third side to any box. This continues until all the remaining (potential) boxes are joined together into chains groups of one or more adjacent boxes in which any move gives all the boxes in the chain to the The double-cross strategy. Faced with position 1, a novice player would create opponent. A novice player faced with a position 2 and lose. An experienced player would create position 3 and win. situation like position 1 in the diagram on the left, in which some boxes can be captured, takes all the boxes in the chain, resulting in position 2. But with their last move, they have to open the next (and larger) chain, and the novice loses the game, An experienced player faced with position 1 instead plays the double-cross strategy, taking all but 2 of the boxes in the chain, leaving position 3. This leaves the last two boxes in the chain for their opponent, but then the opponent has to open the next chain. By moving to position 3, player A wins. The double-cross strategy applies however many long chains there are. Take all but two of the boxes in each chain, but take all the boxes in the last chain. If the chains are long enough then the player will certainly win. Therefore, when played by experts, Dots and Boxes becomes a battle for control: An expert player tries to force their opponent to start the first long chain. Against a player who doesn't understand the concept of a sacrifice, the expert simply has to make the correct number of sacrifices to encourage the opponent to hand him the first chain long enough to ensure a win. If the other player also knows to offer sacrifices, the expert also has to manipulate the number of available sacrifices through earlier play. There is never any reason not to accept a sacrifice, as if it is refused, the player who offered it can always take it without penalty. Thus, the impact of refusing a sacrifice need not be considered in your strategy. Experienced players can avoid the chaining phenomenon by making early moves to split the board. A board split into 4x4 squares is ideal. Dividing limits the size of chains- in the case of 4x4 squares, the longest possible chain is four, filling the larger square. A board with an even number of spaces will end in a draw (as the number of 4x4 squares will be equal for each player); an odd numbered board will lead to the winner winning by one square (the 4x4 squares and 2x1 half-squares will fall evenly, with one box not incorporated into the pattern falling to the winner). A common alternate ruleset is to require all available boxes be claimed on your turn. This eliminates the double cross strategy, forcing even the experienced player to take all the boxes, and give his opponent the win. In combinatorial game theory dots and boxes is very close to being an impartial game and many positions can be analyzed using SpragueGrundy theory.
Unusual grids
Dots and boxes need not be played on a rectangular grid. It can be played on a triangular grid or a hexagonal grid. There is also a variant in Bolivia when it is played in a Chakana or Inca Cross grid, which adds more complications to the game. Dots-and-boxes has a dual form called "strings-and-coins". This game is played on a network of coins (vertices) joined by strings (edges). Players take turns to cut a string. When a cut leaves a coin with no strings, the player pockets the coin and takes another turn. The winner is the player who pockets the most coins. Strings-and-coins can be played on an arbitrary graph. A variant played in Poland allows a player to claim a region of several squares as soon as its boundary is completed.
Dots and Boxes
200
References
Elwyn Berlekamp (July 2000). The Dots-and-Boxes Game: Sophisticated Child's Play. AK Peters, Ltd. ISBN1-56881-129-2. Barile, Margherita, "Dots and Boxes [1]" from MathWorld. David Wilson, Dots-and-Boxes Analysis [2]. Contains computer analysis of small boards. Ilan Vardi, Dots Strategies [3]. A game that mixes Dots and Boxes with Chess, Connect Score [4].
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ DotsandBoxes. html http:/ / homepages. cae. wisc. edu/ ~dwilson/ boxes/ http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20070825035216/ http:/ / cf. geocities. com/ ilanpi/ dots. html http:/ / connect-score. blogspot. com/
Grundy's game
Grundy's game is a two-player mathematical game of strategy. The starting configuration is a single heap of objects, and the two players take turn splitting a single heap into two heaps of different sizes. The game ends when only heaps of size two and smaller remain, none of which can be split unequally. The game is usually played as a normal play game, which means that the last person who can make an allowed move wins.
Illustration
A normal play game starting with a single heap of 8 is a win for the first player provided he does start by splitting the heap into heaps of 7 and 1: player 1: 8 7+1 Player 2 now has three choices: splitting the 7-heap into 6 + 1, 5 + 2, or 4 + 3. In each of these cases, player 1 can ensure that on the next move he hands back to his opponent a heap of size 4 plus heaps of size 2 and smaller:
player 2: 7+1 6+1+1 player 2: 7+1 5+2+1 player 2: 7+1 4+3+1
player 1: 6+1+1 4+2+1+1
player 1: 5+2+1 4+1+2+1
player 1: 4+3+1 4+2+1+1
Now player 2 has to split the 4-heap into 3 + 1, and player 1 subsequently splits the 3-heap into 2 + 1: player 2: 4+2+1+1 3+1+2+1+1 player 1: 3+1+2+1+1 2+1+1+2+1+1 player 2 has no moves left and loses
Grundy's game
201
Mathematical theory
The game can be analysed using the SpragueGrundy theorem. This requires the heap sizes in the game to be mapped onto equivalent nim heap sizes. This mapping is captured in the On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences as A002188:
Heap size : 0 1 0 2 0 3 1 4 0 5 2 6 1 7 0 8 2 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 ... 1 0 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 4 3 0 ...
Equivalent Nim heap : 0
Using this mapping, the strategy for playing the game Nim can also be used for Grundy's game. Whether the sequence of nim-values of Grundy's game ever becomes periodic is an unsolved problem. Elwyn Berlekamp, John Horton Conway, and Richard Guy have conjectured[1] that the sequence does become periodic eventually, but despite the calculation of the first 235 values by Achim Flammenkamp, the question has not been resolved.
External links
Grundy's game on MathWorld [2] Sprague-Grundy values for Grundy's Game by A. Flammenkamp [3]
References
[1] E. Berlekamp, J. H. Conway, R. Guy. Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays. Academic Press, 1982. [2] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ GrundysGame. html [3] http:/ / wwwhomes. uni-bielefeld. de/ achim/ grundy. html
Hackenbush
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Hackenbush
Hackenbush is a two-player mathematical game that may be played on any configuration of colored line segments connected to one another by their endpoints and to the ground. More precisely, there is a ground (conventionally, but not necessarily, a horizontal line at the bottom of the paper or other playing area) and several line segments such that each line segment is connected to the ground, either directly at an endpoint, or indirectly, via a chain of other segments connected by endpoints. Any number of segments may meet at a point and thus there may be multiple paths to ground. On his turn, a player "cuts" (erases) a line segment of his choice (from those he is allowed to select see below). Every line segment no longer connected to the ground by any path "falls" (i.e., gets erased). According to the normal play convention of combinatorial game theory, the first player who is unable to move (because either all segments have been erased, or all those that remain belong to his opponent) loses.
Hackenbush girl, introduced in the book Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays
Hackenbush boards can consist of finitely many (in the case of a "finite board") or infinitely many (in the case of an "infinite board") line segments. Note that the existence of an infinite number of line segments does not violate the game theory assumption that the game can be finished in a finite amount of time, provided that there are only finitely many line segments directly "touching" the ground. Even on an infinite board satisfying this condition, it may or may not be possible for the game to continue forever, depending on the layout of the board. In the original folklore version of Hackenbush, any player is allowed to cut any edge: as this is an impartial game it is comparatively straightforward to give a complete analysis using the Sprague-Grundy theorem. Thus the versions of Hackenbush of interest in combinatorial game theory are more complex partisan games, meaning that the options (moves) available to one player would not necessarily be the ones available to the other player if it were his turn to move given the same position. This is achieved in one of two ways: Blue-Red Hackenbush: Each line segment is colored either red or blue. One player (usually the first, or left, player) is only allowed to cut blue line segments, while the other player (usually the second, or right, player) is only allowed to cut red line segments. Blue-Red-Green Hackenbush: Each line segment is colored either red, blue, or green. The rules are the same as for Blue-Red Hackenbush, with the additional stipulation that green line segments can be cut by either player. Clearly, Blue-Red Hackenbush is merely a special case of Blue-Red-Green Hackenbush, but it is worth noting separately, as its analysis is often much simpler. This is because Blue-Red Hackenbush is a so-called cold game, which means, essentially, that it can never be an advantage to have the first move.
Hackenbush Hackenbush has often been used as an example game for demonstrating the definitions and concepts in combinatorial game theory, beginning with its use in the books On Numbers and Games and Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays by some of the founders of the field. In particular Blue-Red Hackenbush can be used to construct surreal numbers: finite Blue-Red Hackenbush boards can construct dyadic rational numbers, while the values of infinite Blue-Red Hackenbush boards account for real numbers, ordinals, and many more general values that are neither. Blue-Red-Green Hackenbush allows for the construction of additional games whose values are not real numbers, such as star and all other nimbers. Further analysis of the game can be done using graph theory by considering the board as a collection of vertices and edges and examining the paths to each vertex that lies on the ground (which should be considered as a distinguished vertex it does no harm to identify all the ground points together rather than as a line on the graph).
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References
Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway, and Richard K. Guy, Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, 2nd edition, A K Peters, 2001. John H. Conway, On Numbers and Games, 2nd edition, A K Peters, 2000.
External links
Hackenstrings, and the 0.999... ?= 1 FAQ [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. maths. nott. ac. uk/ personal/ anw/ Research/ Hack/
Hexapawn
Hexapawn is a deterministic two-player game invented by Martin Gardner. It is played on a rectangular board of variable size, for example on a 33 board or on a chessboard. On a board of size nm, each player begins with m pawns, one for each square in the row closest to them. The goal of each player is to advance one of their pawns to the opposite end of the board or to prevent the other player from moving. Hexapawn on the 33 board is a solved game; if both players play well, the first player to move will always lose. Also it seems that any player cannot capture all enemy's pawns. Indeed, Gardner specifically constructed it as a game with a small game tree, in order to demonstrate how it could be played by a heuristic AI implemented by a mechanical computer. A variant of this game is octapawn.
A 33 hexapawn board
Hexapawn
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Rules
As in chess, each pawn may be moved in two different ways: it may be moved one square forward, or it may capture a pawn one square diagonally ahead of it. A pawn may not be moved forward if there is a pawn in the next square. Unlike chess, the first move of a pawn may not advance it by two spaces. A player loses if he/she has no legal moves or the other player reaches the end of the board with a pawn.
Dawson's chess
Whenever a player advances a pawn to the penultimate rank (unless it is an isolated pawn) there is a threat to proceed to the final rank by capture. The opponent's only sensible responses are therefore either to capture the advanced pawn or to advance the threatened one, the latter only being sensible in the case that there is one threatened pawn rather than two. If one restricts 3 hexapawn with the additional rule that the capture is always compulsory, the result is the game Dawson's chess. Dawson's chess reduces to the impartial game denoted .137 in Conway's notation. This means that it is equivalent to a Nim-like game in which: on a turn, the player may remove one to three objects from a heap, removing just one object is a legal move only if the removed object is the only object in the heap, and when removing three objects from a heap of five or more, the player may also split the remainder into two heaps. The initial position is a single heap of size . The nim-sequence for this game is
0.1120311033224052233011302110452740 1120311033224455233011302110453748 1120311033224455933011302110453748 1120311033224455933011302110453748 1120311033224455933011302110453748 ..., where bold entries indicate the values that differ from the eventual periodic behavior of the sequence.
References
Mathematical Games, Scientific American, March 1962 Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays
External links
Hexapawn [1] - an article by Robert Price. Hexapawn java applet [2] - source code included.
References
[1] http:/ / www. chessvariants. org/ small. dir/ hexapawn. html [2] http:/ / www. javazoid. com/ hexapawn. html
Krypto
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Krypto
Krypto is a card game designed by Daniel Yovich in 1963 and published by Parker Brothers and MPH Games Co.. It is a mathematical game that promotes proficiency with basic arithmetic operations. More detailed analysis of the game can raise more complex statistical questions.
Rules of Krypto
The Krypto Deck and Home Rules
The Krypto deck consists of 56 cards: three each of numbers 1-6, 4 each of the numbers 7-10, two each of 11-17, one each of 18-25. Six cards are dealt: a common objective card at the top and five other cards below. Each player must use all five of the cards' numbers exactly once, using any combination of arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division), to form the objective card's number. The first player to come up with a correct formula is the winner.
Krypto International Tournament Rules

The official international rules for Krypto differ slightly from the house rules, and they involve a system of scorekeeping. Five cards are dealt face up in the center of the game table. (Each player works with the same set of five cards, rather than a set exclusive to them.) Then a sixth card is dealt face up in the center of the table that becomes the Objective Card. Each player commences (mentally) to mathematically manipulate the numbers of each card so that the last solution equals the Objective Card number. Krypto International Rules specify the use of whole numbers only, using addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and/or any combination thereof ... fractions, negative numbers or square rooting are not permitted. Each of the five cards must be used once and only once. The first player to solve the problem declares "Krypto" and has 30 seconds to explain the answer. When a player "Kryptos" and cannot relate the proper solution, a new hand is dealt and the hand is replayed. The player that errored receives a minus one point in the score box for that hand and is not eligible to play for a score for the replay of that hand. Each hand must be solved within three minutes or a new hand is dealt. Example of Play: Cards: 2 x 1 2 x 2 4 x 2 8 x 3 2, 1, 2, 2, 3 = 24 (Objective Card) = 2 = 4 = 8 = 24 (Krypto)
All five cards were used once and only once to equal the Objective Card. Another Example: Cards: 3 - 1 7 + 2 9 / 1 9 - 8 1, 3, 7, 1, 8= 1 (Objective Card) = 2 = 9 = 9 = 1 (Krypto)
Here is a more difficult hand:
Krypto Cards: 24 + 22 46 / 23 2 + 20 22 - 21 Score Keeping Rules: Ten hands of Krypto equal one game. Players receive one point for each "Krypto". Players receive double their previous hand score each time they "Krypto" repetitively in sequence. A score returns to "1" when sequence is broken. When players "Krypto" in error, they receive a minus one (-1) in the score box for that hand. They are also eliminated from play of that hand only and the hand is re-dealt for the remaining players. All players are then eligible to score the next hand unless another error in "Kryptoing" occurs. Example of Score Keeping |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | Example: Krypto Score Pad (MPH logo) | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | Players |Hand|Hand|Hand|Hand|Hand|Hand|Hand|Hand|Hand|Hand| Highest | | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |Score Wins| |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | Debbie | 1 | | | | | | 1 | | | | 2 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | Mike | | 1 | | | | | | | | | 1 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | Shelley | | | 1 | 2 | 4 | | | | | 1 | 8 Winner | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | Kim | | | | | | 1 | | | | | 1 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| | Mary | | | | | | | | 1 | 2 | | 3 | |----------------------------------------------------------------------| * Score ties are broken by playing additional hands 24, 22, 23, 20, 21 = 1 = 46 = 2 = 22 = 1 (Krypto) (Objective Card)
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Variations on the Game

Although the numerical distribution of the official Krypto deck tends to provide for more balanced games, it is possible to play Krypto with any six numbers. Many programs exist on the internet that can generate six numbers and allow one to manipulate them with arithmetic operations. Because of the simple nature of the game, it is easy to program krypto on most scientific calculators. Versions of Krypto that only use a smaller range of numbers (such as 1-10) are better suited for beginners, while conversely, one could play a game of Krypto with a larger range of numbers that would be more difficult.
Krypto
207
References
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/7694#info http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/uses-math/games/krypto/
L game
The L game is a simple strategic game invented by Edward de Bono. The L game is a two-player turn-based game played on a board of 44 squares. Each player has a 32 L-shaped piece, and there are two 11 neutral pieces. On each turn, a player first must move their L piece, and then may elect to move one of the single neutral pieces. Pieces cannot overlap or cover other pieces. On moving the L piece it is picked up then placed in empty squares anywhere on the board and the piece may be rotated or even flipped over in doing so; the only rule is it must be in a different position from the one it was picked up from, thus come to rest covering at least one grid square that it was not previously covering. On moving a neutral piece, which is optional, a player simply picks it up then places it in any empty square anywhere on the board (even the same square, although this is the same as not moving it). The loser is the first player unable to move their L piece to a new position. One basic strategy is to use a neutral piece and one's own piece to block a 33 square in one corner, and use a neutral piece to prevent the opponent's L piece from swapping to a mirror-image position. Another basic strategy is to move an L piece to block a half of the board, and use the neutral pieces to prevent the opponent's possible alternate positions. These positions can often be achieved once a neutral L game made of wood in starting position piece is left in one of the eight killer spaces on the perimeter of the board. The killer spaces are the spaces on the perimeter, but not in a corner. On the next move, one either makes the previously placed killer a part of one's square, or uses it to block a perimeter position, and makes a square or half-board block with one's own L and a moved neutral piece.
Starting positions
L game
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Analysis
In a game with two perfect players, neither will ever win or lose. The L game is small enough to be completely solvable. There are 2296 different possible valid ways the pieces can be arranged, not counting a rotation or mirror of an arrangement as a new arrangement, and considering the two neutral pieces to be identical. Any arrangement can be reached during the game, with it being any player's turn. Each player has lost in 15 of these arrangements, if it is that player's turn. The losing arrangements involve the losing player's L-piece touching a corner. Each player will also soon lose to a perfect player in an additional 14 arrangements. A player will be able to at least force a draw (by playing forever without losing) from the remaining 2267 positions. Even if neither player plays perfectly, defensive play can continue indefinitely if the players are too cautious to move a neutral piece to the killer positions. If both players are at this level, a sudden-death variant of the rules permits one to move both neutral pieces after moving. A player who can look three moves ahead can defeat defensive play using the standard rules.
All possible final positions, blue has won
All positions, red to move, where red will lose to a perfect blue, and maximum number of moves remaining for red. By looking ahead one move and ensuring one never ends up in any of the above positions, one can avoid losing.
External links
L game on Edward de Bono's official site [1] Interactive web-based L game written in JavaScript [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. edwdebono. com/ debono/ lgame. htm [2] http:/ / hwwmath. looiwenli. com/ l-game
Mathematical game
209
Mathematical game
This article is about using mathematics to study the inner-workings of multiplayer games which, on the surface, may not appear mathematical at all. For games that directly involve mathematics in their play, see mathematical puzzle. Mathematical Games was a column written by Martin Gardner that appeared in the Scientific American. Information on his column and other recreational mathematics publications can be found in the recreational mathematics article. A mathematical game is a multiplayer game whose rules, strategies, and outcomes can be studied and explained by mathematics. Examples of such games are Tic-tac-toe and Dots and Boxes, to name a couple. On the surface, a game need not seem mathematical or complicated to still be a mathematical game. For example, even though the rules of Mancala are straightforward, mathematicians analyze the game using combinatorial game theory. Mathematical games differ from mathematical puzzles in that all mathematical puzzles require math to solve them whereas mathematical games may not require a knowledge of mathematics to play them or even to win them. Thus the actual mathematics of mathematical games may not be apparent to the average player. Some mathematical games are topics of interest in recreational mathematics. When studying the mathematics of games, the mathematical analysis of the game is more important than actually playing the game. To analyze a game mathematically, the mathematician studies the rules of the game in order to understand the inner-workings of the game, to determine winning strategies, and possibly to determine if a game has a solution.
Specific mathematical games and puzzles

Abstract Strategy Games (No chance involved)
Sometimes it is not immediately obvious that a particular game involves chance. Often a card game is described as "pure strategy" and such, but a game with any sort of random shuffling or face-down dealing of cards should not be considered to be "no chance". Several abstract strategy games are listed below: Lattice board Angels and Devils Checkers (English draughts) Checkers variants Chess Chess variants Chomp Domineering Dots and boxes Go
Go variants Hex Hexapawn L game Pawn duel Philosopher's football Rhythmomachy
Mathematical game Non-lattice boards and other games Graph pebbling Hackenbush Chopsticks (Hand game) Nim Sim Sprouts
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Chance involved or imperfect information

24 Prisoner's dilemma
External links
Historical Math Problems/Puzzles [1] at Mathematical Association of America Convergence The Travelling Salesman [2] a famous advanced mathematics game problem. Cool Math Games [3] resource for mathematical games, science and physics.
References
[1] http:/ / mathdl. maa. org/ convergence/ 1/ ?pa=content& sa=browseNode& categoryId=9 [2] http:/ / hoodamath. com/ games/ thetravellingsalesman. php [3] http:/ / math-game. net
Nim
Nim is a mathematical game of strategy in which two players take turns removing objects from distinct heaps. On each turn, a player must remove at least one object, and may remove any number of objects provided they all come from the same heap. Variants of Nim have been played since ancient times. The game is said to have originated in China (it closely resembles the Chinese game of "Jianshizi", or "picking stones"), but the origin is uncertain; the earliest European references to Nim are from the beginning of the 16th century. Its current name was coined by Charles L. Bouton of Harvard University, who also developed the complete theory of the game in 1901, but the origins of the name were never fully explained. The name is probably derived from German nimm meaning "take", or the obsolete English verb nim of the same meaning. It should also be noted that rotating the word NIM by 180 degrees results in WIN (see Ambigram). Nim is usually played as a misre game, in which the player to take the last object loses. Nim can also be played as a normal play game, which means that the person who makes the last move (i.e., who takes the last object) wins. This is called normal play because most games follow this convention, even though Nim usually does not. Normal play Nim (or more precisely the system of nimbers) is fundamental to the Sprague-Grundy theorem, which essentially says that in normal play every impartial game is equivalent to a Nim heap that yields the same outcome when played in parallel with other normal play impartial games (see disjunctive sum). While all normal play impartial games can be assigned a nim value, that is not the case under the misre convention. Only tame games can be played using the same strategy as misre nim. A version of Nim is playedand has symbolic importancein the French New Wave film Last Year at Marienbad (1961).
Nim It was one of the first ever electronic computerized games (1952). Herbert Koppel, Eugene Grant and Howard Bailer, engineers from the W.L. Maxon Corporation, developed a 50-pound machine which played Nim against a human opponent and regularly won.[1] . Nim is a special case of a Poset Game where the Poset consists of disjoint Chains (the heaps).
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Game play and illustration

The normal game is between two players and played with three heaps of any number of objects. The two players alternate taking any number of objects from any single one of the heaps. The goal is to be the last to take an object. In misre play, the goal is instead to ensure that the opponent is forced to take the last remaining object. The following example game is played between fictional players Alice and Bob who start with heaps of 3, 4 and 5 objects. The winning strategy is for a player to leave always an even total number of 1's, 2's, and 4's. In the example, Alice implements this strategy.
Sizes of heaps A B C 3 4 5 1 4 5 1 4 2 1 3 2 1 2 2 0 2 2 0 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 1 Alice takes 2 from A Bob takes 3 from C Moves
Alice takes 1 from B Bob takes 1 from B
Alice takes entire A heap, leaving two 2s. Bob takes 1 from B
Alice takes 1 from C leaving two 1s. (In misre play she would take 2 from C leaving (0, 1, 0).) Bob takes 1 from B
Alice takes entire C heap and wins.
Nim
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Mathematical theory
Nim has been mathematically solved for any number of initial heaps and objects; that is, there is an easily calculated way to determine which player will win and what winning moves are open to that player. In a game that starts with heaps of 3, 4, and 5, the first player will win with optimal play, whether the misre or normal play convention is followed. The key to the theory of the game is the binary digital sum of the heap sizes, that is, the sum (in binary) neglecting all carries from one digit to another. This operation is also known as "exclusive or" (xor) or "vector addition over GF(2)". Within combinatorial game theory it is usually called the nim-sum, as will be done here. The nim-sum of x and y is written xy to distinguish it from the ordinary sum, x+y. An example of the calculation with heaps of size 3, 4, and 5 is as follows: Binary 0112 1002 1012 --0102 Decimal 310 410 510 210 Heap A Heap B Heap C The nim-sum of heaps A, B, and C, 3 4 5 = 2
An equivalent procedure, which is often easier to perform mentally, is to express the heap sizes as sums of distinct powers of 2, cancel pairs of equal powers, and then add what's left: 3 = 0 + 2 + 1 = 4 = 4 + 0 + 0 = 4 5 = 4 + 0 + 1 = 4 --2 = 2 1 1 2 Heap A Heap B Heap C What's left after canceling 1s and 4s
In normal play, the winning strategy is to finish every move with a Nim-sum of 0. This is always possible if the Nim-sum is not zero before the move. If the Nim-sum is zero, then the next player will lose if the other player does not make a mistake. To find out which move to make, let X be the Nim-sum of all the heap sizes. Take the Nim-sum of each of the heap sizes with X, and find a heap whose size decreases. The winning strategy is to play in such a heap, reducing that heap to the Nim-sum of its original size with X. In the example above, taking the Nim-sum of the sizes is X=345=2. The Nim-sums of the heap sizes A=3, B=4, and C=5 with X=2 are A X = 3 2 = 1 [Since (011) (010) = 001 ] BX=42=6 CX=52=7 The only heap that is reduced is heap A, so the winning move is to reduce the size of heap A to 1 (by removing two objects). As a particular simple case, if there are only two heaps left, the strategy is to reduce the number of objects in the bigger heap to make the heaps equal. After that, no matter what move your opponent makes, you can make the same move on the other heap, guaranteeing that you take the last object. When played as a misre game, Nim strategy is different only when the normal play move would leave no heap of size 2 or larger. In that case, the correct move is to leave an odd number of heaps of size 1 (in normal play, the correct move would be to leave an even number of such heaps). In a misre game with heaps of sizes 3, 4 and 5, the strategy would be applied like this:
Nim
A B C Nim-sum 3 4 5 0102=210 1 4 5 0002=010 1 4 3 1102=610 1 2 3 0002=010 1 2 2 0012=110 0 2 2 0002=010 0 2 1 0112=310 I take 2 from A, leaving a sum of 000, so I will win. You take 2 from C I take 2 from B You take 1 from C I take 1 from A You take 1 from C
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The normal play strategy would be to take 1 from B, leaving an even number (2) heaps of size 1. For misre play, I take the entire B heap, to leave an odd
number (1) of heaps of size 1. 0 0 1 0012=110 You take 1 from C, and lose.
The previous strategy for a misre game can be easily implemented (for example in Python, below). def nim(heaps, misere=True): """Computes next move for Nim in a normal or misre (default) game, returns tuple (chosen_heap, nb_remove)""" X = reduce(lambda x,y: x^y, heaps) if X == 0: # Will lose unless all non-empty heaps have size one if max(heaps) > 1: print "You will lose :(" for i, heap in enumerate(heaps): if heap > 0: # Empty any (non-empty) heap chosen_heap, nb_remove = i, heap break else: sums = [t^X < t for t in heaps] chosen_heap = sums.index(True) nb_remove = heaps[chosen_heap] - (heaps[chosen_heap]^X) heaps_twomore = 0 for i, heap in enumerate(heaps): n = heap-nb_remove if chosen_heap == i else heap if n>1: heaps_twomore += 1 # If move leaves no heap of size 2 or larger, leave an odd (misre) or even (normal) number of heaps of size 1 if heaps_twomore == 0: chosen_heap = heaps.index(max(heaps)) heaps_one = sum(t==1 for t in heaps) # misre (resp. normal) strategy: if it is even (resp. odd) make it odd (resp. even), else do not change nb_remove = heaps[chosen_heap]-1 if heaps_one%2!=misere else heaps[chosen_heap] return chosen_heap, nb_remove
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Proof of the winning formula

The soundness of the optimal strategy described above was demonstrated by C. Bouton. Theorem. In a normal Nim game, the player making the first move has a winning strategy if and only if the nim-sum of the sizes of the heaps is nonzero. Otherwise, the second player has a winning strategy. Proof: Notice that the nim-sum () obeys the usual associative and commutative laws of addition (+), and also satisfies an additional property, xx=0 (technically speaking, the nonnegative integers under form an Abelian group of exponent 2). Let x1,...,xn be the sizes of the heaps before a move, and y1,...,yn the corresponding sizes after a move. Let s=x1...xn and t=y1...yn. If the move was in heap k, we have xi=yi for all ik, and xk>yk. By the properties of mentioned above, we have t = = = = = = 0 s s s s s t s t (x1 ... xn) (y1 ... yn) (x1 y1) ... (xn yn) 0 ... 0 (xk yk) 0 ... 0 xk yk
(*) t = s xk yk. The theorem follows by induction on the length of the game from these two lemmas. Lemma 1. If s = 0, then t 0 no matter what move is made. Proof: If there is no possible move, then the lemma is vacuously true (and the first player loses the normal play game by definition). Otherwise, any move in heap k will produce t=xkyk from (*). This number is nonzero, since xkyk. Lemma 2. If s 0, it is possible to make a move so that t = 0. Proof: Let d be the position of the leftmost (most significant) nonzero bit in the binary representation of s, and choose k such that the dth bit of xk is also nonzero. (Such a k must exist, since otherwise the dth bit of s would be 0.) Then letting yk=sxk, we claim that yk<xk: all bits to the left of d are the same in xk and yk, bit d decreases from 1 to 0 (decreasing the value by 2d), and any change in the remaining bits will amount to at most 2d1. The first player can thus make a move by taking xkyk objects from heap k, then t = s xk yk = s xk (s xk) = 0. (by (*))
The modification for misre play is demonstrated by noting that the modification first arises in a position that has only one heap of size 2 or more. Notice that in such a position s 0, therefore this situation has to arise when it is the turn of the player following the winning strategy. The normal play strategy is for the player to reduce this to size 0 or 1, leaving an even number of heaps with size 1, and the misre strategy is to do the opposite. From that point on, all moves are forced.
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Other variations of Nim

The subtraction game S(1,2,...,k)
In another game which is commonly known as Nim (but is better called the subtraction game S (1,2,...,k)), an upper bound is imposed on the number of objects that can be removed in a turn. Instead of removing arbitrarily many objects, a player can only remove 1 or 2 or ... or k at a time. This game is commonly played in practice with only one heap (for instance with k=3 in the game Thai 21 on Survivor: Thailand, where it appeared as an Immunity Challenge). Bouton's analysis carries over easily to the general multiple-heap version of this game. The only difference is that as a first step, before computing the Nim-sums, we must reduce the sizes of the heaps modulo k+1. If this makes all the heaps of size zero (in misre play), the winning move is to take k objects from one of the heaps. In particular, in ideal play from a single heap of n objects, the second player can win iff n0(modk+1) (in normal play), or n1(modk+1) (in misre play). This follows from calculating the nim-sequence of S(1,2,...,k),
from which the strategy above follows by the SpragueGrundy theorem.
The 21 game
The game "21" is played as a misre game with any number of players who take turns saying a number. The first player says "1" and each player in turn increases the number by 1, 2, or 3, but may not exceed 21; the player forced to say "21" loses. This can be modeled as a subtraction game with a heap of 21n objects. The winning strategy for this game is to say a multiple of 4 and after that it is guaranteed that the other player will have to say 21, barring a mistake from the first player. This game has a Sprague-Grundy value of zero, i.e., it is biased in favor of the 2nd player as s/he can get to 4 first and then control the game from there, as no matter what, the 1st player will never be able to say a multiple of 4 as s/he is only allowed increments of either 1, 2 or 3. The 21 game can also be played with different numbers, like "Add up to 5 and Lose on 34". Proof (via a sample game of 21)Player Number 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 1 4 5,6 or 7 8 9,10 or 11 12 13,14 or 15 16 17,18 or 19 20 21
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The 100 game

A similar version is the "100 game": two players start from 0 and alternatively add a number from 1 to 10 to the sum. The player who reaches 100 wins. The winning strategy is to reach a number in which the digits are subsequent (e.g. 12, 23, 34,...) and control the game by jumping through all the numbers of this sequence. Once reached 89, the opponent has lost.
A multiple-heap rule
In another variation of Nim, besides removing any number of objects from a single heap, one is permitted to remove the same number of objects from each heap.
Circular Nim
Yet another variation of Nim is 'Circular Nim', where any number of objects are placed in a circle, and two players alternately remove 1, 2 or 3 adjacent objects. For example, starting with a circle of ten objects, .......... three objects be taken in the first move _.......__ then another three _.___...__ then one _.___..___ but then three objects cannot be taken out in one move.
Grundy's game
In Grundy's game, another variation of Nim, a number of objects are placed in an initial heap, and two players alternately divide a heap into two nonempty heaps of different sizes. Thus, 6 objects may be divided into piles of 5+1 or 4+2, but not 3+3. Grundy's game can be played as either misre or normal play.
Greedy Nim
See Greedy Nim.
References
[1] Grant, Eugene F.; Lardner, Rex (August 2, 1952). "The Talk of the Town - It" (http:/ / www. newyorker. com/ archive/ 1952/ 08/ 02/ 1952_08_02_018_TNY_CARDS_000236053). The New Yroker. .
W. W. Rouse Ball: Mathematical Recreations and Essays, The Macmillan Company, 1947. John D. Beasley: The Mathematics of Games, Oxford University Press, 1989. Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway, and Richard K. Guy: Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, Academic Press, Inc., 1982. C. L. Bouton: Nim, a game with a complete mathematical theory, Annals of Mathematics 3 (190102), 3539. Manfred Eigen and Ruthild Winkler: Laws of the Game, Princeton University Press, 1981. Walter R. Fuchs: Computers: Information Theory and Cybernetics, Rupert Hart-Davis Educational Publications, 1971. G. H. Hardy and E. M. Wright: An Introduction to the Theory of Numbers, Oxford University Press, 1979. Edward Kasner and James Newman: Mathematics and the Imagination, Simon and Schuster, 1940. M. Kaitchik: Mathematical Recreations, W. W. Norton, 1942.
Nim Donal D. Spencer: Game Playing with Computers, Hayden Book Company, Inc., 1968.
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External links
1952: 50-pound computer plays Nim- The New Yorker magazine "Talk of the Town" August, 1952.: (http:// www.newyorker.com/archive/1952/08/02/1952_08_02_018_TNY_CARDS_000236053) Nim Flash on Kongregate (http://www.kongregate.com/games/RicardoRix/nim?referrer=RicardoRix) Nim in JavaScript (http://www.archimedes-lab.org/game_nim/nim.html) including its historical aspect at Archimedes-lab.org. Nim in JavaScript (http://worditude.com/nimb/) IE7 and FF3 compatible Nim in JavaScript (http://hammonda.co.uk/Nim/) using GWT The 21 Game in JavaScript (http://hwwmath.looiwenli.com/21) The hot game of Nim (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/ctk/May2001.html) Nim theory and connections with other games at cut-the-knot Nim (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/nim_st.shtml) and 2-dimensional SuperNim (http://www.cut-the-knot. org/Games/SuperNim/SNim.shtml) at cut-the-knot The Game of Nim (http://sputsoft.com/blog/2009/04/the-game-of-nim.html) at sputsoft.com (http://sputsoft. com) Nim on NCTM's Illuminations (http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=140) Marienbad - Variant of Nim (http://jeu-marienbad.com) HTML5 application
Phutball
Phutball (short for philosopher's football) is a two-player board game described in Elwyn Berlekamp, John Horton Conway, and Richard Guy's Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays.
Rules
Phutball is played on the intersections of a 1915 grid using one white stone and as many black stones as needed. In this article the two players are named Ohs (O) and Eks (X). The board is labeled A through P (omitting I) from left to right and 1 to 19 from bottom to top from Ohs' perspective. Rows 0 and 20 represent "off the board" beyond rows 1 and 19 respectively. Given that specialized phutball boards are hard to come by, the game is usually played on a 1919 Go board, with a white stone representing the football and black stones representing the men. The objective is to score goals by using the men (the black stones) A game of phutball after five men have been placed to move the football (the white stone) onto or over the opponent's (the ball has yet to move) goal line. Ohs tries to move the football to rows 19 or 20 and Eks to rows 1 or 0. At the start of the game the football is placed on the central point, unless one player gives the other a handicap, in which case the ball starts nearer one player's goal. Players alternate making moves. A move is either to add a man to any vacant point on the board or to move the ball. There is no difference between men played by Ohs and those played by Eks.
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The football is moved by a series of jumps over adjacent men. Each jump is to the first vacant point in a straight line horizontally, vertically, or diagonally over one or more men. The jumped men are then removed from the board (before any subsequent jump occurs). This process repeats for as long as there remain men available to be jumped and the player desires. Jumping is optional, there is no requirement to jump. Note that in contrast to checkers, multiple men in a row are jumped and removed as a group. The diagram on the right illustrates a jump. Ohs moves the football from K6-G9-G11-J11. The men on J7, H8, G10, and H11 are removed. The jump from K6-G9-J9-G7 would not be legal, as that would jump the man on H8 twice. If the football ends the move on or over the opponent's goal line then a goal has been scored. If the football passes through your goal line, but ends up elsewhere due to further jumps, the game continues.
A jump
Strategy
Carefully set up sequences of jumps can be "spoiled" by extending them at critical moments. A jump to the left or right edge can be blocked by leaving no vacant points. When you jump, it is usually bad to leave an easily used return path for your opponent to "undo" your progress. The game is sufficiently complex that checking whether there is a win in one (on an mn board) is NP-complete. It is not known whether any player has a winning strategy or both players have a drawing strategy.
External links
Dariusz Dereniowski: Phutball is PSPACE-hard [1] The game can be played on Sensei's Library [2] and on Vying Games [3]. Web Page [4] on Richard Rognlie's Play-By-eMail Server Current and archived games can be seen here [5] igGameCenter [6] Play Phutball online in a browser or with an iGoogle gadget ConwayGo [7] - Phutball Program in Java Demaine, Erik D.; Demaine, Martin L. and Eppstein, David (2002). "Phutball endgames are hard" [8]. More Games of No Chance. MSRI Publications 42, Cambridge Univ. Press. pp.351360. Grossman, J.P.; Nowakowski, Richard J. (2002). "One-Dimensional Phutball" [9]. More Games of No Chance. MSRI Publications 42, Cambridge Univ. Press. pp.361367.
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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ 0804. 1777 http:/ / senseis. xmp. net/ ?PhilosopherSFootball http:/ / vying. org/ games/ phutball http:/ / www. gamerz. net/ ~pbmserv/ phutball. html http:/ / www. gamerz. net/ pbmserv/ List. php?Phutball http:/ / www. iggamecenter. com http:/ / conwaygo. sourceforge. net http:/ / www. msri. org/ publications/ books/ Book42/ files/ dephut. pdf http:/ / www. msri. org/ publications/ books/ Book42/ files/ grossman. pdf
Pirate game
The pirate game is a simple mathematical game. It illustrates how, if assumptions conforming to a homo economicus model of human behaviour hold, outcomes may be surprising. It is a multi-player version of the ultimatum game.
The game
There are 5 rational pirates, A, B, C, D and E. They find 100 gold coins. They must decide how to distribute them. The pirates have a strict order of seniority: A is superior to B, who is superior to C, who is superior to D, who is superior to E. The pirate world's rules of distribution are thus: that the most senior pirate should propose a distribution of coins. The pirates, including the proposer, then vote on whether to accept this distribution. If the proposed allocation is approved by a majority or a tie vote, it happens. If not, the proposer is thrown overboard from the pirate ship and dies, and the next most senior pirate makes a new proposal to begin the system again. Pirates base their decisions on three factors. First of all, each pirate From Howard Pyle's Book of Pirates wants to survive. Second, given survival, each pirate wants to maximize the number of gold coins he receives. Third, each pirate would prefer to throw another overboard, if all other results would otherwise be equal.[1]. The pirates do not trust each other, and will neither make nor honor any promises between pirates apart from the main proposal.
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The result
It might be expected intuitively that Pirate A will have to allocate little if any to himself for fear of being voted off so that there are fewer pirates to share between. However, this is quite far from the theoretical result. This is apparent if we work backwards: if all except D and E have been thrown overboard, D proposes 100 for himself and 0 for E. He has the casting vote, and so this is the allocation. If there are three left (C, D and E) C knows that D will offer E 0 in the next round; therefore, C has to offer E 1 coin in this round to make E vote with him, and get his allocation through. Therefore, when only three are left the allocation is C:99, D:0, E:1. If B, C, D and E remain, B knows this when he makes his decision. To avoid being thrown overboard, he can simply offer 1 to D. Because he has the casting vote, the support only by D is sufficient. Thus he proposes B:99, C:0, D:1, E:0. One might consider proposing B:99, C:0, D:0, E:1, as E knows he won't get more, if any, if he throws B overboard. But, as each pirate is eager to throw each other overboard, E would prefer to kill B, to get the same amount of gold from C. Assuming A knows all these things, he can count on C and E's support for the following allocation, which is the final solution: A: 98 coins B: 0 coins C: 1 coin D: 0 coins E: 1 coin[1]
Also, A:98, B:0, C:0, D:1, E:1 or other variants are not good enough, as D would rather throw A overboard to get the same amount of gold from B. Variants also introduce an additional risk for the proponent, which by itself makes the variant less attractive.
Extension
The solution follows the same general pattern for other numbers of pirates and/or coins, however the game changes in character when it is extended beyond there being twice as many pirates as there are coins. Ian Stewart wrote about Steve Omohundro's extension to an arbitrary number of pirates in the May 1999 edition of Scientific American and described the rather intricate pattern that emerges in the solution.[1]
Notes
[1] Stewart, Ian (1999-05), "A Puzzle for Pirates" (http:/ / euclid. trentu. ca/ math/ bz/ pirates_gold. pdf), Scientific American: 9899,
References
Goodin, Robert (1998). The theory of institutional design. Cambridge University Press. pp.99-100. ISBN9780521636438.
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Sim
The game of Sim is played by two players on a board consisting of six dots ('vertices'). Each dot is connected to every other dot by a line. Two players take turns coloring any uncolored lines. One player colors in one color, and the other colors in another color, with each player trying to avoid the creation of a triangle made solely of their color; the player who completes such a triangle loses immediately. Ramsey theory shows that no game of Sim can end in a tie. Specifically, since the Ramsey number R(3,3)=6, any two-coloring of the complete graph on 6 vertices (K6) must contain a monochromatic triangle, and therefore is not a tied position. This will also apply to any super-graph of K6. Computer search has verified that the second player can win Sim with perfect play, but finding a perfect strategy that humans can easily memorize is an open problem. A Java applet is available[1] for online play against a computer program. A technical report[2] by Wolfgang Slany is also available online, with many references to literature on Sim, going back to the game's introduction by Gustavus Simmons in 1969. This game of Sim is one example of a Ramsey game. Other Ramsey games are possible. For instance, according to Ramsey theory any three-coloring of the complete graph on 17 vertices must contain a monochromatic triangle. A corresponding Ramsey game uses pencils of three colors. One approach can have three players compete, while another would allow two players to alternately select any of the three colors to paint an edge of the graph, until a player loses by completing a mono-chromatic triangle. It is unknown whether this latter game is a first or a second player win.
External links
[1] Java applet page (http:/ / www. dbai. tuwien. ac. at/ proj/ ramsey/ ) on the website of the Vienna University of Technology [2] Graph Ramsey Games by Wolfgang Slany (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ cs/ 9911004) at arXiv
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Sprouts
Sprouts is a pencil-and-paper game with interesting mathematical properties. It was invented by mathematicians John Horton Conway and Michael S. Paterson at Cambridge University in the early 1960s.
Rules
The game is played by two players, starting with a few spots drawn on a sheet of paper. Players take turns, where each turn consists of drawing a line between two spots (or from a spot to itself) and adding a new spot somewhere along the line. The players are constrained by the following rules. The line may be straight or curved, but must not touch or cross itself or any other line. The new spot cannot be placed on top of one of the endpoints of the new line. Thus the new spot splits the line into two A 2-spot game of Sprouts shorter lines. No spot may have more than three lines attached to it. For the purposes of this rule, a line from the spot to itself counts as two attached lines and new spots are counted as having two lines already attached to them. In so-called normal play, the player who makes the last move wins. In misre play, the player who makes the last move loses. (Misre Sprouts is perhaps the only misre combinatorial game that is played competitively in an organized forum. [1], p.21) The diagram on the right shows a 2-spot game of normal-play Sprouts. After the fourth move, most of the spots are deadthey have three lines attached to them, so they cannot be used as endpoints for a new line. There are two spots (shown in green) that are still alive, having fewer than three lines attached. However, it is impossible to make another move, because a line from a live spot to itself would make four attachments, and a line from one live spot to the other would cross lines. Therefore, no fifth move is possible, and the first player loses. Live spots at the end of the game are called survivors and play a key role in the analysis of Sprouts.
Number of moves
It is not evident from the rules of Sprouts that the game always terminates, since the number of spots increase at each move. The correct approach is to consider the number of lives (opportunities to connect a line) instead of the number of spots. Then, we can show that if the game starts with n spots, it will end in at most 3n1 moves, and last at least 2n moves. In the following proofs, we suppose that a game starts with n spots and lasts for exactly m moves.
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Maximum number of moves

Each spot starts with three lives and each move reduces the total number of lives in the game by one (two lives are lost at the ends of the line, but the new spot has one life). So at the end of the game there are 3nm remaining lives. Each surviving spot has only one life (otherwise there would be another move joining that spot to itself), so there are exactly 3nm survivors. There must be at least one survivor, namely the spot added in the final move. So 3nm 1; hence a game can last no more than 3n1 moves.
Minimum number of moves

At the end of the game each survivor has exactly two dead neighbors, in a technical sense of "neighbor", different from the ordinary graph notion of adjacency; see the diagram on the right. No dead spot can be the neighbor of two different survivors, for otherwise there would be a move joining the survivors. All other dead spots (not neighbors of a survivor) are called pharisees (from the Hebrew for "separated ones"). Suppose there are p pharisees. Then
Live spots (green) and their dead neighbors (black).
since initial spots + moves = total spots at end of game = survivors + neighbors + pharisees. Rearranging gives:
So a game lasts for at least 2n moves, and the number of pharisees is divisible by 4.
Importance in real games

Real games seem to turn into a battle over whether the number of moves will be k or k+1 (for some k, depending on the early moves in the game) with other possibilities being quite unlikely. [2] One player tries to create enclosed regions containing survivors (thus reducing the total number of moves that will be played) and the other tries to create pharisees (thus increasing the number of moves that will be played).
Who has the win ?

Since Sprouts is a finite game where no draw is possible, a perfect strategy exists either for the first or the second player, depending on the number of initial spots. The main question about a given starting position is then to determine which player can force a win if he plays perfectly. When the winning strategy is for the first player, it is said that the outcome of the position is a "win", and when the winning strategy is for the second player, it is said that the outcome of the position is a "loss" (because it is a loss from the point of view of the first player). The outcome is determined by developing the game tree of the starting position. This can be done by hand only for a small number of spots, and all the new results since 1990 have been obtained by extensive search with computers.
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Normal version
Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays reports that the 6-spot normal game was proved to be a win for the first player by Denis Mollison, with a hand-made analysis of 47 pages. It stood as the record for a long time, until the first computer analysis, which was done at Carnegie Mellon University, in 1990, by David Applegate, Guy Jacobson, and Daniel Sleator[3]. They reached up to 11 spots with some of the best hardware available at the time. Applegate, Jacobson and Sleator observed a pattern in their results, and conjectured that the first player has a winning strategy when the number of spots divided by six leaves a remainder of three, four, or five. This is a mathematical way of saying that the pattern displayed by the outcome in the table below repeats itself indefinitely, with a period of six spots.
Spots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ...
Normal Outcome Loss Loss Win Win Win Loss Loss Loss Win Win Win ...
In 2001, Riccardo Focardi and Flamina Luccio described a method to prove by hand that the normal 7-spot game is a Loss.[4] Then, the computation results were extended in 2006 by Josh Jordan up to 14 spots. In 2007, Julien Lemoine and Simon Viennot introduced an algorithm based on the concept of nimbers to accelerate the computation, reaching up to 32 spots.[5]. They have extended the computation up to 44 spots in 2011, and three isolated starting position, with 46, 47 and 53 spots.[6]. The normal-play results so far are all consistent with the conjecture of Applegate, Jacobson and Sleator.
Misre version
The computation history of the misre version of Sprouts is very similar to that of the normal version, with the same people involved. However, the misre version is more difficult to compute, and progress has been significantly slower. In 1990, Applegate, Jacobson and Sleator reached up to nine spots. Based on their results, they conjectured that the outcome follows a regular pattern of period five. However, this conjecture was invalidated in 2007 when Josh Jordan and Roman Khorkov extended the misre analysis up to 12 spots : the 12-spot misre game is a win, and not the conjectured loss. The same team reached up to 16 spots in 2009[7]. The same year, Julien Lemoine and Simon Viennot reached 17 spots with complicated algorithms[8]. They were able to extend their analysis up to 20 points in 2011[6]. The results for misre play are now conjectured to follow a pattern of length six (with some exceptional values): the first player wins in misre Sprouts when the remainder (mod 6) is zero, four, or five, except that the first player wins the one-spot game and loses the four-spot game. The table below shows the pattern, with the two irregular values in bold.
Spots 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 ...
Misre Outcome Win Loss Loss Loss Win Win Loss Loss Loss Win Win Win Loss Loss Loss ...
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Brussels Sprouts
A variant of the game, called Brussels Sprouts, starts with a number of crosses, i.e. spots with four free ends. Each move involves joining two free ends with a curve (again not crossing any existing line) and then putting a short stroke across the line to create two new free ends. So each move removes two free ends and introduces two more. Despite this, the game is finite, and indeed the total number of moves is predetermined by the initial number of crosses: the players cannot affect the result by their play. With n initial crosses, the number of moves will be 5n2, so a game starting with an odd number of crosses will be a first player win, while a game starting with an even number will be a second player win regardless of the moves.
A 2-cross game of Brussels Sprouts lasting eight moves
To prove this (assuming that the game ends), let m denote the number of moves and v,e,f denote the number of vertices, edges, and faces of the planar graph obtained at the end of the game, respectively. We have: e = 2m since at each move, the player adds 2 edges. v = n + m since at each move, the player adds one vertex (and the game starts with n vertices). f = 4n since there is exactly one free end in each face at the end of the game, (and the number of free ends does not change during the game). The Euler characteristic for planar graphs is 2, so 2 = f-e+v = 4n-2m+n+m = 5n-m , hence m = 5n-2.
References
Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John Conway and Richard K. Guy, Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays, 1992. Ivars Peterson, "Sprouts for Spring," Science News Online. [9]
[1] http:/ / www. arxiv. org/ abs/ math. CO/ 0603027 [2] http:/ / mathforum. org/ kb/ message. jspa?messageID=1091005& tstart=0 [3] David Applegate, Guy Jacobson, and Daniel Sleator, Computer Analysis of Sprouts, 1991 (http:/ / www. cs. cmu. edu/ ~sleator/ papers/ Sprouts. htm) [4] Riccardo Focardi and Flamina Luccio, A new analysis technique for the Sprouts Game, 2001 (http:/ / citeseer. csail. mit. edu/ 453452. html) [5] Julien, Lemoine; Simon, Viennot (2010). "Computer analysis of Sprouts with nimbers". arXiv:1008.2320. [6] Computation records of normal and misre Sprouts (http:/ / sprouts. tuxfamily. org/ wiki/ doku. php?id=records), Julien Lemoine and Simon Viennot web site [7] A New Verified Misere Outcome (http:/ / www. wgosa. org/ article2009001. htm), Announcement of misre 16-spot outcome, WGOSA site [8] Julien, Lemoine; Simon, Viennot (2009). "Analysis of misere Sprouts game with reduced canonical trees". arXiv:0908.4407. [9] http:/ / www. sciencenews. org/ sn_arc97/ 4_5_97/ mathland. htm
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External links
The Complete (?) List of References for the Game of Sprouts (http://gameofsprouts.com/refs.html) World Game of Sprouts Association. (http://www.wgosa.org/), Danny Purvis, association of Sprouts players The Game of Sprouts (http://www.math.utah.edu/~alfeld/Sprouts/) at University of Utah, with an interactive applet for human-vs-human play. SproutsWiki (http://sprouts.tuxfamily.org), web site of Julien Lemoine and Simon Viennot, with the source code and binaries of their program 3graph (http://www.reisz.de/3graph_en.htm), a freeware Sprouts program (Windows)
Subtract a square
Subtract-a-square (also referred to as take-a-square) is a two-player mathematical game of strategy starting with a positive integer and both players taking turns subtracting a non-zero square number not larger than the current value. The game is usually played as a normal play game, which means that the last person who can make a subtraction wins.
Illustration
A normal play game starting with the number 13 is a win for the first player provided he does start with a subtraction of 1: player 1: 13 - 1*1 = 12 Player 2 now has three choices: subtract 1, 4 or 9. In each of these cases, player 1 can ensure that within a few moves the number 2 gets passed on to player 2:
player 2: 12 - 1*1 = 11 player 1: 11 - 3*3 = 2 player 2: player 1: player 2: player 1: 12 - 2*2 = 8 8 - 1*1 = 7 7 - 1*1 = 6 or: 7 - 2*2 = 3 6 - 2*2 = 2 3 - 1*1 = 2 player 2: 12 - 3*3 = 3 player 1: 3 - 1*1 = 2
Now player 2 has to subtract 1, and player 1 subsequently does the same: player 2: 2 - 1*1 = 1 player 1: 1 - 1*1 = 0 player 2 loses
Mathematical theory
In the above example, the number '13' represents a winning or 'hot' position, whilst the number '2' represents a losing or 'cold' position. Given an integer list with each integer labeled 'hot' or 'cold', the strategy of the game is simple: try to pass on a 'cold' number to your opponent. This is always possible provided you are being presented a 'hot' number. Which numbers are 'hot' and which numbers are 'cold' can be determined recursively:
1) the number 0 is 'cold', whilst 1 is 'hot'
2) if all numbers 1 .. N have been classified as either 'hot' or 'cold', then 2a) the number N+1 is 'cold' if only 'hot' numbers can be reached by subtracting a positive square 2b) the number N+1 is 'hot' if at least one 'cold' number can be reached by subtracting a positive square
Subtract a square Using this algorithm, a list of cold numbers is easily derived: 0, 2, 5, 7, 10, 12, 15, 17, 20, 22, 34, 39, 44, (sequence A030193 in OEIS) Cold numbers tend to end in 0, 2, 4, 5, 7, or 9. Cold values that end with other digits are quite uncommon. This holds in particular for cold numbers ending in 6. Out of all the over 180,000 cold numbers less than 40 million, only one ends in a 6: 11,356.[1]
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Extensions
The game subtract-a-square can also be played with multiple numbers. At each turn the player to make a move first selects one of the numbers, and then subtracts a square from it. Such a 'sum of normal games' can be analysed using the SpragueGrundy theory. This requires the positions in the game subtract-a-square to be mapped onto equivalent nim heap sizes; the first few values are: 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 0, 1, 0, 1, 2, 3, 2, 3, 4, (sequence A014586 in OEIS). Notice that all 'cold' positions get mapped onto a zero heap size.
Misre game
Subtract-a-square can also be played as a misre game, in which the player to make the last subtraction loses. The recursive algorithm to determine 'hot' and 'cold' numbers for the misre game is the same as that for the normal game, except that for the misre game the number 1 is 'cold' whilst 2 is 'hot'. It follows that the cold numbers for the misre variant are the cold numbers for the normal game shifted by 1: Misre play 'cold' numbers: 1, 3, 6, 8, 11, 13, 16, 18, 21, 23, 35, 40, 45, ...
References
[1] David Bush: the uniqueness of 11,356 (http:/ / www. ics. uci. edu/ ~eppstein/ cgt/ subsquare. html)
Sylver coinage
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Sylver coinage
Sylver Coinage is a mathematical game for two players, invented by John H. Conway. It is discussed in chapter 18 of Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays. This article summarizes that chapter. The two players take turns naming positive integers that are not the sum of nonnegative multiples of previously named integers. After 1 is named, all positive integers can be expressed in this way: 1=1, 2=1+1, 3=1+1+1, etc., ending the game. The player who named 1 loses. A sample game between A and B: A opens with 5. Now neither player can name 5, 10, 15, .... B names 4. Now neither player can name 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, or any number greater than 11. A names 11. Now the only remaining numbers are 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7. B names 6. Now the only remaining numbers are 1, 2, 3, and 7. A names 7. Now the only remaining numbers are 1, 2, and 3. B names 2. Now the only remaining numbers are 1 and 3. A names 3, leaving only 1. B is forced to name 1 and loses.
Each of A's moves was to a winning position. Sylver Coinage is named after James Joseph Sylvester, who proved that if a and b are relatively prime positive integers, then (a1)(b 1)1 is the largest number that is not a sum of nonnegative multiples of a and b. This is a special case of the Coin Problem. Unlike many similar mathematical games, Sylver Coinage has not been completely solved, mainly because many positions have infinitely many possible moves. Furthermore, the main theorem that identifies a class of winning positions, due to R. L. Hutchings, is nonconstructive: it guarantees that such a position has a winning strategy but does not identify it. Hutchings's Theorem states that any of the prime numbers 5, 7, 11, 13, , wins as a first move, but very little is known about the subsequent winning moves. Complete winning strategies are known for answering the losing openings 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9, and 12.
References
James J. Sylvester, Mathematical Questions from the Educational Times 41 (1884), 21 (question 7382).
External links
Some recent findings about the game appear at http://www.monmouth.com/~colonel/sylver/.
Wythoff's game
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Wythoff's game
Wythoff's game is a two-player mathematical game of strategy, played with two piles of counters. Players take turns removing counters from one or both piles; in the latter case, the numbers of counters removed from each pile must be equal. The game ends when one person removes the last counter or counters, thus winning. Martin Gardner claims that the game was played in China under the name jin shz ("picking stones").[1] The Dutch mathematician W. A. Wythoff published a mathematical analysis of the game in 1907.
Optimal strategy
Any position in the game can be described by a pair of integers (n, m) with nm, describing the size of both piles in the position. The strategy of the game revolves around cold positions and hot positions: in a cold position, the player whose turn it is to move will lose with best play, while in a hot position, the player whose turn it is to move will win with best play. The optimal strategy from a hot position is to move to any reachable cold position. The classification of positions into hot and cold can be carried out recursively with the following three rules: 1. (0,0) is a cold position. 2. Any position from which a cold position can be reached in a single move is a hot position. 3. If every move leads to a hot position, then a position is cold. For instance, all positions of the form (0, m) and (m, m) with m>0 are hot, by rule 2. However, the position (1,2) is cold, because the only positions that can be reached from it, (0,1), (0,2), and (1,1), are all hot. The cold positions (n, m) with the smallest values of n and m are (0, 0), (1, 2), (3, 5), (4, 7),(6,10) and (8, 13).
Formula for cold positions

Wythoff discovered that the cold positions follow a regular pattern determined by the golden ratio. Specifically, if k is any natural number and
where is the golden ratio and we are using the floor function, then (nk, mk) is the kth cold position. These two sequences of numbers are recorded in the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences as A000201 and A001950, respectively. The two sequences nk and mk are the Beatty sequences associated with the equation
As is true in general for pairs of Beatty sequences, these two sequences are complementary: each positive integer appears exactly once in either sequence.
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References
[1] Wythoff's game at Cut-the-knot (http:/ / www. cut-the-knot. org/ pythagoras/ withoff. shtml), quoting Martin Gardner's book Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers
External links
Weisstein, Eric W., " Wythoff's Game (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/WythoffsGame.html)" from MathWorld.
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Cross-figure
A cross-figure (also variously called cross number puzzle or figure logic) is a puzzle similar to a crossword in structure, but with entries which consist of numbers rather than words, with individual digits being entered in the blank cells. The numbers can be clued in various ways: The clue can make it possible to find the number required directly, by using general knowledge (e.g. "Date of the Battle of Hastings") or arithmetic (e.g. "27 times 79") or other mathematical facts (e.g. "Seventh prime number") The clue may require arithmetic to be applied to another answer or answers (e.g. "25 across times 3" or "9 down minus 3 across") The clue may indicate possible answers but make it impossible to give the correct one without using crosslights (e.g. "A prime number") One answer may be related to another in a non-determinate way (e.g. "A multiple of 24 down" or "5 across with its digits rearranged") Some entries may either not be clued at all, or refer to another clue (e.g. 7 down may be clued as "See 13 down" if 13 down reads "7 down plus 5") Entries may be grouped together for clueing purposes, e.g. "1 across, 12 across and 17 across together contain all the digits except 0" Some cross-figures use an algebraic type of clue, with various letters taking unknown values (e.g. "A - 2B, where neither A nor B is known in advance) Another special type of puzzle uses a real-world situation such as a family outing and base most clues on this (e.g. "Time taken to travel from Ayville to Beetown") Cross-figures which use mostly the first type of clue may be used for educational purposes, but most enthusiasts would agree that this clue type should be used rarely, if at all. Without this type a cross-figure may superficially seem to be impossible to solve, since no answer can apparently be filled in until another has first been found, which without the first type of clue appears impossible. However, if a different approach is adopted where, instead of trying to find complete answers (as would be done for a crossword) one gradually narrows down the possibilities for individual cells (or, in some cases, whole answers) then the problem becomes tractable. For example, if 12 across and 7 down both have three digits and the clue for 12 across is "7 down times 2", one can work out that (i) the last digit of 12 across must be even, (ii) the first digit of 7 down must be 1, 2, 3 or 4, and (iii) the first digit of 12 across must be between 2 and 9 inclusive. (It is an implicit rule of cross-figures that numbers cannot start with 0; however, some puzzles explicitly allow this) By continuing to apply this sort of argument, a solution can eventually be found. Another implicit rule of cross-figures is that no two answers should be the same (in cross-figures allowing numbers to start with 0, 0123 and 123 may be considered different.) A curious feature of cross-figures is that it makes perfect sense for the setter of a puzzle to try to solve it him or herself. Indeed, the setter should ideally do this (without direct reference to the answer) as it is essentially the only way to find out if the puzzle has a single unique solution. Alternatively, there are computer programs available that can be used for this purpose; however, they may not make it clear how difficult the puzzle is. Given that some basic mathematical knowledge is needed to solve cross-figures, they are much less popular than crosswords. As a result, very few books of them have ever been published. Dell Magazines publishes a magazine called Math Puzzles and Logic Problems six times a year which generally contains as many as a dozen of these puzzles, which they name "Figure Logics". A magazine called Figure it Out, which was dedicated to number
Cross-figure puzzles, included some, but it was very short-lived. This also explains why cross-figures have fewer established conventions than crosswords (especially cryptic crosswords). One exception is the use of the semicolon (;) to attach two strings of numbers together, for example 1234;5678 becomes 12345678. Some cross-figures voluntarily ignore this option and other "non-mathematical" approaches (e.g. palindromic numbers and repunits) where same result can be achieved through algebraic means.
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External links
"Cross-figure Puzzles by Yochanan Dvir" [1] "On Crossnumber Puzzles and The Lucas-Bonaccio Farm 1998" [2] The Little Pigley Farm crossnumber puzzle and its history by Joel Pomerantz [3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. krazydad. com/ crossfigures/ [2] http:/ / scisun. sci. ccny. cuny. edu/ ~wyscc/ CrossNumber. pdf [3] http:/ / jig. joelpomerantz. com/ fun/ dogsmead. html
Feynman Long Division Puzzles

Physicist Richard Feynman sent the following puzzle for his father attached to a letter to his mother in 1939 [1] .[2] Each digit of a long division has been replaced by a dot or the letter A (which stands for a unique digit). None of the dots are the same as the A digit. The goal is to reconstruct the original figures. The algorithm commonly used in the US calls for the quotient to be in the first line, the divisor to be in front of the ) and the dividend behind it. The quotient is thus (....A..):(.A.) = (..A.) Here is the division:
However, Feynman was not the author of this particular puzzle since the same skeleton division [3] had been previously proposed as problem E217 in the May 1936 issue of the American Mathematical Monthly by W. F. Cheney, Jr. and its solution by M. J. Turner was later published in the February 1937 issue of the same journal,[4] long before Richard Feynman's letter.
Feynman Long Division Puzzles
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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] "Don't you have time to think" - UK edition (http:/ / www. amazon. com/ dp/ 0141021136/ ), ISBN 0141021136 "Perfectly reasonable deviations from the beaten path" - US edition (http:/ / www. amazon. com/ dp/ B000NIJ4E2/ ), ISBN 0738206369 Weisstein, Eric W., " Skeleton Division (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ SkeletonDivision. html)" from MathWorld. W. F. Cheney, Jr. (1936). "Problems for Solution: E211-E217". American Mathematical Monthly (Mathematical Association of America) 43 (5): 304305. doi:10.2307/2301207. JSTOR2301207. Solutions (http:/ / links. jstor. org/ sici?sici=0002-9890(193702)44:2<105:E>2. 0. CO;2-H) by W. F. Cheney, Jr. and M. J. Turner (among other solvers but there is no mention of R. P. Feynman), Vol. 44, No. 2 (Feb., 1937), pp. 105-106.
External links
AMM E217 by W. F. Cheney, Jr. (http://problemcorner.org:591/problemcorner.org/FMPro?-db=problems. fp5&-format=revealcomments.html&-lay=all&ProblemName=AMM&ProblemName=E217&-recid=36005& -find=) Daily Feynman Long Division Puzzles (http://dailyfeynmanlongdivisionpuzzles.blogspot.com/) FeynmanPuzzle - Kwiki (http://wiki.keithl.com/?FeynmanPuzzle)
Four fours
Four fours is a mathematical puzzle. The goal of four fours is to find the simplest mathematical expression for every whole number from 0 to some maximum, using only common mathematical symbols and the digit four (no other digit is allowed). Most versions of four fours require that each expression have exactly four fours, but some variations require that each expression have the minimum number of fours.
Rules
There are many variations of four fours; their primary difference is which mathematical symbols are allowed. Essentially all variations at least allow addition ("+"), subtraction (""), multiplication (""), division (""), and parentheses, as well as concatenation (e.g., "44" is allowed). Most also allow the factorial ("!"), exponentiation (e.g. "444"), the decimal point (".") and the square root ("") operation, although sometimes square root is specifically excluded on the grounds that there is an implied "2" for the second root. Other operations allowed by some variations include subfactorial, ("!" before the number: !4 equals 9), overline (an infinitely repeated digit), an arbitrary root power, the gamma function ((), where (x) = (x 1)!), and percent ("%"). Thus 4/4% = 100 and (4)=6. A common use of the overline in this problem is for this value:
Typically the "log" operators are not allowed, since there is a way to trivially create any number using them. Paul Bourke credits Ben Rudiak-Gould with this description of how natural logarithms (ln()) can be used to represent any positive integer n as:
Additional variants (usually no longer called "four fours") replace the set of digits ("4, 4, 4, 4") with some other set of digits, say of the birthyear of someone. For example, a variant using "1975" would require each expression to use one 1, one 9, one 7, and one 5.
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Solutions
Here is a set of four fours solutions for the numbers 0 through 20, using typical rules. Some alternate solutions are listed here, although there are actually many more correct solutions. The entries in blue are those that use four integers 4 (rather than four digits 4) and the basic arithmetic operations. Numbers without blue entries have no solution under these constraints. Adittionally, solutions that repeat operators are marked in bold. 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 = 4 4 4 4 = 44 44 = 4 4 + 4 4 = 44 44 = 4 (4 + 4) 4 = (44 + 4) 4! = (4 4 4) 4 = 4 + 4 (4 4) = 44 + 4! + 4! = (4 4 + 4) 4 = (44 4!) 4 = 4 +(4 + 4) 4 = 4.4 + 4 .4 = 4 + 4 4 4 = 44 4 4 = 4 4 4 + 4 = 4.4 .4 + 4 = 4 4 + 4 + 4 = 44 4 4 = 4 + 4 + 4 4 = (44 4) 4 = 4 4 + 4 .4 = 44 4 4 = 4 (4 4 4) = (44 + 4) 4 = (4 .4).4 + 4 = 44 4 +4 = 4 (4 .4).4 = 4 + 4 + 4 +4 = 4 4 4 4 = 44 4 + 4 = 4 4 + 4 4 = (44 4) .4 = 4 4 + 4 4 = (44 + 4!) 4 = 4 4 + 4 4 = (44 4) 4 = 4! 4 (4 4) = (4 + 4 .4) .4 = 4 (4 + 4 4) = (44 4) 4
There are also many other ways to find the answer for all of these. Note that numbers with values less than one are not usually written with a leading zero. For example, "0.4" is usually written as ".4". This is because "0" is a digit, and in this puzzle only the digit "4" can be used. A given number will generally have few possible solutions; any solution that meets the rules is acceptable. Some variations prefer the "fewest" number of operations, or prefer some operations to others. Others simply prefer "interesting" solutions, i.e., a surprising way to reach the goal. Certain numbers, such as 113 and 123, are particularly difficult to solve under typical rules. For 113, Wheeler suggests ((4)) (4! + 4)/4. For 123, Wheeler suggests the expression:
The use of percent ("%") admits solutions for a much greater proportion of numbers; for example, 113 = (4 + (4 + 4!)%) (4)%. The first printed occurrence of this activity is in "Mathematical Recreations and Essays" by W. W. Rouse Ball published in 1892. In this book it is described as a "traditional recreation". In his discussion of the problem Ball calls it "An arithmetical amusement, said to have been first propounded in 1881, ...." . This date aligns with the appearance of the problem in Knowledge, An Illustrated Magazine of Science, (Dec 30, 1881) edited by [Richard A. Proctor], the English astronomer who is remembered for one of the earliest maps of Mars. [1]
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Algorithmics of the problem

This problem and its generalizations (like the five fives and the six sixes problem, both shown below) may be solved by a simple algorithm. The basic ingredients are hash tables that map rationals to strings. In these tables, the keys are the numbers being represented by some admissible combination of operators and the chosen digit d, e.g. four, and the values are strings that contain the actual formula. There is one table for each number n of occurrences of d. For example, when d=4, the hash table for two occurrences of d would contain the key-value pair 8 and 4+4, and the one for three occurrences, the key-value pair 2 and (4+4)/4 (strings shown in bold). The task is then reduced to recursively computing these hash tables for increasing n, starting from n=1 and continuing up to e.g. n=4. The tables for n=1 and n=2 are special, because they contain primitive entries that are not the combination of other, smaller formulas, and hence they must be initialized properly, like so (for n=1) T[4] := "4"; T[4/10] := ".4"; T[4/9] := ".4..."; and T[44] := "44";. (for n=2). Now there are two ways in which new entries may arise, either as a combination of existing ones through a binary operator, or by applying the factorial or square root operators (which does not use additional instances of d). The first case is treated by iterating over all pairs of subexpressions that use a total of n instances of d. For example, when n=4, we would check pairs (a,b) with a containing one instance of d and b three, and with a containing two instances of d and b two as well. We would then enter a+b, a-b, b-a, a*b, a/b, b/a) into the hash table, including parenthesis, for n=4. Here the sets A and B that contain a and b are calculated recursively, with n=1 and n=2 being the base case. Memoization is used to ensure that every hash table is only computed once. The second case (factorials and roots) is treated with the help of an auxiliary function, which is invoked every time a value v is recorded. This function computes nested factorials and roots of v up to some maximum depth, restricted to rationals. The last phase of the algorithm consists in iterating over the keys of the table for the desired value of n and extracting and sorting those keys that are integers. This algorithm was used to calculate the five fives and six sixes examples shown below. The more compact formula (in the sense of number of characters in the corresponding value) was chosen every time a key occurred more than once.
Excerpt from the solution to the five fives problem

139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 = = = = = = = = = = = ((((5+(5/5)))!/5)-5) (.5*(5+(5*55))) ((5)!+((5+(5+.5))/.5)) ((5)!+((55/.5)/5)) ((((5+(5/5)))!-5)/5) ((((55/5)-5))!/5) ((5*(5+(5*5)))-5) ((5)!+((5/5)+(5*5))) ((5)!+((.5*55)-.5)) ((5)!+(.5+(.5*55))) (5+(((5+(5/5)))!/5))
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Excerpt from the solution to the six sixes problem

In the table below, the notation .6... represents the value 6/9 or 2/3 (recurring decimal 6). 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = ((.6+((6+6)*(6+6)))/.6) ((6*(6+(6*6)))-(6/.6)) (6+((6*(.6*66))-.6)) (.6...*(6+(6*(66-6)))) ((((6)!+((6)!+66))/6)-6) (66+(6*((6*6)-6))) (66+((6+((6)!/.6...))/6)) (6*(6+(6*(6-(.6.../6))))) (.6+(6*(6+((6*6)-.6)))) (((6*(6*6))-66)/.6) ((6*(6+(6*6)))-(6/6)) (66+(66+((6)!/6))) ((6/6)+(6*(6+(6*6)))) ((.6...*((6*66)-6))-6) ((((6*6)+66)/.6)/.6...) (6*(6*(6-(6/(.6-6))))) (6+(((6)!+((6)!+66))/6)) ((6)!-(66+(6*66))) ((((6*6)+((6)!/6))-.6)/.6) ((66+(((6)!/.6)/6))-6)
External links
Bourke, Paul. Four Fours Problem. [2] Carver, Ruth. Four Fours Puzzle at MathForum.org [3] 4444 (Four Fours) Eyegate Gallery [4]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] http:/ / pballew. net/ four-fours. jpg http:/ / astronomy. swin. edu. au/ ~pbourke/ fun/ 4444 http:/ / mathforum. org/ ruth/ four4s. puzzle. html http:/ / www. eyegate. com/ showgal. php?id=7
Mathematical puzzle
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Mathematical puzzle
Mathematical puzzles make up an integral part of recreational mathematics. They have specific rules as do multiplayer games, but they do not usually involve competition between two or more players. Instead, to solve such a puzzle, the solver must find a solution that satisfies the given conditions. Mathematical puzzles require mathematics to solve them. Logic puzzles are a common type of mathematical puzzle. Conway's Game of Life and fractals, as two examples, may also be considered mathematical puzzles even though the solver interacts with them only at the beginning by providing a set of initial conditions. After these conditions are set, the rules of the puzzle determine all subsequent changes and moves. Many of the puzzles are well known because they were discussed by Martin Gardner in his "Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American.
List of mathematical puzzles

The following categories are not disjoint; some puzzles fall into more than one category.
Numbers, arithmetic, and algebra

Cross-figures or Cross number Puzzle Dyson numbers Four fours Feynman Long Division Puzzles Pirate loot problem Verbal arithmetics
Combinatorial
Cryptograms Fifteen Puzzle Kakuro Rubik's Cube and other sequential movement puzzles Str8ts a number puzzle based on sequences Sudoku Think-a-Dot Tower of Hanoi
Analytical or differential
Ant on a rubber rope See also: Zeno's paradoxes
Probability
Monty Hall problem
Tiling, packing, and dissection

Bedlam cube Conway puzzle Mutilated chessboard problem Packing problem
Mathematical puzzle Pentominoes tiling SlothouberGraatsma puzzle Soma cube T puzzle Tangram
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Involves a board
Conway's Game of Life Mutilated chessboard problem Peg solitaire Sudoku
Chessboard tasks Eight queens puzzle Knight's Tour No-three-in-line problem
Topology, knots, graph theory

The fields of knot theory and topology, especially their non-intuitive conclusions, are often seen as a part of recreational mathematics. Disentanglement puzzles Seven Bridges of Knigsberg Water, gas, and electricity
Mechanical
Rubik's Cube Think-a-Dot
0-player puzzles
Conway's Game of Life Flexagon Polyominoes
External links
Historical Math Problems/Puzzles [1] at Mathematical Association of America Convergence
Monty Hall problem
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Monty Hall problem

The Monty Hall problem is a probability puzzle loosely based on the American television game show Let's Make a Deal and named after the show's original host, Monty Hall. The problem, also called the Monty Hall paradox, is a veridical paradox because the result appears odd but is demonstrably true. The Monty Hall problem, in its usual interpretation, is mathematically equivalent to the earlier Three Prisoners problem, and both bear some similarity to the much older Bertrand's box paradox.
The problem was originally posed in a letter by Steve Selvin to the American Statistician in 1975. (Selvin 1975a) (Selvin 1975b) A well-known statement of the problem was published in Marilyn vos Savant's "Ask Marilyn" column in Parade magazine in 1990 (vos Savant 1990):
In search of a new car, the player picks a door, say 1. The game host then opens one of the other doors, say 3, to reveal a goat and offers to let the player pick door 2 instead of door 1.
Suppose you're on a game show, and you're given the choice of three doors: Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats. You pick a door, say No.1 [but the door is not opened], and the host, who knows what's behind the doors, opens another door, say No.3, which has a goat. He then says to you, "Do you want to pick door No.2?" Is it to your advantage to switch your choice? Vos Savant's response was that the contestant should always switch to the other door. If the car is initially equally likely to be behind each door, a player who picks Door 1 and doesn't switch has a 1 in 3 chance of winning the car while a player who picks Door 1 and does switch has a 2 in 3 chance. The host has removed an incorrect option from the unchosen doors, so contestants who switch double their chances of winning the car. Many readers refused to believe that switching is beneficial. After the Monty Hall problem appeared in Parade, approximately 10,000 readers, including nearly 1,000 with PhDs, wrote to the magazine claiming that vos Savant was wrong. (Tierney 1991) Even when given explanations, simulations, and formal mathematical proofs, many people still do not accept that switching is the best strategy. The Monty Hall problem has attracted academic interest because the result is surprising and the problem is interesting to formulate. Furthermore, variations of the Monty Hall problem are made by changing the implied assumptions, and the variations can have drastically different consequences. For example, if Monty only offered the contestant a chance to switch when the contestant had initially chosen the car, then the contestant should never switch. Variations of the Monty Hall problem are given below.
Extended problem description

Some aspects of the host's behavior are not specified in Marilyn vos Savant's wording of the problem. For example, it is not clear if the host considers the position of the prize in deciding whether to open a particular door or is required to open a door under all circumstances (Mueser and Granberg 1999). Almost all sources make the additional assumptions that the car is initially equally likely to be behind each door, that the host must open a door showing a goat, and that he must make the offer to switch. Many sources add to this the assumption that the host chooses at random which door to open if both hide goats, often but not always meaning by that, at random with equal probabilities. The resulting set of assumptions gives what is called "the standard problem" by many sources (Barbeau 2000:87). According to Krauss and Wang (2003:10), even if these assumptions are not explicitly stated, people generally assume them to be the case. A fully unambiguous, mathematically explicit version of the standard problem is:
Monty Hall problem Suppose you're on a game show and you're given the choice of three doors [and will win what is behind the chosen door]. Behind one door is a car; behind the others, goats [unwanted booby prizes]. The car and the goats were placed randomly behind the doors before the show. The rules of the game show are as follows: After you have chosen a door, the door remains closed for the time being. The game show host, Monty Hall, who knows what is behind the doors, now has to open one of the two remaining doors, and the door he opens must have a goat behind it. If both remaining doors have goats behind them, he chooses one [uniformly] at random. After Monty Hall opens a door with a goat, he will ask you to decide whether you want to stay with your first choice or to switch to the last remaining door. Imagine that you chose Door 1 and the host opens Door 3, which has a goat. He then asks you "Do you want to switch to Door Number 2?" Is it to your advantage to change your choice? Krauss and Wang 2003:10
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Solutions
Vos Savant's solution
The solution presented by vos Savant in Parade (vos Savant 1990b) shows the three possible arrangements of one car and two goats behind three doors and the result of switching or staying after initially picking Door 1 in each case:
Door 1 Door 2 Door 3 result if switching result if staying Car Goat Goat Goat Car Goat Goat Goat Car Goat Car Car Car Goat Goat
A player who stays with the initial choice wins in only one out of three of these equally likely possibilities, while a player who switches wins in two out of three. The probability of winning by staying with the initial choice is therefore 1/3, while the probability of winning by switching is 2/3.
Other simple solutions
Player's pick has a 1/3 chance while the other two doors have 1/3 chance each, for a combined 2/3 chance.
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With the usual assumptions player's pick remains a 1/3 chance, while the other two doors a combined 2/3 chance, 2/3 for the still unopened one and 0 for the one the host opened.
An even simpler solution is to reason that switching loses if and only if the player initially picks the car, which happens with probability 1/3, so switching must win with probability 2/3 (Carlton 2005). Simply put, if the contestant picks the goat (to which two of the three doors lead) they will win a car by switching as the other goat can no longer be picked, while if the contestant picks the car (to which one door leads) they will not win the car by switching. So, if you switch, you win the car if you originally picked the goat and you won't if you picked the car, and as you have a 2 in 3 chance of originally picking a goat you have a 2 in 3 chance of winning by switching. Another way to understand the solution is to consider the two original unchosen doors together. Instead of one door being opened and shown to be a losing door, an equivalent action is to combine the two unchosen doors into one since the player cannot choose the opened door (Adams 1990; Devlin 2003; Williams 2004; Stibel et al., 2008). As Cecil Adams puts it (Adams 1990), "Monty is saying in effect: you can keep your one door or you can have the other two doors." The player therefore has the choice of either sticking with the original choice of door, or choosing the sum of the contents of the two other doors, as the 2/3 chance of hiding the car has not been changed by the opening of one of these doors. As Keith Devlin says (Devlin 2003), "By opening his door, Monty is saying to the contestant 'There are two doors you did not choose, and the probability that the prize is behind one of them is 2/3. I'll help you by using my knowledge of where the prize is to open one of those two doors to show you that it does not hide the prize. You can now take advantage of this additional information. Your choice of door A has a chance of 1 in 3 of being the winner. I have not changed that. But by eliminating door C, I have shown you that the probability that door B hides the prize is 2 in 3.'" Increasing the number of doors That switching has a probability of 2/3 of winning the car runs counter to many people's intuition. If there are two doors left, then why isn't each door 1/2? It may be easier to appreciate the solution by considering the same problem with 1,000,000 doors instead of just three (vos Savant 1990). In this case there are 999,999 doors with goats behind them and one door with a prize. The player picks a door. His initial probability of winning is 1 out of 1,000,000. The game host goes down the line of doors, opening each one to show 999,998 goats in total, skipping over only the player's door and one other door. The host then offers the player the chance to switch to the only other unopened door. On average, in 999,999 out of 1,000,000 times the other door will contain the prize, as 999,999 out of 1,000,000 times the player first picked a door with a goatthe chance that the player's door is correct hasn't changed. A rational player should switch. Intuitively speaking, the player should ask how likely is it, that given a million doors, he or she managed to pick the right one. It's as if Monty gives you the chance to keep your one door, or open all 999,999 of the other doors, of which he kindly opens 999,998 for you, leaving, deliberately, the one with the prize. Clearly, one would choose to open the other 999,999 doors rather than keep the one. Stibel et al. (2008) proposed working memory demand is taxed during the Monty Hall problem and that this forces people to "collapse" their choices into two equally probable options. They report that when increasing the number of options to over 7 choices (7 doors) people tend to switch more often; however most still incorrectly judge the probability of success at 50/50.
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Decision tree
The conditional probability of winning by switching given which door the host opens can be determined referring to the expanded figure below, or to an equivalent decision tree as shown to the right (Chun 1991; Grinstead and Snell 2006:137-138), or formally derived as in the mathematical formulation section below. For example, the player wins if the host opens Door 3 and the player Tree showing the probability of every possible outcome if the player initially picks Door switches and the car is behind Door 2, 1 and this has probability 1/3. The player loses if the host opens Door 3 and the player switches and the car is behind Door 1, and this has probability 1/6. These are the only possibilities given host opens Door 3 and player switches. The overall probability that the host opens Door 3 is their sum, and we convert the two probabilities just found to conditional probabilities by dividing them by their sum. Therefore, the conditional probability of winning by switching given the player picks Door 1 and the host opens Door 3 is (1/3)/(1/3 + 1/6), which is 2/3. As all the doors are initially equally likely to hide the car and the host is equally likely to open either door when he has a choice, the chance that the switching will give the car cannot depend on which door was chosen by the player and which door was opened by the host.(Morgan et al. 1991)
Car hidden behind Door 3 Car hidden behind Door 1 Player initially picks Door 1 Car hidden behind Door 2
Host must open Door 2
Host randomly opens either goat door
Host must open Door 3
Probability 1/3 Switching wins
Probability 1/6 Switching loses
Probability 1/6 Switching loses
Probability 1/3 Switching wins
If the host has opened Door 2, switching wins twice as often as staying If the host has opened Door 3, switching wins twice as often as staying
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Bayes' theorem
Bayes' theorem relates the conditional and marginal probabilities of events A and B, provided that the probability of B does not equal zero:
where
denotes the conditional probability of
given
Bayes' theorem can be applied to the Monty Hall Problem, following Gill, 2002 and Henze, 1997. Consider the discrete random variables, all taking values in the set of door numbers : C: the number of the door hiding the Car, S: the number of the door Selected by the player, and H: the number of the door opened by the Host. As the host's placement of the car is random, all values c in (unconditional) probability distribution of C is then , for every value of c. Further, as the initial choice of the player is independent of the placement of the car, variables C and S are independent. Hence the conditional probability of C=c given S=s is , for every value of c and s. The host's behavior is reflected by the values of the conditional probability of H=h given C=c and S=s:
if h = s, (the host cannot open the door picked by the player), if h = c, (the host cannot open a door with a car behind it) if h if h s and s = c, (the two doors with no car are equally likely to be opened), c and h s and s c (there is only one door available to open).
of C are equally likely. The initial
The player can then use Bayes' theorem to compute the probability of finding the car behind any door, after the initial selection and the host's opening of one. This is the conditional probability of C=c given H=h and S=s:
where the denominator is computed using the law of total probability as the marginal probability . Thus, if the player initially selects Door 1, and the host opens Door 3, the probability of winning by switching is
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Strategic solution by dominance

Following Gill, 2011 a strategy of contestant involves two actions: the initial choice of a door and the decision to switch (or to stick) which may depend on both the door initially chosen and the door to which the host offers switching. For instance, one contestant's strategy is "choose door 1, then switch to door 2 when offered, and do not switch to door 3 when offered." Twelve such deterministic strategies of the contestant exist. Elementary comparison of contestant's strategies shows that for every strategy A there is another strategy B "pick a door then switch no matter what happens" which dominates it (Gnedin, 2011). No matter how the car is hidden and no matter which rule the host uses when he has a choice between two goats, if A wins the car then B also does. For example, strategy A "pick door 1 then always stick with it" is dominated by the strategy B "pick door 2 then always switch after the host reveals a door": A wins when door 1 conceals the car, while B wins when one of the doors 1 and 3 conceals the car. Similarly, strategy A "pick door 1 then switch to door 2 (if offered), but do not switch to door 3 (if offered)" is dominated by strategy B "pick door 3 then always switch". Dominance is a strong reason to seek for a solution among always-switching strategies, under fairly general assumptions on the environment in which the contestant is making decisions. In particular, if the car is hidden by means of some randomization device - like tossing symmetric or asymmetric three-sided die - the dominance implies that a strategy maximizing the probability of winning the car will be among three always-switching strategies, namely it will be the strategy which initially picks the least likely door then switches no matter which door to switch is offered by the host. Strategic dominance links the Monty Hall problem to the game theory. In the zero-sum game setting of Gill, 2011, discarding the nonswitching strategies reduces the game to the following simple variant: the host (or the TV-team) decides on door to hide the car, and the contestant chooses two doors. The contestant wins (and her opponent loses) if the car is behind one of the doors she chose.
Alternative derivations
Formal mathematical derivations can also be given which avoid explicit computations or formula manipulation, and which illustrate various insights into the Monty Hall problem. 1. Proof using a simple solution and symmetry. The chance that the door chosen by the contestant, Door 1, hides the car, is 1/3. The conditional probabilities that Door 1 hides the car given that the host opens Door 2, and that he opens Door 3, must be equal to one another, by symmetry. This means that whether or not the host opens Door 3 is (statistically) independent of whether or not the car is behind Door 1 given the player initially chose Door 1. The conditional probability is equal to the unconditional probability, 2/3. (Gill, 2011a), (Bell (1992): "I will leave it to readers as to whether this equivalence of the conditional and unconditional problems is intuitively obvious."). 2. Proof by total symmetry: irrelevance of door numbers. As before, let Remaining closed door. The triple of door numbers , , stand for the numbers of stand for the stand the doors hiding the Car, Selected by the contestant, and opened by the Host, respectively. Let
are the specific numbers observed by the player
written on the doors chosen, opened, and left closed. They form a permutation of the numbers 1, 2, 3. Let
for the Indicator random variable which takes the value 1 if switching would give the car, and 0 if not: thus if , while if . Let's pretend for the moment that the door chosen by the player was actually chosen at random - it just happened to be Door 1. With this assumption, an arbitrary renumbering of the doors changes nothing in the probabilistic description of the problem. In mathematical terms, the problem is completely symmetric under permutations of the door numbers. Now, however we renumber the doors, whether or not switching gives the car does not change, is Invariant. On the other hand, renumbering the doors in all six possible ways makes take on all of its six possible values, the six different orders in which one can : the probabilities that and can't depend on write down the numbers 1, 2, 3. By invariance, the six different orderings all have the same probability, 1/6, and must be (statistically) Independent of which permutation has been realised. The door numbers in a specific case are Irrelevant to deciding whether to
Monty Hall problem switch or stay (and it was indeed totally harmless to pretend that the player's initial choice was random). This ties in with Marilyn Vos Savant's almost parenthetical wording "say, Door 1", and "say, Door 3", and her Insistence (vos Savant, 1991b) in response to Morgan et al. (1991) that conditional probability is absolutely not needed to solve the problem she had posed. In Tierney (1991), the mathemagician and Stanford professor Persi Diaconis stands up for vos Savant, see Diaconis (1988) for his work on symmetry in statistics.
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Simulation
A simple way to demonstrate that a switching strategy really does win two out of three times on the average is to simulate the game with playing cards (Gardner 1959b; vos Savant 1996:8). Three cards from an ordinary deck are used to represent the three doors; one 'special' card such as the Ace of Spades should represent the door with the car, and ordinary cards, such as the two red twos, represent the goat doors.
Simulation of 30 outcomes of the Monty Hall problem
The simulation, using the following procedure, can be repeated several times to simulate multiple rounds of the game. One card is dealt face-down at random to the 'player', to represent the door the player picks initially. Then, looking at the remaining two cards, at least one of which must be a red two, the 'host' discards a red two. If the card remaining in the host's hand is the Ace of Spades, this is recorded as a round where the player would have won by switching; if the host is holding a red two, the round is recorded as one where staying would have won. This experiment is likely to approximate the probability of winning, and running the experiment over enough rounds should not only verify that the player does win by switching two times out of three, but show why. After one card has been dealt to the player, it is already determined whether switching will win the round for the player; and two times out of three the Ace of Spades is in the host's hand. If this is not convincing, the simulation can be done with the entire deck, dealing one card to the player and keeping the other 51 (Gardner 1959b; Adams 1990). In this variant the Ace of Spades goes to the host 51 times out of 52, and stays with the host no matter how many non-Ace cards are discarded. Another simulation, suggested by vos Savant, employs the "host" hiding a penny, representing the car, under one of three cups, representing the doors; or hiding a pea under one of three shells.
Sources of confusion
When first presented with the Monty Hall problem an overwhelming majority of people assume that each door has an equal probability and conclude that switching does not matter (Mueser and Granberg, 1999). Out of 228 subjects in one study, only 13% chose to switch (Granberg and Brown, 1995:713). In her book The Power of Logical Thinking, vos Savant (1996:15) quotes cognitive psychologist Massimo Piattelli-Palmarini as saying "... no other statistical puzzle comes so close to fooling all the people all the time" and "that even Nobel physicists systematically give the wrong answer, and that they insist on it, and they are ready to berate in print those who propose the right answer." Interestingly, pigeons make mistakes and learn from mistakes, and experiments, Herbranson and Schroeder, 2010, show that they rapidly learn to always switch, unlike humans. Most statements of the problem, notably the one in Parade Magazine, do not match the rules of the actual game show (Krauss and Wang, 2003:9), and do not fully specify the host's behavior or that the car's location is randomly selected (Granberg and Brown, 1995:712). Krauss and Wang (2003:10) conjecture that people make the standard assumptions even if they are not explicitly stated. Although these issues are mathematically significant, even when controlling for these factors nearly all people still think each of the two unopened doors has an equal probability and conclude switching does not matter (Mueser and Granberg, 1999). This "equal probability" assumption is a deeply
Monty Hall problem rooted intuition (Falk 1992:202). People strongly tend to think probability is evenly distributed across as many unknowns as are present, whether it is or not (Fox and Levav, 2004:637). However, if a player believes that sticking and switching are equally successful and therefore randomizes their strategy, they should, in fact, win 50% of the time, reinforcing their original belief. In addition to the "equal probability" intuition, a competing and deeply rooted intuition is that revealing information that is already known does not affect probabilities. Although this is a true statement, it is not true that just knowing the host can open one of the two unchosen doors to show a goat necessarily means that opening a specific door cannot affect the probability that the car is behind the initially-chosen door. If the car is initially placed behind the doors with equal probability and the host chooses uniformly at random between doors hiding a goat (as is the case in the standard interpretation) this probability indeed remains unchanged, but if the host can choose non-randomly between such doors then the specific door that the host opens reveals additional information. The host can always open a door revealing a goat and (in the standard interpretation of the problem) the probability that the car is behind the initially-chosen door does not change, but it is not because of the former that the latter is true. Solutions based on the assertion that the host's actions cannot affect the probability that the car is behind the initially-chosen door are very persuasive, but lead to the correct answer only if the problem is completely symmetrical with respect to both the initial car placement and how the host chooses between two goats (Falk 1992:207,213). The problem continues to attract the attention of cognitive psychologists. The typical behaviour of the majority, i.e., not switching, may be explained by phenomena known in the psychological literature as: 1) the endowment effect (Kahneman et al., 1991); people tend to overvalue the winning probability of the already chosenalready "owned"door; 2) the status quo bias (Samuelson and Zeckhauser, 1988); people prefer to stick with the choice of door they have already made. Experimental evidence confirms that these are plausible explanations which do not depend on probability intuition (Morone and Fiore, 2007).
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Variants
A common variant of the problem, assumed by several academic authors as the canonical problem, does not make the simplifying assumption that the host must uniformly choose the door to open, but instead that he uses some other strategy. The confusion as to which formalization is authoritative has led to considerable acrimony, particularly because this variant makes proofs more involved without altering the optimality of the always-switch strategy for the player. In this variant, the player can have different probabilities of winning depending on the observed choice of the host, but in any case the probability of winning by switching is at least 1/2 (and can be as high as 1), while the overall probability of winning by switching is still exactly 2/3. The variants are sometimes presented in succession in textbooks and articles intended to teach the basics of probability theory and game theory. A considerable number of other generalizations have also been studied.
Criticism of the simple solutions

Some sources, in particular, Morgan et al. (1991) state that many popular solutions are incomplete because they do not explicitly address their interpretation of vos Savant's rewording of Whitaker's original question. The popular solutions correctly show that the probability of winning for a player who always switches is 2/3, but without additional reasoning this does not necessarily mean the probability of winning by switching is 2/3 given which door the player has chosen and which door the host opens. The simple solutions show in various ways that a contestant who is determined to switch will win the car with probability 2/3, and hence that switching is a winning strategy. Some sources, however, state that although the simple solutions give a correct numerical answer, they are incomplete or solve the wrong problem. These sources consider the question: given that the contestant has chosen Door 1 and given that the host has opened Door 3, revealing a goat, what is now the probability that the car is behind Door 2?
Monty Hall problem To understand the difference, consider the following variation of the problem. Assume the contestant, Bryan Hall, knows that Monty does not pick the second door randomly; instead, when given an opportunity to pick between two losing doors, Monty will open the one on the left. Again, one may ask the same two questions: 1. What is the probability of Bryan winning the car if he will abandon his initial pick? 2. What is the probability of the car being behind the door 2 if Bryan first picked door 1 and Monty revealed a goat behind door 3? The answer to the first question is again 2/3, since this is still the probability that his initial pick is wrong, but the answer to the second question is now different: Bryan may infer with complete certainty that the car is behind door 2. This is because Monty's preference for leftmost doors would otherwise have led him to open door 2 instead. For this variation, the two questions yield different answers. However, there is some disagreement in the literature regarding whether vos Savant's formulation of the problem, as it occurred in Parade magazine, is asking the first or second question, and whether this difference is significant (Rosenhouse 2009). That probability is a conditional probability ( Morgan et al. 1991; Gillman 1992; Grinstead and Snell 2006:137). The difference is whether the analysis is of the average probability over all possible combinations of initial player choice and door the host opens, or of only one specific caseto be specific, the case where the player picks Door 1 and the host opens Door 3. Another way to express the difference is whether the player must decide to switch before the host opens a door, or is allowed to decide after seeing which door the host opens (Gillman 1992); either way, the player is interested in the probability of winning at the time they make their decision. Although the conditional and unconditional probabilities are both 2/3 for the problem statement with all details completely specified - in particular a completely random choice by the host of which door to open when he has a choice - the conditional probability may differ from the overall probability and the latter is not determined without a complete specification of the problem (Gill 2010). However as long as the initial choice has probability 1/3 of being correct, it is never to the contestants' disadvantage to switch, as the conditional probability of winning by switching is always at least 1/2. According to Morgan et al. (1991) "The distinction between the conditional and unconditional situations here seems to confound many." That is, they, and some others, interpret the usual wording of the problem statement as asking about the conditional probability of winning given which door is opened by the host, as opposed to the overall or unconditional probability. These are mathematically different questions and can have different answers depending on how the host chooses which door to open when the player's initial choice is the car (Morgan et al., 1991; Gillman 1992). For example, if the host opens Door 3 whenever possible, then the probability of winning by switching for players initially choosing Door 1 is still 2/3 overall, but only 1/2 if such host opens Door 3, and in contrast 1 if he opens Door 2. In its usual form the problem statement does not specify this detail of the host's behavior, nor make clear whether a conditional or an unconditional answer is required, making the answer that switching wins the car with probability 2/3 equally vague. Many commonly presented solutions address the unconditional probability, ignoring which door was chosen by the player and which door opened by the host; Morgan et al. call these "false solutions" (1991). Others, such as Behrends (2008), conclude that "One must consider the matter with care to see that both analyses are correct."
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Other host behaviors

The version of the Monty Hall problem published in Parade in 1990 did not specifically state that the host would always open another door, or always offer a choice to switch, or even never open the door revealing the car. However, vos Savant made it clear in her second followup column that the intended host's behavior could only be what led to the 2/3 probability she gave as her original answer. "Anything else is a different question" (vos Savant, 1991a). "Virtually all of my critics understood the intended scenario. I personally read nearly three thousand letters (out of the many additional thousands that arrived) and found nearly every one insisting simply that because two options remained (or an equivalent error), the chances were even. Very few raised questions about ambiguity, and the letters actually published in the column were not among those few." (vos Savant, 1996) The answer follows if the
Monty Hall problem car is placed randomly behind any door, the host must open a door revealing a goat regardless of the player's initial choice and, if two doors are available, chooses which one to open randomly (Mueser and Granberg, 1999). The table below shows a variety of other possible host behaviors and the impact on the success of switching. Determining the player's best strategy within a given set of other rules the host must follow is the type of problem studied in game theory. For example, if the host is not required to make the offer to switch the player may suspect the host is malicious and makes the offers more often if the player has initially selected the car. In general, the answer to this sort of question depends on the specific assumptions made about the host's behaviour, and might range from "ignore the host completely" to "toss a coin and switch if it comes up heads"; see the last row of the table below. Morgan et al. (1991) and Gillman (1992) both show a more general solution where the car is (uniformly) randomly placed but the host is not constrained to pick uniformly randomly if the player has initially selected the car, which is how they both interpret the well known statement of the problem in Parade despite the author's disclaimers. Both changed the wording of the Parade version to emphasize that point when they restated the problem. They consider a scenario where the host chooses between revealing two goats with a preference expressed as a probability q, having a value between 0 and 1. If the host picks randomly q would be 1/2 and switching wins with probability 2/3 regardless of which door the host opens. If the player picks Door 1 and the host's preference for Door 3 is q, then in the case where the host opens Door 3 switching wins with probability 1/3 if the car is behind Door 2 and loses with probability (1/3)q if the car is behind Door 1. The conditional probability of winning by switching given the host opens Door 3 is therefore (1/3)/(1/3 + (1/3)q) which simplifies to 1/(1+q). Since q can vary between 0 and 1 this conditional probability can vary between 1/2 and 1. This means even without constraining the host to pick randomly if the player initially selects the car, the player is never worse off switching. However, it is important to note that neither source suggests the player knows what the value of q is, so the player cannot attribute a probability other than the 2/3 that vos Savant assumed was implicit.
Possible host behaviors in unspecified problem Host behavior "Monty from Hell": The host offers the option to switch only when the player's initial choice is the winning door. (Tierney 1991) "Angelic Monty": The host offers the option to switch only when the player has chosen incorrectly (Granberg 1996:185). "Monty Fall" or "Ignorant Monty": The host does not know what lies behind the doors, and opens one at random that happens not to reveal the car (Granberg and Brown, 1995:712) (Rosenthal, 2005a) (Rosenthal, 2005b). The host knows what lies behind the doors, and (before the player's choice) chooses at random which goat to reveal. He offers the option to switch only when the player's choice happens to differ from his. The host always reveals a goat and always offers a switch. If he has a choice, he chooses the leftmost goat with probability p (which may depend on the player's initial choice) and the rightmost door with probability q=1p. (Morgan et al. 1991) (Rosenthal, 2005a) (Rosenthal, 2005b). The host acts as noted in the specific version of the problem. Result Switching always yields a goat.
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Switching always wins the car.
Switching wins the car half of the time.
Switching wins the car half of the time.
If the host opens the rightmost door, switching wins with probability 1/(1+q).
Switching wins the car two-thirds of the time. (Special case of the above with p=q=) Switching wins 1/2 the time at the Nash equilibrium.
The host opens a door and makes the offer to switch 100% of the time if the contestant initially picked the car, and 50% the time otherwise. (Mueser and Granberg 1999)
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Four-stage two-player game-theoretic (Gill, 2010, Gill, 2011). The player is Minimax solution (Nash equilibrium): car is first hidden uniformly at playing against the show organisers (TV station) which includes the host. random and host later chooses uniform random door to open without First stage: organizers choose a door (choice kept secret from player). revealing the car and different from player's door; player first chooses Second stage: player makes a preliminary choice of door. Third stage: host uniform random door and later always switches to other closed door. opens a door. Fourth stage: player makes a final choice. The player wants to With his strategy, the player has a win-chance of at least 2/3, however win the car, the TV station wants to keep it. This is a zero-sum two-person the TV station plays; with the TV station's strategy, the TV station game. By von Neumann's theorem from game theory, if we allow both will lose with probability at most 2/3, however the player plays. The parties fully randomized strategies there exists a minimax solution or Nash fact that these two strategies match (at least 2/3, at most 2/3) proves equilibrium (Mueser and Granberg 1999). that they form the minimax solution. As previous, but now host has option not to open a door at all. Minimax solution (Nash equilibrium): car is first hidden uniformly at random and host later never opens a door; player first chooses a door uniformly at random and later never switches. Player's strategy guarantees a win-chance of at least 1/3. TV station's strategy guarantees a lose-chance of at most 1/3.
N doors
D. L. Ferguson (1975 in a letter to Selvin cited in Selvin (1975b)) suggests an N door generalization of the original problem in which the host opens p losing doors and then offers the player the opportunity to switch; in this variant switching wins with probability (N1)/[N(Np1)]. If the host opens even a single door the player is better off switching, but if the host opens only one door the advantage approaches zero as N grows large (Granberg 1996:188). At the other extreme, if the host opens all but one losing door the advantage increases as N grows large (the probability of winning by switching approaches 1 as N grows very large). Bapeswara Rao and Rao (1992) suggest a different N door version where the host opens a losing door different from the player's current pick and gives the player an opportunity to switch after each door is opened until only two doors remain. With four doors the optimal strategy is to pick once and switch only when two doors remain. With N doors this strategy wins with probability (N1)/N and is asserted to be optimal.
Quantum version
A quantum version of the paradox illustrates some points about the relation between classical or non-quantum information and quantum information, as encoded in the states of quantum mechanical systems. The formulation is loosely based on quantum game theory. The three doors are replaced by a quantum system allowing three alternatives; opening a door and looking behind it is translated as making a particular measurement. The rules can be stated in this language, and once again the choice for the player is to stick with the initial choice, or change to another "orthogonal" option. The latter strategy turns out to double the chances, just as in the classical case. However, if the show host has not randomized the position of the prize in a fully quantum mechanical way, the player can do even better, and can sometimes even win the prize with certainty (Flitney and Abbott 2002, D'Ariano et al. 2002).
History
The earliest of several probability puzzles related to the Monty Hall problem is Bertrand's box paradox, posed by Joseph Bertrand in 1889 in his Calcul des probabilits (Barbeau 1993). In this puzzle there are three boxes: a box containing two gold coins, a box with two silver coins, and a box with one of each. After choosing a box at random and withdrawing one coin at random that happens to be a gold coin, the question is what is the probability that the other coin is gold. As in the Monty Hall problem the intuitive answer is 1/2, but the probability is actually 2/3. The Three Prisoners problem, published in Martin Gardner's Mathematical Games column in Scientific American in 1959 (1959a, 1959b), is equivalent to the Monty Hall problem. This problem involves three condemned prisoners, a random one of whom has been secretly chosen to be pardoned. One of the prisoners begs the warden to tell him the
Monty Hall problem name of one of the others who will be executed, arguing that this reveals no information about his own fate but increases his chances of being pardoned from 1/3 to 1/2. The warden obliges, (secretly) flipping a coin to decide which name to provide if the prisoner who is asking is the one being pardoned. The question is whether knowing the warden's answer changes the prisoner's chances of being pardoned. This problem is equivalent to the Monty Hall problem; the prisoner asking the question still has a 1/3 chance of being pardoned but his unnamed cohort has a 2/3 chance. Steve Selvin posed the Monty Hall problem in a pair of letters to the American Statistician in 1975. (Selvin (1975a), Selvin (1975b)) The first letter presented the problem in a version close to its presentation in Parade 15 years later. The second appears to be the first use of the term "Monty Hall problem". The problem is actually an extrapolation from the game show. Monty Hall did open a wrong door to build excitement, but offered a known lesser prizesuch as $100 cashrather than a choice to switch doors. As Monty Hall wrote to Selvin: And if you ever get on my show, the rules hold fast for youno trading boxes after the selection. Hall 1975 A version of the problem very similar to the one that appeared three years later in Parade was published in 1987 in the Puzzles section of The Journal of Economic Perspectives (Nalebuff 1987). Nalebuff, as later writers in mathematical economics, sees the problem as a simple and amusing exercise in game theory. Phillip Martin's article in a 1989 issue of Bridge Today magazine titled "The Monty Hall Trap" (Martin 1989) presented Selvin's problem as an example of what Martin calls the probability trap of treating non-random information as if it were random, and relates this to concepts in the game of bridge. A restated version of Selvin's problem appeared in Marilyn vos Savant's Ask Marilyn question-and-answer column of Parade in September 1990 (vos Savant 1990). Though vos Savant gave the correct answer that switching would win two-thirds of the time, she estimates the magazine received 10,000 letters including close to 1,000 signed by PhDs, many on letterheads of mathematics and science departments, declaring that her solution was wrong. (Tierney 1991) Due to the overwhelming response, Parade published an unprecedented four columns on the problem (vos Savant 1996:xv). As a result of the publicity the problem earned the alternative name Marilyn and the Goats. In November 1990, an equally contentious discussion of vos Savant's article took place in Cecil Adams's column The Straight Dope (Adams 1990). Adams initially answered, incorrectly, that the chances for the two remaining doors must each be one in two. After a reader wrote in to correct the mathematics of Adams' analysis, Adams agreed that mathematically, he had been wrong, but said that the Parade version left critical constraints unstated, and without those constraints, the chances of winning by switching were not necessarily 2/3. Numerous readers, however, wrote in to claim that Adams had been "right the first time" and that the correct chances were one in two. The Parade column and its response received considerable attention in the press, including a front page story in the New York Times in which Monty Hall himself was interviewed. (Tierney 1991) Hall appeared to understand the problem, giving the reporter a demonstration with car keys and explaining how actual game play on Let's Make a Deal differed from the rules of the puzzle. Over 40 papers have been published about this problem in academic journals and the popular press (Mueser and Granberg 1999). Barbeau 2000 contains a survey of the academic literature pertaining to the Monty Hall problem and other closely related problems. The problem continues to appear in many venues: The syndicated NPR program Car Talk featured it as one of their weekly "Puzzlers", and the answer they featured was quite clearly explained as the correct one (Magliozzi and Magliozzi, 1998). An account of the Hungarian mathematician Paul Erds's first encounter of the problem can be found in The Man Who Loved Only Numberslike many others, he initially got it wrong. The problem is presented in fictional form in the first chapter of the novel Mr Mee (2000) by Andrew Crumey.
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Monty Hall problem The problem is discussed, from the perspective of a boy with Asperger syndrome, in The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, a 2003 novel by Mark Haddon. The problem is also addressed in a lecture by the character Charlie Eppes in an episode of the CBS drama NUMB3RS (Episode 1.13). The problem is addressed in Derren Brown's 2006 book Tricks Of The Mind. Penn Jillette explained the Monty Hall Problem on the "Luck" episode of Bob Dylan's Theme Time Radio Hour radio series. The Monty Hall problem appears in the film 21 (Bloch 2008). Economist M. Keith Chen identified a potential flaw in hundreds of experiments related to cognitive dissonance that use an analysis with issues similar to those involved in the Monty Hall problem. (Tierney 2008) In 2009 a book-length discussion of the problem, its history, methods of solution, and variations, was published by Oxford University Press (Rosenhouse 2009). The problem is presented, discussed, and tested in the television show MythBusters on 23 November 2011. This paradox was not only tested to see if there was an advantage to switching vs. sticking (which, in a repeated sample of 49 "tests", showed a significant advantage to switching), but they also tested the behavior of "contestants" presented with the same situation. All 20 of the common "contestants" tested chose to stay with their original choice.
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References
Adams, Cecil (1990). "On 'Let's Make a Deal,' you pick Door #1. Monty opens Door #2no prize. Do you stay with Door #1 or switch to #3?", (http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a3_189.html) The Straight Dope, (November 2, 1990). Retrieved July 25, 2005. Bapeswara Rao, V. V. and Rao, M. Bhaskara (1992). "A three-door game show and some of its variants". The Mathematical Scientist 17(2): 8994. Barbeau, Edward (1993). "Fallacies, Flaws, and Flimflam: The problem of the Car and Goats". The College Mathematics Journal 24(2): 149-154. Barbeau, Edward (2000). Mathematical Fallacies, Flaws and Flimflam. The Mathematical Association of America. ISBN 0-88385-529-1. Behrends, Ehrhard (2008). Five-Minute Mathematics (http://books.google.com/?id=EpkyE6JFmkwC& pg=PA48&dq=monty-hall+door-number). AMS Bookstore. p.57. ISBN978-0-8218-4348-2. Bell, William (1992). "Comment on Let's make a deal by Morgan et al.", American Statistician 46(3): 247 (August 1992). Bloch, Andy (2008). "21 - The Movie (my review)" (http://www.andybloch.com/gl/pub/article. php?story=2008031308241327). Retrieved 2008-05-05. Carlton, Matthew (2005). "Pedigrees, Prizes, and Prisoners: The Misuse of Conditional Probability" (http:// www.amstat.org/publications/JSE/v13n2/carlton.html). Journal of Statistics Education [online] 13 (2). Retrieved 2010-05-29. Chun, Young H. (1991). "Game Show Problem," OR/MS Today 18(3): 9. D'Ariano, G.M et al. (2002). "The Quantum Monty Hall Problem" (http://xxx.lanl.gov/pdf/quant-ph/ 0202120) (PDF). Los Alamos National Laboratory, (February 21, 2002). Retrieved January 15, 2007. Devlin, Keith (July August 2003). "Devlin's Angle: Monty Hall" (http://www.maa.org/devlin/devlin_07_03. html). The Mathematical Association of America. Retrieved 2008-04-25. "Getting the goat: When it comes to weighing risks and probabilities, keep in mind this golden rule: never trust your guesses" (http://www.economist.com/node/187166). The Economist (The Economist Newspaper) 350: p.110. 1999. Diaconis, Persi (1988). Group representations in probability and statistics, IMS Lecture Notes, Institute of Mathematical Statistics. ISBN 0-940600-14-5.
Monty Hall problem Falk, Ruma (1992). "A closer look at the probabilities of the notorious three prisoners," Cognition 43: 197223. Flitney, Adrian P. and Abbott, Derek (2002). "Quantum version of the Monty Hall problem," Physical Review A, 65, Art. No. 062318, 2002. Fox, Craig R. and Levav, Jonathan (2004). "Partition-Edit-Count: Naive Extensional Reasoning in Judgment of Conditional Probability," Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 133(4): 626-642. Gardner, Martin (1959a). "Mathematical Games" column, Scientific American, October 1959, pp.180182. Reprinted in The Second Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions. Gardner, Martin (1959b). "Mathematical Games" column, Scientific American, November 1959, p.188. Gill, Jeff (2002). Bayesian Methods, pp.810. CRC Press. ISBN 1-58488-288-3, ( restricted online copy (http:// books.google.com/books?id=IJ3XTLQViM4C&pg=PA8) at Google Books) Gill, Richard (2010) Monty Hall problem. pp.858863, International Encyclopaedia of Statistical Science, Springer, 2010. Eprint (http://arxiv.org/pdf/1002.3878v2) Gill, Richard (2011) The Monty Hall Problem is not a probability puzzle (it's a challenge in mathematical modelling). Statistica Neerlandica 65(1) 58-71, February 2011. Eprint (http://arxiv.org/pdf/1002.0651v3) Gill, Richard (2011) The Monty Hall Problem. Mathematical Institute, University of Leiden, Netherlands 10-13, 17 March 2011. Eprint (http://www.math.leidenuniv.nl/~gill/mhp-statprob.pdf) Gill, Richard (2011b) Monty Hall Problem (version 5). StatProb: The Encyclopedia Sponsored by Statistics and Probability Societies 2011. (http://statprob.com/encyclopedia/MontyHallProblem2.html) Gillman, Leonard (1992). "The Car and the Goats," American Mathematical Monthly 99: 37. Gnedin, Sasha (2011) "The Mondee Gills Game." The Mathematical Intelligencer http://www.springerlink. com/content/8402812734520774/fulltext.pdf Granberg, Donald (1996). "To Switch or Not to Switch". Appendix to vos Savant, Marilyn, The Power of Logical Thinking. St. Martin's Press. ISBN 0-612-30463-3, ( restricted online copy (http://books.google.com/ books?id=jNndlc2W4pAC&pg&pg=PA169) at Google Books). Granberg, Donald and Brown, Thad A. (1995). "The Monty Hall Dilemma," Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 21(7): 711-729. Grinstead, Charles M. and Snell, J. Laurie (2006-07-04) (PDF). Grinstead and Snells Introduction to Probability (http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/~prob/prob/prob.pdf). Retrieved 2008-04-02. Online version of Introduction to Probability, 2nd edition, published by the American Mathematical Society, Copyright (C) 2003 Charles M. Grinstead and J. Laurie Snell. Gruber, Gary (2010). The World's 200 Hardest Brain Teasers (http://books.google.com/ books?id=sesXaPoWyb0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=The+World's+200+Hardest+Brainteasers&hl=en& ei=bXzbTaGMIeTUiALCq7kR&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1& ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=The World's 200 Hardest Brainteasers&f=false). Sourcebooks, Inc.. p.136. ISBN978-1-4022-3857-4. Hall, Monty (1975). The Monty Hall Problem. (http://www.letsmakeadeal.com/problem.htm) LetsMakeADeal.com. Includes May 12, 1975 letter to Steve Selvin. Retrieved January 15, 2007. Henze, Norbert (1997). Stochastik fr Einsteiger: Eine Einfhrung in die faszinierende Welt des Zufalls, pp.105, Vieweg Verlag, ISBN 3-8348-0091-0, ( restricted online copy (http://books.google.com/ books?id=XRDBE3FUcPAC&pg=PA105) at Google Books) Herbranson, W. T. and Schroeder, J. (2010). "Are birds smarter than mathematicians? Pigeons (Columba livia) perform optimally on a version of the Monty Hall Dilemma." J. Comp. Psychol. 124(1): 1-13. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20175592 March 1, 2010. http://people.whitman.edu/~herbrawt/ HS_JCP_2010.pdf Kahneman, D., J.L. Knetsch and R.H. Thaler, 1991. Anomalies: The endowment effect, loss aversion, and status quo bias. The Journal of Economic Perspectives.
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Monty Hall problem Krauss, Stefan and Wang, X. T. (2003). "The Psychology of the Monty Hall Problem: Discovering Psychological Mechanisms for Solving a Tenacious Brain Teaser," Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 132(1). Retrieved from http://www.usd.edu/~xtwang/Papers/MontyHallPaper.pdf March 30, 2008. Mack, Donald R. (1992). The Unofficial IEEE Brainbuster Gamebook (http://books.google.com/ ?id=hcy9mQp83dEC&pg=PA18&dq="monty+hall+problem"). Wiley-IEEE. p.76. ISBN978-0-7803-0423-9. Magliozzi, Tom; Magliozzi, Ray (1998). Haircut in Horse Town: & Other Great Car Talk Puzzlers. Diane Pub Co.. ISBN0-7567-6423-8. Martin, Phillip (1989). "The Monty Hall Trap" (http://sites.google.com/site/psmartinsite/Home/ bridge-articles/the-monty-hall-trap), Bridge Today, MayJune 1989. Reprinted in Granovetter, Pamela and Matthew, ed. (1993), For Experts Only, Granovetter Books. Martin, Robert M. (2002). There are two errors in the the title of this book (http://books.google.com/ ?id=d6w6Wyp5cyUC&pg=PA57&dq=monty-hall+door-number) (2nd ed.). Broadview Press. pp.5759. ISBN978-1-55111-493-4. Morgan, J. P., Chaganty, N. R., Dahiya, R. C., & Doviak, M. J. (1991). "Let's make a deal: The player's dilemma," (http://www.jstor.org/stable/2684453) American Statistician 45: 284-287. Morone, A., and A. Fiore, 2007. Monty Hall's Three Doors for Dummies. Dipartimento di Scienze Economiche e Metodi Matematici - Universit di Bari, Southern Europe Research in Economic Studies - S.E.R.I.E.S. Working Paper no. 0012, (http://ideas.repec.org/p/bai/series/wp0012.html). Mueser, Peter R. and Granberg, Donald (May 1999). "The Monty Hall Dilemma Revisited: Understanding the Interaction of Problem Definition and Decision Making" (http://econpapers.repec.org/paper/wpawuwpex/ 9906001.htm), University of Missouri Working Paper 99-06. Retrieved June 10, 2010. Nalebuff, Barry (1987). "Puzzles: Choose a Curtain, Duel-ity, Two Point Conversions, and More," Journal of Economic Perspectives 1(2): 157-163 (Autumn, 1987). Rosenhouse, Jason: The Monty Hall Problem. Oxford University Press 2009, ISBN 978-0-19-536789-8 ( online copy of the first chapter (http://www.math.jmu.edu/~rosenhjd/ChapOne.pdf), preprint). Rosenthal, Jeffrey S. (2005a). "Monty Hall, Monty Fall, Monty Crawl". Math Horizons: September issue, 57. Online reprint, 2008 (http://probability.ca/jeff/writing/montyfall.pdf). Rosenthal, Jeffrey S. (2005b): Struck by Lightening: the Curious World of Probabilities. Harper Collings 2005, ISBN 978-0-00-200791-7. Samuelson, W. and R. Zeckhauser, 1988. Status quo bias in decision making. Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, 1, pp.759. Selvin, Steve (February 1975), "A problem in probability (letter to the editor)", American Statistician 29 (1): 67 Selvin, Steve (August 1975), "On the Monty Hall problem (letter to the editor)", American Statistician 29 (3): 134 Seymann R. G. (1991). "Comment on Let's make a deal: The player's dilemma," (http://www.jstor.org/stable/ 2684454) American Statistician 45: 287-288. Stibel, Jeffrey, Dror, Itiel, & Ben-Zeev, Talia (2008). " The Collapsing Choice Theory: Dissociating Choice and Judgment in Decision Making (http://www.springerlink.com/content/v65v2841q3820622/)," Theory and Decision. Full paper can be found at http://users.ecs.soton.ac.uk/id/TD%20choice%20and%20judgment.pdf. Tierney, John (July 21, 1991), "Behind Monty Hall's Doors: Puzzle, Debate and Answer?" (http://query. nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D0CEFDD1E3FF932A15754C0A967958260), The New York Times, retrieved 2008-01-18 Tierney, John (April 8, 2008), "And Behind Door No. 1, a Fatal Flaw" (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/ science/08tier.html), The New York Times, retrieved 2008-04-08 vos Savant, Marilyn (1990). "Ask Marilyn" column, Parade Magazine p.16 (9 September 1990). vos Savant, Marilyn (1990b). "Ask Marilyn" column, Parade Magazine p.25 (2 December 1990). vos Savant, Marilyn (1991a). "Ask Marilyn" column, Parade Magazine p.12 (17 February 1991).
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Monty Hall problem vos Savant, Marilyn (1991b). "Marilyn vos Savant's reply (letters to the editor)", American Statistician 45(4): 347 (November 1991). vos Savant, Marilyn (1996). The Power of Logical Thinking (http://books.google.com/?id=pgQQv8W_IgIC& pg=PA5&dq="monty+hall+paradox"+inauthor:savant). St. Martin's Press. ISBN0-312-15627-8. vos Savant, Marilyn (2006). "Ask Marilyn" column, Parade Magazine p.6 (26 November 2006). Schwager, Jack D. (1994). The New Market Wizards (http://books.google.com/?id=Ezz_gZ-bRzwC& pg=PA397&dq=three-doors+monty-hall). Harper Collins. p.397. ISBN978-0-88730-667-9. Williams, Richard (2004). "Appendix D: The Monty Hall Controversy" (http://www.nd.edu/~rwilliam/stats1/ appendices/xappxd.pdf) (PDF). Course notes for Sociology Graduate Statistics I. Retrieved 2008-04-25. Wheeler, Ward C. (1991). "Congruence Among Data Sets: A Bayesian Approach" (http://books.google.com/ ?id=1wqvNgz58JQC&pg=PA335&dq="monty+hall"+unchanged+switch). In Michael M. Miyamoto and Joel Cracraft. Phylogenetic analysis of DNA sequences. Oxford University Press US. p.335. ISBN978-0-19-506698-2. Whitaker, Craig F. (1990). [Formulation by Marilyn vos Savant of question posed in a letter from Craig Whitaker]. "Ask Marilyn" column, Parade Magazine p.16 (9 September 1990).
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External links
The Game Show Problem (http://www.marilynvossavant.com/articles/gameshow.html)the original question and responses on Marilyn vos Savant's web site Monty Hall (http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Recreations/Famous_Problems/Monty_Hall//) at the Open Directory Project " Monty Hall Paradox (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/MontyHallParadox/)" by Matthew R. McDougal, The Wolfram Demonstrations Project (simulation) The Monty Hall Problem (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/08/science/08monty.html) at The New York Times (simulation)
Verbal arithmetic
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Verbal arithmetic
Verbal arithmetic, also known as alphametics, cryptarithmetic, crypt-arithmetic, cryptarithm or word addition, is a type of mathematical game consisting of a mathematical equation among unknown numbers, whose digits are represented by letters. The goal is to identify the value of each letter. The name can be extended to puzzles that use non-alphabetic symbols instead of letters. The equation is typically a basic operation of arithmetic, such as addition, multiplication, or division. The classic example, published in the July 1924 issue of Strand Magazine by Henry Dudeney,[1] is:
The solution to this puzzle is O = 0, M = 1, Y = 2, E = 5, N = 6, D = 7, R = 8, and S = 9. Traditionally, each letter should represent a different digit, and (as in ordinary arithmetic notation) the leading digit of a multi-digit number must not be zero. A good puzzle should have a unique solution, and the letters should make up a cute phrase (as in the example above). Verbal arithmetic can be useful as a motivation and source of exercises in the teaching of algebra.
History
Verbal arithmetic puzzles are quite old and their inventor is not known. An example in The American Agriculturist[2] of 1864 disproves the popular notion that it was invented by Sam Loyd. The name crypt-arithmetic was coined by puzzlist Minos (pseudonym of Maurice Vatriquant) in the May 1931 issue of Sphinx, a Belgian magazine of recreational mathematics. In the 1955, J. A. H. Hunter introduced the word "alphametic" to designate cryptarithms, such as Dudeney's, whose letters form meaningful words or phrases.[3]
Solving cryptarithms
Solving a cryptarithm by hand usually involves a mix of deductions and exhaustive tests of possibilities. For instance, the following sequence of deductions solves Dudeney's SEND + MORE = MONEY puzzle above (columns are numbered from right to left):
1. From column 5, M = 1 since it is the only carry-over possible from the sum of two single digit numbers in column 4. 2. To produce a carry from column 4 to column 5, S + M is at least 9, so S is 8 or 9, so S + M is 9 or 10, and so O is 0 or 1. But M = 1, so O = 0. 3. If there were a carry from column 3 to column 4 then E = 9 and so N = 0. But O = 0, so there is no carry, and S = 9. 4. If there were no carry from column 2 to column 3 then E = N, which is impossible. Therefore there is a carry and N = E + 1. 5. If there were no carry from column 1 to column 2, then ( N + R ) mod 10 = E, and N = E + 1, so E + 1 + R = E mod 10, so R = 9. But S = 9, so there must be a carry from column 1 to column 2 and R = 8. 6. To produce a carry from column 1 to column 2, we must have D + E = 10 + Y. As Y cannot be 0 or 1, D + E is at least 12. As D is at most 7, then E is at least 5. Also, N is at most 7, and N = E + 1. So E is 5 or 6. 7. If E were 6 then to make D + E at least 12, D would have to be 7. But N = E + 1, so N would also be 7, which is impossible. Therefore E = 5 and N = 6.
Verbal arithmetic 8. To make D + E at least 12 we must have D = 7, and so Y = 2. The use of modular arithmetic often helps. For example, use of mod-10 arithmetic allows the columns of an addition problem to be treated as simultaneous equations, while the use of mod-2 arithmetic allows inferences based on the parity of the variables. In computer science, cryptarithms provide good examples to illustrate the brute force method, and algorithms that generate all permutations of m choices from n possibilities. For example, the Dudeney puzzle above can be solved by testing all assignments of eight values among the digits 0 to 9 to the eight letters S,E,N,D,M,O,R,Y, giving 1,814,400 possibilities. They provide also good examples for backtracking paradigm of algorithm design.
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Other information
When generalized to arbitrary bases, the problem of determining if a cryptarithm has a solution is NP-complete.[4] (The generalization is necessary for the hardness result because in base 10, there are only 10! possible assignments of digits to letters, and these can be checked against the puzzle in linear time.) Alphametics can be combined with other number puzzles such as Sudoku and Kakuro to create cryptic Sudoku and Kakuro.
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] H. E. Dudeney, in Strand Magazine vol. 68 (July 1924), pp. 97 and 214. American Agriculturist 23 (12): pp.349. December 1864 J. A. H. Hunter, in the Toronto Globe and Mail (27 October 1955), p. 27. David Eppstein (1987). "On the NP-completeness of cryptarithms" (http:/ / www. ics. uci. edu/ ~eppstein/ pubs/ Epp-SN-87. pdf). SIGACT News 18 (3): 3840. doi:10.1145/24658.24662. .
Martin Gardner, Mathematics, Magic, and Mystery. Dover (1956) Journal of Recreational Mathematics, has a regular alphametics column. Jack van der Elsen, Alphametics. Maastricht (1998) Kahan S., Have some sums to solve: The complete alphametics book, Baywood Publishing, (1978) Yang X. S., Cryptic Kakuro and Cross Sums Sudoku, Exposure Publishing, (2006) Brooke M. One Hundred & Fifty Puzzles in Crypt-Arithmetic. New York: Dover, (1963)
External links
Alphametic Solver written in Python (http://code.activestate.com/recipes/576615/) Cryptarithms (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/cryptarithms/st_crypto.shtml) at cut-the-knot Weisstein, Eric W., " Alphametic (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Alphametic.html)" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., " Cryptarithmetic (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Cryptarithmetic.html)" from MathWorld. Alphametics and Cryptarithms (http://www.mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de/~sillke/PUZZLES/ALPHAMETIC/ ) An on-line tool to create Alphametics and Cryptarithms (http://www.iread.it/cryptarithms.php)
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Mechanical puzzles
Bedlam cube
The Bedlam cube is a solid dissection puzzle invented by British puzzle expert Bruce Bedlam.[1][2]
Design
The puzzle consists of thirteen polycubic pieces: twelve pentacubes and one tetracube. The objective is to assemble these pieces into a 4 x 4 x 4 cube. There are 19,186 distinct ways of doing so, up to rotations and reflections. Although the Bedlam cube is essentially just the logical next step up from the 3 x 3 x 3 Soma cube, it is much more difficult to solve.
Bedlam cube
History
Two of the BBC2 'dragons', Rachel Elnaugh and Theo Paphitis, were to invest in the Bedlam cube during the second series of Dragons' Den. They offered 100,000 for a 30% share of equity in Bedlam Puzzles. Danny Bamping (the entrepreneur behind Bedlam cube) finally chose a bank loan instead of their investment, as seen in the relevant "Where Are They Now" episode of Dragons' Den.
Records
The official world record for assembling the Bedlam Cube is 7.77 seconds, and was set by Aleksander Iljasov (Norway) on 28 September 2007.[3]
Bedlam cube elements
References
[1] (http:/ / www. bedlampuzzles. com/ 13reasons. asp): "Bruce Bedlam the Cubes inventor is putting all his royalty fees into his company 'Stonehenge Limited'" [2] Bruce's Theories (http:/ / www. stonehenge. tv/ intro. html) Stonehenge Ltd website [3] Guinness World Records
External links
The Official Site of Bedlam Puzzles (http://www.bedlampuzzles.com) Bedlam Cube solver (http://www.danieltebbutt.com/bedlam.html) All 19,186 Bedlam Cube Solutions (http://scottkurowski.com/bedlamcube/) Bedlam Cube Demonstration Software (http://www.cube.operaomnia.info/)
Combination puzzle
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Combination puzzle
A combination puzzle, also known as a sequential move puzzle, is a puzzle which consists of a set of pieces which can be manipulated into different combinations by a group of operations. The puzzle is solved by achieving a particular combination starting from a random (scrambled) combination. Often, the solution is required to be some recognisable pattern such as 'all like colours together' or 'all numbers in order'. The most famous of these puzzles is the original Rubik's Cube, a cubic puzzle in which each of the six faces can be independently rotated. Each of the six faces is a different colour, but each of the nine pieces on a face is identical in colour, in the solved condition. In the unsolved condition colours are distributed amongst the pieces of the cube. The mechanical construction of the puzzle will usually define the rules by which the combination of pieces can be altered. This leads to some limitations on what combinations are possible. For instance, in the case of the Rubiks Cube, there are a large number of combinations that can be achieved by randomly placing the coloured stickers on the cube, but not all of these can be achieved by manipulating the cube rotations. Similarly, not all the combinations that are mechanically possible from a disassembled cube are possible by manipulation of the puzzle. Since neither unpeeling the stickers nor disassembling the cube is an allowed operation, the possible operations of rotating various faces limit what can be achieved. Although a mechanical realization of the puzzle is usual, it is not actually necessary. It is only necessary that the rules for the operations are defined. The puzzle can be realized entirely in virtual space or as a set of mathematical statements. In fact, there are some puzzles that can only be realized in virtual space. An example is the 4-dimensional 3333 tesseract puzzle, simulated by the MagicCube4D software.
Properties
There have been many different shapes of Rubik type puzzles constructed. As well as cubes, all of the regular polyhedra and many of the semi-regular and stellated polyhedra have been made.
Regular cuboids
A cuboid is a rectilinear polyhedron. That is, all its edges form right angles. Or in other words (in the majority of cases), a box shape. A regular cuboid, in the context of this article, is a cuboid puzzle where all the pieces are the same size in edge length.
Picture Data Commercial name: Rubik's Cube Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 333 Commercial name: Rubik's Revenge Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 444 The original Rubik's Cube Comments
Solution is much the same as 333 cube except additional (and relatively simple) algorithm(s) are required to unscramble the centre pieces and edges and additional parity not seen on the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube.
Combination puzzle
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Commercial name: Professor's Cube Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 555 Commercial name: Pocket Cube Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 222 Solution is much the same as 333 cube except additional (and relatively simple) algorithm(s) are required to unscramble the centre pieces and edges.
Simpler to solve than the standard cube in that only the algorithms for the corner pieces are required. It is nevertheless surprisingly non-trivial to solve.
Commercial name: Panagiotis Verdes holds a patent to a method which is said to be able to make cubes up to 111111. V-CUBE He has fully working products for 222, 555, 666 and 777 cubes. Solution strategies are Geometric shape: similar to those of the 444 and 555. Cube Piece configuration: 222 to 111111 Main articles: V-Cube 6, V-Cube 7 4-Dimensional puzzle Geometric shape: Tesseract Piece configuration: 3333 [2] [3][4][5] Non-uniform cuboids Geometric shape: Cuboid Piece configuration (1st): 223 Piece configuration (2nd): 233 Piece configuration (3rd): 344 Piece configuration (4th): 226 Siamese cubes Geometric shape: Fused cubes Piece configuration: two 333 fused 113 This is the 4-dimensional analog of a cube and thus cannot actually be constructed. However, it can be drawn or represented by a computer. Seriously more difficult to solve than the standard cube, although the techniques follow much the same principles. There are many other sizes of virtual cuboid puzzles ranging from the trivial 33 to the 5-dimensional 77777 which has only been solved twice so [1] far . Most of the puzzles in this class of puzzle are generally custom made in small numbers. Most of them start with the internal mechanism of a standard puzzle. Additional cubie pieces are then added, either modified from standard puzzles or made from scratch. The four shown here are only a sample from a very large number of examples. Those with two or three different numbers of even or odd rows also have the ability to change their shape.
[6]
Siamese cubes are two or more puzzles that are fused so that some pieces are common to both cubes. The picture here shows two 333 cubes that have been fused. The largest example known to exist is [7] in The Puzzle Museum and consists of three 555 cubes that are siamese fused 225 in two places.
[8]
Extended cubes These puzzles are made by bonding additional cubies to an existing puzzle. They therefore do not add Geometric shape: Box to the complexity of the puzzle configuration, they just make it look more complex. Solution Piece configuration: strategies remain the same, though a scrambled puzzle can have a strange appearance. 333 extended 335 Commercial name: Very possibly the simplest regular cuboid puzzle to solve. Completely trivial solution as the puzzle Boob cube consists of only two cubies. Geometric shape: Box Piece configuration: 112
[9]
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Commercial name: Void cube Geometric shape: Menger Sponge with 1 iteration Piece configuration: 3x3x3 with a hole in the middle. Solutions to this cube is similar to a regular 3x3x3. However, parity errors are possible in these solutions. This cube uses a special mechanism due to absence of a central core.
Pattern variations There are many puzzles which are mechanically identical to the regular cuboids listed above but have variations in the pattern and colour of design. Some of these are custom made in very small numbers, sometimes for promotional events. The ones listed in the table below are included because the pattern in some way affects the difficulty of the solution or is notable in some other way.
Picture No Picture Data Commercial name: Junior Cube Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 222 Commercial name: Fooler Cube Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 333 Commercial name: Calendar Cube Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 333 [11] Rubik's Cube for the blind Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 333 Comments Mechanically identical to the Pocket Cube. However, much easier to solve as it only uses two colours.
[10]
Mechanically identical to the standard 333 cube but not a real puzzle since all the faces are the same colour. There are also cubes which have only three colours, either one colour per pair of opposite faces or one colour per layer. Also known as the Dodo cube.
Mechanically identical to the standard 333 cube, but with specially printed stickers for displaying the date. Much easier to solve since five of the six faces are ignored. Ideal produced a commercial version during the initial cube craze. Sticker sets are also available for converting a normal cube into a calendar.
Mechanically identical to the standard 333 cube. However the pieces are in some way tactile to allow operation by blind persons, or to solve blindfolded. The cube pictured is the original "Blind Man's Cube" made by Politechnika. This is coloured the same as the standard cube, but there is an embossed symbol on each square which corresponds to a colour.
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Commercial Name: Magic Cube Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 333
Mechanically identical to the standard 333 cube. However, the numbers on the centre pieces force the solver to become aware that each one can be in one of four orientations, thus hugely increasing the total number of combinations. The number of combinations of centre face orientations is 46. However, odd combinations (overall odd number of rotations) of the centre faces cannot be achieved with legal operations. The increase is therefore x211 over the original making the total approximately 1024 combinations. This adds to the difficulty of the puzzle but not astronomically; only one or two additional algorithms are required to effect a solution. Note that the puzzle can be treated as a number magic square puzzle on each of the six faces with the magic constant being 15 in this case. Mechanically identical to the standard 333 cube. The pattern, which is often a promotional logo or pictures of performers, will usually have the effect of making the orientation of the centre pieces 'count' in the solution. The solution is therefore the same as the 'Magic Square' cube above.
[12]
Patterned cubes Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 333 Commercial name: Sudoku Cube Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 333
Identical to the Rubik's Cube in mechanical function, it adds another layer of difficulty in that the numbers must all have the same orientation and there are no colors to follow. The name reflects its superficial resemblance to the two-dimensional Sudoku number puzzle.
Over The Top
[13] Commercial name: Over The Top Geometric shape: Cube Piece configuration: 17x17x17 Inventor: Oskar van Deventer
A remarkable extension to the basic Rubik's Cube. Experimental; made by 3-D printing of plastic. Corners are much larger in proportion, and edge pieces match that larger dimension; they are narrow, and do not resemble cubes. The rest of the cubelets are 15x15 arrays on each side of the whole cube; as planned, they would be only 4mm on a side. The mechanism is a 3x3x3 core, with thin "vanes" for the center edges; the rest of the cubelets fill in the gaps. The core has a sphere at its center. Surrounding the core are six concentric spherical shells (or more, depending on your definition). The scheme is quite different from that of Panagiotis Verdes, the inventor of the V Cubes. Mr. van Deventer is a noted inventor of puzzles.
Irregular cuboids
An irregular cuboid, in the context of this article, is a cuboid puzzle where not all the pieces are the same size in edge length. This category of puzzle is often made by taking a larger regular cuboid puzzle and fusing together some of the pieces to make larger pieces. In the formulae for piece configuration, the configuration of the fused pieces is given in brackets. Thus, (as a simple regular cuboid example) a 2(2,2)x2(2,2)x2(2,2) is a 222 puzzle, but it was made by fusing a 444 puzzle. Puzzles which are constructed in this way are often called "bandaged" cubes. However, there are many irregular cuboids that have not (and often could not) be made by bandaging.
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Picture
Data
Comments
Commercial Similar to the original Rubik's Cube, the Skewb differs in that its four axes of rotation pass through the name: Skewb corners of the cube rather than the centres of the faces. As a result, it is a deep-cut puzzle in which each Geometric shape: twist scrambles all six faces. Cube Piece configuration: [14] Bandaged Cubes The example shown in the link is a simple example of a large number of bandaged cubes that have been Geometric shape: made. Cube Piece configuration: various Commercial name: Square One Geometric shape: Cube A variation on the original Rubik's Cube where it can be turned in such a manner as to distort the cubical shape of the puzzle. The Square One consists of three layers. The upper and lower layers contain kite and triangular pieces. The middle layer contains two trapezoid pieces, which together may form an irregular hexagon or a square. Square One is an example of another very large class of puzzle cuboid puzzles which have cubies that are not themselves all cuboid.
Other polyhedra
Picture Data Commercial Name: Pyraminx Geometric shape: Tetrahedron Piece configuration: 333 Commercial Name: Pyramorphix Geometric shape: Tetrahedron Piece configuration: 222 Commercial Name: Megaminx Geometric shape: Dodecahedron Piece configuration: Similar to 333 Commercial Name: Gigaminx, Teraminx, Petaminx Geometric shape: Dodecahedron Commercial Name: Impossiball Geometric shape: Rounded icosahedron Piece configuration: Comments Pyramid shaped puzzle similar to Rubik's cube in operation and solution.
Pyramid shaped puzzle with a 222 cube mechanism.
12-sided polyhedron puzzle similar to Rubik's cube in operation and solution.
Megaminx variants with multiple layers per face. The Gigaminx has 2 layers per face, for a total of 5 layers per edge; the Teraminx has 3 layers per face, 7 layers per edge; and the Petaminx has 4 layers per face, 9 layers per edge.
Rounded icosahedron puzzle similar to Pocket Cube in operation and solution.
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Commercial Name: Alexander's Star Geometric shape: Great dodecahedron Piece configuration: Commercial Name: BrainTwist Geometric shape: Tetrahedron Piece configuration: 12-sided Nonconvex uniform polyhedron puzzle similar to Rubik's cube in operation and solution.
The BrainTwist is a unique tetrahedral puzzle with an ability to "flip", showing only half of the puzzle at a time.
Commercial Name: Dogic The Dogic is an icosahedron cut into 60 triangular pieces around its 12 tips and 20 face centers. Geometric shape: Icosahedron Piece configuration: Commercial Name: Skewb Diamond Geometric shape: Octahedron Piece configuration: 333 Commercial Name: Skewb Ultimate Geometric shape: Dodecahedron Piece configuration: Commercial Name: Barrel Cube Geometric shape: Octagonal Prism Piece configuration: 333 Commercial Name: Diamond Cube Geometric shape: Rhombicuboctahedron Piece configuration: 333 Commercial Name: Pyraminx Crystal Geometric shape: Dodecahedron Piece configuration: An octahedral variation on the Skewb, it is a deep-cut puzzle very similar to the Skewb and is a dual-polyhedron transformation.
While appearing more difficult than the Skewb Diamond, it is functionally the same as the Skewb and Skewb Diamond. The puzzle is cut in a different manner but the same solutions can be used to solve it by identifying what pieces are equivalent.
Mechanically identical to the 333 cube. It does, however, have an interesting difference in its solution. The vertical corner columns are different colours to the faces and do not match the colours of the vertical face columns. The corner columns can therefore be placed in any corner. On the face of it, this makes the solution easier, however odd combinations of corner columns cannot be achieved by legal moves. The solver may unwittingly attempt an odd combination solution, but will not be aware of this until the last few pieces. Mechanically identical to the 333 cube although the example pictured is easier to solve due to the restricted colour scheme. This puzzle is a rhombicuboctahedron but not a uniform one as the edge pieces are oblong rather than square. There is in existence a similar puzzle actually called Rhombicuboctahedron which is uniform.
A dodecahedron cut into 20 corner pieces and 40 edge pieces. It is similar to the Megaminx, but is deeper cut, giving edges that behave differently from the Megaminx's edges when twisted.
Commercial Name: Magic Virtual 4-dimensional puzzle, the 4-D analogue of the Megaminx. 120-cell Geometric shape: 120-cell Piece configuration: 3333
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Other geometric shapes

Picture Data Comments
Commercial Name: Also known as Rubik's Sphere. Mechanically identical to the 333 cube in operation and solution. The Magic Ball only practical difference is that it is rather hard to grip. This accounts for the poor condition of this Geometric shape: specimen, as the coloured stickers tend to get forced off in use. Sphere Piece configuration: 333
Non-Rubik style three-dimensional

Picture Data Commercial Name: Rubik's Clock Piece configuration: 332 12-position dials Commercial Name: Rubik's Snake Piece configuration: 24 pieces Comments Rubik's Clock is a two-sided puzzle, each side presenting nine clocks to the puzzler. There are four wheels, one at each corner of the puzzle, each allowing the corresponding corner clock to be rotated directly.
Some would not count this as a combinational puzzle despite it bearing the Rubik name. Also known as Rubik's Twist. There is no one solution to this puzzle but multiple different shapes can be made.
Two-dimensional
Picture Data Sliding piece puzzle Piece configuration: 77 Comments These ubiquitous puzzles come in many sizes and designs. The traditional design is with numbers and the solution forms a magic square. There have been many different designs, the example shown here uses graphic symbols instead of numbers. The solution requires that there are no repeated symbols in any row column or diagonal. The picture shows the puzzle unsolved. Mechanically, no different from the puzzle above. However, the picture on the pieces gives the puzzle something of the nature of a jigsaw in addition to being a combination puzzle. Note that the picture consists of multitude of a polyhedra which have been made into Rubik puzzles.
Sliding piece puzzle with picture Piece configuration: 77 Fifteen puzzle Piece configuration: 44-1
The original sliding piece puzzle.
Rubik's Magic
Not entirely 2D. Involves flipping parts back onto itself.
Rubik's Master Magic
The five ringed version of the Rubik's Magic
Commercial name:2D Magic Cube Geometric shape:Square Piece configuration: 33
Another virtual puzzle in the Rubik series, but this time a very simple one.
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Klotski A traditional sliding piece puzzle. There are now endless variations of this original puzzle Piece configuration: implemented as computer games. 45-2 with some fused pieces
References
[1] http:/ / www. gravitation3d. com/ magiccube5d/ hallofinsanity. html [2] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=24 [3] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=21 [4] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=1357 [5] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=1285 [6] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=1271 [7] (http:/ / www. puzzlemuseum. com/ month/ picm03/ 200301mcu. htm) Collection of cube puzzles at The Puzzle Museum [8] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=439 [9] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=13 [10] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=663 [11] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=63 [12] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=237 [13] http:/ / www. shapeways. com/ model/ 64058/ over_the_top___17x17x17____3500. html [14] http:/ / www. twistypuzzles. com/ cgi-bin/ puzzle. cgi?pkey=530
External links
A large database of twisty puzzles (http://www.twistypuzzles.com) A collection of Java applet combination puzzle simulators (http://www.mud.ca/puzzler/JPuzzler/JPuzzler. html) The Puzzle Museum (http://www.puzzlemuseum.com/) The Magic Polyhedra Patent Page (http://www.calormen.com/TwistyPuzzles/twisty.htm)
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Fifteen puzzle
The 15-puzzle (also called Gem Puzzle, Boss Puzzle, Game of Fifteen, Mystic Square and many others) is a sliding puzzle that consists of a frame of numbered square tiles in random order with one tile missing. The puzzle also exists in other sizes, particularly the smaller 8-puzzle. If the size is 33 tiles, the puzzle is called the 8-puzzle or 9-puzzle, and if 44 tiles, the puzzle is called the 15-puzzle or 16-puzzle named, respectively, for the number of tiles and the number of spaces. The object of the puzzle is to place the tiles in order (see diagram) by making sliding moves that use the empty space. The n-puzzle is a classical problem for modelling algorithms involving heuristics. Commonly used heuristics for this problem include counting A solved 15-puzzle the number of misplaced tiles and finding the sum of the Manhattan distances between each block and its position in the goal configuration. Note that both are admissible, i.e., they never overestimate the number of moves left, which ensures optimality for certain search algorithms such as A*.
Solvability
Johnson & Story (1879) used a parity argument to show that half of the starting positions for the n-puzzle are impossible to resolve, no matter how many moves are made. This is done by considering a function of the tile configuration that is invariant under any valid move, and then using this to partition the space of all possible labeled states into two equivalence classes of reachable and unreachable states. The invariant is the parity of the permutation of all 16 squares plus the parity of the taxicab distance (number of rows plus number of columns) of the empty square from the lower right corner. This is an invariant because each move changes both the parity of the permutation and the parity of the taxicab distance. In particular if the empty square is in the lower right corner then the puzzle is solvable if and only if the permutation of the remaining pieces is even. Johnson & Story (1879) also showed that the converse holds on boards of size mn provided m and n are both at least 2: all even permutations are solvable. This is straightforward but a little messy to prove by induction on m and n starting with m=n=2. Archer (1999) gave another proof, based on defining equivalence classes via a hamiltonian path. Wilson (1974) studied the analogue of the 15 puzzle on arbitrary finite connected and non-separable graphs. (A graph is called separable if removing a vertex increases the number of components.) He showed that, except for polygons, and one exceptional graph on 7 vertices, it is possible to obtain all permutations unless the graph is bipartite, in which case exactly the even permutations can be obtained. The exceptional graph is a regular hexagon with one diagonal and a vertex at the center added; only 1/6 of its permutations can be obtained. For larger versions of the n-puzzle, finding a solution is easy, but the problem of finding the shortest solution is NP-hard.[1] For the 15-puzzle, lengths of optimal solutions range from 0 to 80 moves; the 8-puzzle can be solved in 31 moves or fewer (integer sequence A087725 [2]). The symmetries of the fifteen puzzle form a groupoid (not a group, as not all moves can be composed);[3][4] this groupoid acts on configurations.
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History
The puzzle was "invented" by Noyes Palmer Chapman,[5] a postmaster in Canastota, New York, who is said to have shown friends, as early as 1874, a precursor puzzle consisting of 16 numbered blocks that were to be put together in rows of four, each summing to 34. Copies of the improved Fifteen Puzzle made their way to Syracuse, New York by way of Noyes' son, Frank, and from there, via sundry connections, to Watch Hill, RI, and finally to Hartford (Connecticut), where students in the American School for the Deaf started manufacturing the puzzle and, by December 1879, selling them both locally and in Boston, Massachusetts. Shown one of these, Matthias Rice, who ran a fancy woodworking business in Boston, started manufacturing the puzzle sometime in December 1879 and convinced a "Yankee Notions" fancy goods dealer to sell them under the name of "Gem Puzzle". In late-January 1880, Dr. Charles Pevey, a dentist in Worcester, Massachusetts, garnered some attention by offering a cash reward for a solution to the Fifteen Puzzle.[5] The game became a craze in the U.S. in February 1880, Canada in March, Europe in April, but that craze had pretty much dissipated by July. Apparently the puzzle was not introduced to Japan until 1889. Noyes Chapman had applied for a patent on his "Block Solitaire Puzzle" on February 21, 1880. However, that patent was rejected, likely because it was not sufficiently different from the August 20, 1878 "Puzzle-Blocks" patent (US 207124) granted to Ernest U. Kinsey.[5]
U.S. Political cartoon about finding a Republican presidential candidate in 1880
Sam Loyd's unsolvable 15-puzzle, with tiles 14 and 15 exchanged. This puzzle is not solvable because it would require a change of the invariant.
Sam Loyd
Sam Loyd claimed from 1891 until his death in 1911 that he invented the puzzle, for example writing in the Cyclopedia of Puzzles (published 1914): "The older inhabitants of Puzzleland will remember how in the early seventies I drove the entire world crazy over a little box of movable pieces which became known as the "14-15 Puzzle".[6] However, Loyd had nothing to do with the invention or initial popularity of the puzzle, and in any case the craze was in 1880, not the early 1870s. Loyd's first article about the puzzle was published in 1886 and it wasn't until 1891 that he first claimed to have been the
Sam Loyd's illustration
inventor.[5][7] Some later interest was fuelled by Loyd offering a $1,000 prize for anyone who could provide a solution for achieving a particular combination specified by Loyd, namely reversing the 14 and 15.[8] This was impossible, as had been shown over a decade earlier by Johnson & Story (1879), as it required a transformation from an even to an odd combination.
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Miscellaneous
The Minus Cube, manufactured in the USSR, is a 3D puzzle with similar operations to the 15-puzzle. Bobby Fischer was an expert at solving the 15-Puzzle. He had been timed to be able to solve it within 25 seconds; Fischer demonstrated this on November 8, 1972 on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.
Notes
[1] Daniel Ratner, Manfred K. Warmuth. Finding a Shortest Solution for the N N Extension of the 15-PUZZLE Is Intractable. National Conference on Artificial Intelligence, 1986. [2] http:/ / www. research. att. com/ ~njas/ sequences/ A087725 [3] The 15-puzzle groupoid (1) (http:/ / www. neverendingbooks. org/ index. php/ the-15-puzzle-groupoid-1. html), Never Ending Books [4] The 15-puzzle groupoid (2) (http:/ / www. neverendingbooks. org/ index. php/ the-15-puzzle-groupoid-2. html), Never Ending Books [5] The 15 Puzzle, by Jerry Slocum & Dic Sonneveld. ISBN 1-890980-15-3 [6] Cyclopedia of Puzzles, p. 235 (http:/ / www. mathpuzzle. com/ loyd/ cop234-235. jpg) [7] Barry R. Clarke, Puzzles for Pleasure, pp.10-12, Cambridge University Press, 1994 ISBN 0521466342. [8] Korf, Richard E. (2000), "Recent progress in the design and analysis of admissible heuristic functions" (https:/ / www. aaai. org/ Papers/ AAAI/ 2000/ AAAI00-212. pdf), Recent Progress in the Design and Analysis of Admissible Heuristic Functions, SARA 2000. Abstraction, reformulation, and approximation: 4th international symposium, Texas, USA. LNCS 1864, 1864, Springer, pp.4555, doi:10.1007/3-540-44914-0_3, ISBN978-3-540-67839-7, , retrieved 2010-04-26
References
Archer, Aaron F. (1999), "A modern treatment of the 15 puzzle", The American Mathematical Monthly 106 (9): 793799, doi:10.2307/2589612, ISSN0002-9890, MR1732661 Johnson, Wm. Woolsey; Story, William E. (1879), "Notes on the "15" Puzzle", American Journal of Mathematics (The Johns Hopkins University Press) 2 (4): 397404, doi:10.2307/2369492, ISSN0002-9327, JSTOR2369492 Edward Kasner & James Newman (1940) Mathematics and the Imagination, pp 17780, Simon & Schuster. Wilson, Richard M. (1974), "Graph puzzles, homotopy, and the alternating group", Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series B 16: 8696, doi:10.1016/0095-8956(74)90098-7, ISSN0095-8956, MR0332555
External links
The history of the 15 puzzle (http://www.xs4all.nl/~hc11/15puzzle/15puzzen.htm)
Mechanical puzzle
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Mechanical puzzle
A mechanical puzzle is a puzzle presented as a set of mechanically interlinked pieces.
History
The oldest known mechanical puzzle comes from Greece and appeared in the 3rd century BC. The game consists of a square divided into 14 parts, and the aim was to create different shapes from these pieces. This is not easy to do. (see Ostomachion loculus Archimedius) In Iran puzzle-locks were made as early as the 17th century AD. The next known occurrence of puzzles is in Japan. In 1742 there is a mention of a game called Sei Shona-gon Chie No-Ita in a book. Around the year 1800 the Tangram puzzle from China became popular, and 20 years later it had spread through Europe and America. The company Richter from Rudolstadt began producing large amounts of Tangram-like puzzles of different shapes, the so-called Anker-puzzles. In 1893 professor Hoffman wrote a book called Puzzles; Old and New. It contained, amongst other things, more than 40 descriptions of puzzles with secret opening mechanisms. This book grew into a reference work for puzzle games and modern copies exist for those interested. The beginning of the 20th century was a time in which puzzles were greatly fashionable and the first patents for puzzles were recorded. The puzzle shown in the picture, made of 12 identical pieces by W. Altekruse in the year 1890, was an example of this. With the invention of modern polymers manufacture of many puzzles became easier and cheaper.
Categories
Puzzle design by W.Altekruse
Assembly puzzles
In this category, the puzzle is present in component form, and the aim is to produce a certain shape. The Soma cube made by Piet Hein, the Pentomino by Solomon Golomb and the aforementioned laying puzzles Tangram and Anker-puzzles are all examples of this type of puzzle. Furthermore, problems in which a number of pieces have to be arranged so as to fit into a (seemingly too small) box are also classed in this category. The image shows a variant of Hoffman's packing problem. The aim is to pack 27 cuboids with side lengths A, B, C into a box of side length A+B+C, subject to two constraints: 1) A, B, C must not be equal 2) The smallest of A, B, C must be larger than
Hoffman's packing problem
Mechanical puzzle One possibility would be A=18, B=20, C=22 the box would then have to have the dimensions 606060. Modern tools such as laser cutters allow the creation of complex 2 dimensional puzzles made of wood or acrylic plastic. In recent times this has become predominant and puzzles of extraordinarily decorative geometry have been designed. This makes use of the multitude of ways of subdividing areas into repeating shapes. Computers aid in the design of new puzzles. A computer allows an exhaustive search for solution with its help a puzzle may be designed in such a way that it has the fewest possible solutions, or a solution requiring the most steps possible. The consequence is that solving the puzzle can be very difficult. The use of transparent materials enables the creation of puzzles, in which pieces have to be stacked on top of each other. The aim is to create a specific pattern, image or colour scheme in the solution. For example, one puzzle consists of several discs in which angular sections of varying sizes are differently coloured. The discs have to be stacked so as to create a colour circle (red->blue->green->red) around the discs.
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Disassembly puzzles
The puzzles in this category are usually solved by opening or dividing them into pieces. This includes those puzzles with secret opening mechanisms, which are to be opened by trial and error. Furthermore, puzzles consisting of several metal pieces linked together in some fashion are also considered part of this category. The two puzzles shown in the picture are especially good for social gatherings, since they Disassembly puzzles appear to be very easily taken apart, but in reality many people cannot solve this puzzle. The problem here lies in the shape of the interlocking pieces the mating surfaces are tapered, and thus can only be removed in one direction. However, each piece has two oppositely sloping tapers mating with the two adjoining pieces so that the piece cannot be removed in either direction. Boxes called secret boxes or puzzle boxes with secret opening mechanisms extremely popular in Japan, are included in this category. These caskets contain more or less complex, usually invisible opening mechanisms which reveal a small hollow space on opening. There is a vast variety of opening mechanisms, such as hardly visible panels which need to be shifted, inclination mechanisms, magnetic locks, movable pins which need to be rotated into a certain position up and even time locks in which an object has to be held in a given position until a liquid has filled up a certain container.
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Interlocking puzzles
In an interlocking puzzle, one or more pieces hold the rest together, or the pieces are mutually self-sustaining. The aim is to completely disassemble and then reassemble the puzzle. Examples of these are the well-known Chinese wood knots. Both assembly and disassembly can be difficult contrary to assembly puzzles, these puzzles usually do not just fall apart easily. The level of difficulty is usually assessed in terms of the number of moves required to remove the first piece from the initial puzzle. The image shows one of the most notorious representatives of this category, the Chinese wood knot. In this particular version designed by Bill Cutler, 5 moves are needed before the first piece can be removed.
Chinese wood knot
The known history of these puzzles reaches back to the beginning of the 18th century. In 1803 a catalog by Bastelmeier contained two puzzles of this type. Professor Hoffman's puzzle book mentioned above also contained two interlocking puzzles. At the beginning of the 19th century the Japanese took over the market for these puzzles. They developed a multitude of games in all kinds of different shapes animals, houses and other objects - whereas the development in the western world revolved mainly around geometrical shapes. With the help of computers, it has recently become possible to analyze complete sets of games played. This process was begun by Bill Cutler with his analysis of all the Chinese wood knots. From October 1987 to August 1990 all the 35 657 131 235 different variations were analyzed. The calculations were done by several computers in parallel and would have taken a total of 62.5 years on a single computer. With shapes different from the Chinese cross the level of difficulty lately reached levels of up to 100 moves for the first piece to be removed, a scale humans would struggle to grasp. The peak of this development is a puzzle in which the addition of a few pieces doubles the number of moves. However, computer analysis also led to another trend: since the rotation of pieces cannot, with today's software, be analyzed by computers , there has been a trend to create puzzles whose solution must include at least one rotation. These then have to be solved by hand. Prior to the 2003 publication of the RD Design Project by Owen, Charnley and Strickland, disassembled puzzles without right angles could not be efficiently analyzed by computers. Stewart Coffin has been creating puzzles based upon the rhombic dodecahedron since the 1960s. These made use of strips with either six or three edges. These kinds of puzzles often have extremely irregular components, which come together in a regular shape only at the very last step. Furthermore, the 60 angles allow designs in which several objects have to be moved at the same time. The Rosebud puzzle is a prime example of this: in this puzzle 6 pieces have to be moved from one extreme position, in which they are only touching at the corners, to the center of the completed object.
A Burr puzzle being
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Disentanglement Puzzles
For these kind of puzzles, the goal is to disentangle a metal or string loop from an object. Topology plays an important role with these puzzles. The image shows a version of the derringer puzzle. Although simple in appearance, it is quite challenging - most puzzle sites rank it among their hardest puzzles.
A disentanglement puzzle. The object is to remove the string with the two balls from the wire construction.
Vexiers are a different sort of disentanglement puzzle - two or more metal wires, which have been intertwined, are to be untangled. They, too, spread with the general puzzle craze at the end of the 19th century. A large number of the Vexiers still
available today originate in this period. So called ring puzzles, of which the Chinese rings are part, are a different type of Vexier. In these puzzles a long wire loop must be unsnarled from a mesh of rings and wires. The number of steps required for a solution often has an exponential relationship with the number of loops in the puzzle. The common type, which connects the rings to a bar with cords (or loose metal equivalents) has a movement pattern identical to the Gray binary code, in which only one bit changes from one code word relative to its immediate neighbor. A noteworthy puzzle, known as the Chinese rings, Cardans rings, the Baguenaudier or the Renaissance puzzle was Mentioned in circa 1500 as Problem 107 of the manuscript De Viribus Quantitatis by Luca Pacioli. The puzzle is again referred to by Girolamo Cardano in the 1550 edition of his book De subtililate. Although the puzzle is a disentanglement type Puzzle it also has mechanical puzzle attributes, and the solution can be derived as a binary mathematical procedure. The Chinese rings are associated with the tale that in the Middle Ages, knights would give these to their wives as a present, so that in their absence they may fill their time. Tavern puzzles, made of steel, are based on forging exercises that provided good practice for blacksmith apprentices.[1] Niels Bohr used disentanglement puzzles called Tangloids to demonstrate the properties of spin to his students.
Fold Puzzles
The aim in this particular genre of puzzles is to fold a printed piece of paper in such a way as to obtain a target picture. In principle, Rubik's Magic could be counted in this category. A better example is shown in the picture. The task is to fold the square piece of paper so that the four squares with the numbers lie next to each other without any gaps and form a square. This puzzle is pretty complex already. Another folding puzzle is folding prospectuses and city maps. (2002) Despite the often visible folding direction at the folding points it can be extraordinarily difficult to put the paper back into the form with which it originally came. The reason these maps are difficult to restore to their original state is that the folds are designed for a paper-folding machine, in which the optimum folds are not of the sort an average person would try to use.
Example of a fold puzzle, created by Vesa Timonen
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Lock puzzle
These puzzles, also called trick locks, are locks (often padlocks) which have an unusual locking mechanism. The aim is to open the lock. If you are given a key, it will not open the lock in the conventional way. For some locks it may then be more difficult to restore the original situation.
Trick vessels
These are vessels with a twist. The aim is to either drink or pour from a container without spilling any of the liquid. Puzzle containers are an ancient form of game. The Greeks and Phoenicians made containers which had to be filled via an opening at the bottom. In the 9th century a number of different containers were described in detail in a Turkish book. In the 18th century the Chinese also produced these kinds of drinking containers. One example is the puzzle jug: the neck of the container has many holes which make it possible to pour liquid into the container, but not out of it. Hidden to the puzzler's eye, there is a small tubular conduit all the way through the grip and along the upper rim of the container up to the nozzle. If one then blocks the opening at the upper end of the grip with one finger, it is possible to drink liquid from the container by sucking on the nozzle. Other examples include Fuddling cup and Pot crown.
Example of a trick vessel
Impossible Objects
Impossible objects are objects which at first sight do not seem possible. The most well known impossible object is the ship in a bottle. The goal is to discover how these objects are made. Another well known puzzle is one consisting of a cube made of two pieces interlocked in 4 places by seemingly inseparable links (example [2]). The solutions to these are to be found in different places. There are all kinds of objects which fit this description bottles in which there are objects that are far too large (see impossible bottles), Japanese hole coins with wooden arrows and rings through them, wooden spheres in a wooden frame with far
An "impossible" object
too small openings and many more. The apple and arrow in the picture are made of one piece of wood each. The hole is in effect too small to fit the arrow through it and there are no signs of gluing. How was it made?
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Dexterity puzzles
The games listed in this category are not strictly puzzles as such, as dexterity and endurance are of more importance here. Often, the aim is to incline a box fitted with a transparent cover in just the right way as to cause a small ball to fall into a hole.
By tilting the box, one must try to lead the ball along the line and to the goal without dropping it in one of the many strategically placed holes.
Sequential movement puzzle

The puzzles in this category require a repeated manipulation of the puzzle to get the puzzle to a certain target condition. Well-known puzzles of this sort are the Rubik's Cube and the Tower of Hanoi. This category also includes those puzzles in which one or more pieces have to be slid into the right position, of which the N-puzzle is the best known. Rush Hour or Sokoban are other examples. The Rubik's cube caused an unprecedented boom of this category. The sheer number of variants is staggering. Cubes of dimensions 222, 333, 444, 555, 666 and 777 have been made, as well as tetrahedral, octahedral, icosahedral, and dodecahedral variants and even some based on different A puzzle with the name Skewb types of cylinders. With a varying orientation of the axis of rotation a variety of puzzles with the same basic shape can be created. Furthermore, one can obtain further cuboidal puzzles by removing one layer from a cube. These cuboidal puzzles take irregular shapes when they are manipulated. The picture shows another, less well-known example of this kind of puzzle. It is just easy enough that it can still be solved with a bit of trial and error, and a few notes, as opposed to Rubik's Cube which is too difficult to just solve by trial.
Simulated mechanical puzzles

While many computer games and computer puzzles simulate mechanical puzzles, these simulated mechanical puzzles are usually not strictly classified as mechanical puzzles.
Other notable mechanical puzzles

Chinese Ring Puzzle: Recursive iron ring manipulation (ancient) Nintendo Ten Billion Barrel: manipulate mechanically connected parts of a barrel Hedgehog in the Cage: mechanical puzzle popular in the Czech Republic
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References
[1] Ronald V. Morris, "Social Studies around the Blacksmith's Forge: Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning" (http:/ / heldref-publications. metapress. com/ link. asp?id=d1781747033t1262), The Social Studies, vol.98, No.3 MayJune 2007, pp.99-104, Heldref Publications doi:10.3200/TSSS.98.3.99-104. [2] http:/ / www. mechanicalpuzzles. org/ mypuzzles/ html/ doubledovetail. html
Puzzles Old & New, by Professor Hoffmann, 1893 Puzzles Old and New, by Jerry Slocum & Jack Botermans, 1986 New Book of Puzzles, by Jerry Slocum & Jack Botermans, 1992 Ingenious & Diabolical Puzzles, by Jerry Slocum & Jack Botermans, 1994 The Tangram Book, by Jerry Slocum, 2003 The 15 Puzzle, by Jerry Slocum & Dic Sonneveld, 2006
This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the German wikipedia.
External links
Website of John Rausch's puzzle collection (http://www.johnrausch.com/puzzleWorld/default.htm) Contains a well-illustrated puzzle collection and numerous Java applets of sliding puzzles. Stewart Coffin's (one of the most important puzzle designers) books may be obtained, too. Rob's Puzzle Page (http://www.robspuzzlepage.com/) Photos of a very large collection of all types of puzzles, plus analysis, commentary, and links to many other sites of interest to puzzlers Puzzle designs prepared by ISHINO Keiichiro (http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~rh5k-isn/Puzzle/index.html.en) This site contains a huge collection of accurate descriptions for assembly and interlocking puzzles. Those skilled enough can create their own creation with the designs presented. Puzzle iT web site by Dr. Florian Radut (http://www.puzzle.ro/) A British-Romanian puzzle collection: mechanical puzzles, 2D puzzles, 3D puzzles, logic games and anagram puzzles, some of them used in TV Game-Shows, SMS contests and online contests. Oskar van Deventer (http://www.gamepuzzles.com/oskar.htm) A prolific inventor of highly innovative mechanical and other puzzles. Archimedes' Lab Puzzle Website (http://www.archimedes-lab.org) Contains a huge quantity of puzzles to make and to solve along with various educational activities. The Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection (http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/slocum/) Highlights from Jerry Slocum's extensive puzzle collection, including many puzzles of historical significance.
Pocket Cube
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Pocket Cube
The Pocket Cube (also known as the Mini Cube or the Ice Cube) is the 222 equivalent of a Rubik's Cube. The cube consists of 8 pieces, all corners.
From left to right: original Pocket Cube, Eastsheen cube, V-Cube 2, V-Cube 2b.
Permutations
Any permutation of the eight corners is possible (8! positions), and seven of them can be independently rotated (37 positions). There is nothing identifying the orientation of the cube in space, reducing the positions by a factor of 24. This is because all 24 possible positions and orientations of the first corner are equivalent due to the lack of fixed centers. This factor does not appear when calculating the permutations of NNN cubes where N is odd, since those puzzles have fixed centers which identify the cube's spatial orientation. The number of possible positions of the cube is
The maximum number of turns required to solve the cube is up to 11 full turns, or up to 14 quarter turns.[1] The number f of positions that require n full twists and number q of positions that require n quarter turn twists are:
Solved Pocket Cube.
Scrambled Pocket Cube.
Pocket Cube
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Pocket Cube with one side tilted.
n 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
f 1 9 54 321 1847 9992 50136 227536 870072
q 1 6 27 120 534 2256 8969 33058 114149 360508 930588
9 1887748 10 11 12 13 14 623800
2644 1350852 0 0 0 782536 90280 276
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Records
Christian Kaserer holds the current world record of solving the Pocket Cube in competition, with a time of 0.69 seconds set at the Trentin Open 2011.[2][3] For the best average time of 5 solves, Feliks Zemdegs holds the world record with a time of 2.12 seconds set at Melbourne Cube day 2010.[3]
Variants
At Rubik's online store, an easier version of the Pocket Cube exists, dubbed the "Junior Cube". This version has only two colors, with a picture of a monkey on one face.
Vicente Albter of Mexico solving it in 1.55 seconds at the Mexican Open 2008
The Rubik's Ice Cube is a version of the Pocket Cube with transparent plastic and translucent stickers. It comes with a clear blue, ice-like display base. The Eastsheen company produces a variation as well. It has a different turning mechanism and is noticeably larger (5cm (unknown operator: u'strong'in)) than the original. Verdes Innovations has released the V-Cube 2, which is available in two shapes. The flat-sided V-Cube 2 is roughly the same size as the Eastsheen cube. The V-Cube 2b has a rounded shape like the V-Cube 7.
Methods
The most common beginner method is a layer-by-layer solution. Popular methods among speedcubers are: Ortega, Cll, Guimond and EG. Links can be found on the bottom of this page.
References
[1] Jaapsch.net: Pocket Cube (http:/ / www. jaapsch. net/ puzzles/ cube2. htm) [2] YouTube - 2x2 single world record 0.69 Christian Kaserer (http:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=2227ulrNcew) [3] World Cube Association Official Results - 222 Cube (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ regions. php?eventId=222).
External resources
Information about methods for speedsolving the 2x2x2 (http:/ / www. speedsolving. com/ wiki/ index. php/ 2x2x2_Speedsolving_Methods)
Professor's Cube
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Professor's Cube
The Professor's Cube is a mechanical puzzle, a 555 version of the Rubik's Cube. It has qualities in common with both the original 333 Rubik's Cube and the 444 Rubik's Revenge, and knowing the solution to either can help when working on the 555 cube.
Official Professor's Cube (left) V-Cube 5 (center) and Eastsheen 555 (right).
Naming
Early versions of the 555 cube sold at Barnes & Noble were marketed under the name "Professor's Cube," but currently, Barnes and Noble sells cubes that are simply called "55." Mefferts.com offers a limited edition version of the 555 cube called the Professor's Cube. This version has colored tiles rather than stickers.[1] Verdes Innovations sells a version called the V-Cube 5.[2]
The V-Cube 5 in original packaging.
Workings
The original Professor's Cube design by Udo Krell works by using an expanded 333 cube as a mantle with the center edge pieces and corners sticking out from the spherical center of identical mechanism to the 333 cube. All non-central pieces have extensions that fit into slots on the outer pieces of the 333, which keeps them from falling out of the cube while making a turn. The fixed centers have two sections (one visible, one hidden) which can turn independently. This feature is unique to the original design.[3] The Eastsheen version of the puzzle uses a different mechanism. The fixed centers hold the centers next to the central edges in place, which in turn hold the outer edges. The non-central edges hold the corners in place, and the internal sections of the corner pieces do not reach the center of the cube.[4]
Scrambled.
Professor's Cube The V-Cube 5 mechanism, designed by Panagiotis Verdes, has elements in common with both. The corners reach to the center of the puzzle (like the original mechanism) and the center pieces hold the central edges in place (like the Eastsheen mechanism). The middle edges and center pieces adjacent to them make up the supporting frame and these have extensions which hold rest of the pieces together. This allows smooth and fast rotation and creating arguably the fastest and most durable version of the puzzle. Unlike the original 555 design, the V-Cube 5 mechanism was designed with speedcubing in mind.[5]
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A disassembled Professor's Cube.
A disassembled V-Cube 5.
A disassembled Eastsheen cube.
Durability
The original Professor's Cube is inherently more delicate than the 333 Rubik's Cube due to the much greater number of moving parts. It is not recommended that it be used for speedcubing. The puzzle should not be excessively forced to twist and it must be aligned properly before twisting to prevent damage.[6] It is far more likely to break due to twisting misaligned rows. If twisted while not fully aligned, it may cause the pieces diagonal to the corners to almost fully come out. It is simply fixed by turning the face back to where it was, causing the piece to go back to its original position. Excessive force may cause the colored tile to break off completely. In such a case, the puzzle will not fall apart, but a colored square would be gone. Both the Eastsheen 555 and the V-Cube 5 are designed with different mechanisms in an attempt to remedy the fragility of the original design.
An original cube with a misaligned center. This cannot occur on the Eastsheen or V-Cube puzzles.
Permutations
There are 98 pieces on the exterior of the cube: 8 corners, 36 edges, and 54 centers (48 movable, 6 fixed). Any permutation of the corners is possible, including odd permutations, giving 8! possible arrangements. Seven of the corners can be independently rotated, and the orientation of the eighth depends on the other seven, giving 37 combinations. There are 54 centers. Six of these (the center square of each face) are fixed in position. The rest consist of two sets of 24 centers. Within each set there are four centers of each color. Each set can be arranged in 24! different ways. Assuming that the four centers of each color in each set are indistinguishable, the number of permutations of each set is reduced to 24!/(4!6) arrangements, all of which are possible. The reducing factor comes about because there are 4! ways to arrange the four pieces of a given color. This is raised to the sixth power because there are six colors. The total number of permutations of all movable centers is the product of the permutations of the two sets, 24!2/(4!12). The 24 outer edges cannot be flipped, since the interior shape of those pieces is asymmetrical. Corresponding outer edges are distinguishable, since the pieces are mirror images of each other. Any permutation of the outer edges is possible, including odd permutations, giving 24! arrangements. The 12 central edges can be flipped. Eleven can be
Professor's Cube flipped and arranged independently, giving 12!/2 211 or 12! 210 possibilities (an odd permutation of the corners implies an odd permutation of the central edges, and vice versa, thus the division by 2). There are 24! 12! 210 possibilities for the inner and outer edges together. This gives a total number of permutations of
281
The full number is precisely 282 870 942 277 741 856 536 180 333 107 150 328 293 127 731 985 672 134 721 536 000 000 000 000 000 possible permutations[7] (about 283 duodecillion on the long scale or 283 tresvigintillion on the short scale). Some variations of the Professor's Cube have one of the center pieces marked with a logo, which can be put into four different orientations. This increases the number of permutations by a factor of four to 1.131075, although any orientation of this piece could be regarded as correct. Other variations increase the difficulty by making the orientation of all center pieces visible. An example of this is shown below.
Solution
People able to rapidly solve puzzles like this usually favour the strategy of grouping similar edge pieces into solid strips, and centers into one-colored blocks. This allows the cube to be quickly solved with the same methods one would use for a 333 cube. As illustrated to the right, the fixed centers, middle edges and corners can be treated as equivalent to a 333 cube. As a result, the parity errors sometimes seen on the 444 cannot occur on the 555 unless the cube has been tampered with. Another frequently used strategy is to solve the edges of the cube first. The corners can be placed just as they are in any previous order of cube puzzle, and the centers are manipulated with an algorithm similar to the one used in the 444 cube. A less frequently used strategy is to solve one side and one rim first, then the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rim, and finally the last side and rim. That is, like building a four floor building. First the basement, then each floor, and finally the roof. This method is among other described at.[8]
An original Professor's Cube with many of the pieces removed, showing the 333 equivalence of the remaining pieces.
World records
The current record for solving the Professor's Cube in an official competition is 56.22 seconds, set by Feliks Zemdegs from Australia, at the World Championship 2011. He also holds the current world record for an average of five solves, 57.94 seconds, set at the Melbourne Summer 2012.[9]
Center is an EastSheen 555 cube with multicolored stickers, which increase difficulty.
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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] Meffert's Professor's Cube (http:/ / www. mefferts. com/ products/ details. php?lang=en& category=13& id=238) Verdes' Innovations V-Cube 5 page (http:/ / www. v-cubes. com/ prod_info/ v-cube5. php) United States Patent 4600199 (http:/ / www. freepatentsonline. com/ 4600199. html) United States Patent 6129356 (http:/ / www. freepatentsonline. com/ 6129356. html) United States Patent 20070057455 (http:/ / www. freepatentsonline. com/ y2007/ 0057455. html) Rubi's 555 Cube notice section (http:/ / www. rubiks. com/ Shop/ Products/ Rubiks 5x5 Cube Hex Packaging. aspx) Cubic Circular Issues 3 & 4 (http:/ / www. jaapsch. net/ puzzles/ cubic3. htm#p18) David Singmaster, 1982 Rubiks-Cube.org (http:/ / www. rubiks-cube. org) World Cube Association Official Results - 555 Cube (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ e. php?i=555)
External links
How to solve Professor's Cube (http://www.bigcubes.com/5x5x5/5x5x5.html) Professor's Cube text solution (http://wiki.playagaingames.com/tiki-index.php?page=5x5x5+Cube+Solution) Professor's Cube interactive solution (http://www.rubiks-zauberwuerfel.de)
Pyraminx
The Pyraminx is a tetrahedral puzzle similar to the Rubik's Cube. It was invented and patented by Uwe Meffert, and introduced by Tomy Toys of Japan (then the 3rd largest toy company in the world) in 1981.[1] Meffert continues to sell it in his toy shop, Meffert's [2].
Pyraminx in its solved state
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Description
The Pyraminx was first conceived by Uwe Meffert in 1970. He did nothing with his design until 1981 when he first brought it to Hong Kong for production. Uwe is fond of saying had it not been for Erno Rubik's invention of the cube, his Pyraminx would have never been produced. The Pyraminx is a puzzle in the shape of a tetrahedron, divided into 4 axial pieces, 6 edge pieces, and 4 trivial tips. It can be twisted along its cuts to permute its pieces. The axial pieces are octahedral in shape, although this is not immediately obvious, and can only rotate around the axis they are attached to. The 6 edge pieces can be freely permuted. The trivial tips are so called because they can be twisted independently of all other pieces, making them trivial to place in solved position. Meffert also produces a similar puzzle called the Tetraminx, which is the same as the Pyraminx except that the trivial tips are removed, turning the puzzle into a truncated tetrahedron. The purpose of the Pyraminx is to scramble the colors, and then restore them to their original configuration. The 4 trivial tips can be easily rotated to line up with the axial piece which they are respectively attached to; and the axial pieces are also easily rotated so that their colors line up with each other. This leaves only the 6 edge pieces as a real challenge to the puzzle. They can be solved by repeatedly applying two 4-twist sequences, which are mirror-image versions of each other. These sequences permute 3 edge pieces at a time, and change their orientation differently, so that a combination of both sequences is sufficient to solve the puzzle. However, more efficient solutions (requiring a smaller total number of twists) are generally available (see below). The twist of any axial piece is independent of the other three, as is the Scrambled Pyraminx case with the tips. The six edges can be placed in 6!/2 positions and 5 8 flipped in 2 ways, accounting for parity. Multiplying this by the 3 factor for the axial pieces gives 75,582,720 possible positions. However, setting the trivial tips to the right positions reduces the possibilities to 933,120, which is also the number of possible patterns on the Tetraminx. Setting the axial pieces as well reduces the figure to only 11,520, making this a rather simple puzzle to solve.
Pyraminx in the middle of a twist
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Optimal solutions
The maximum number of twists required to solve the Pyraminx is 11. There are 933,120 different positions (disregarding rotation of the trivial tips), a number that is sufficiently small to allow a computer search for optimal solutions. The table below summarizes the result of such a search, stating the number p of positions that require n twists to solve the Pyraminx:
n 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
p 1 8 48 288 1728 9896 51808 220111 480467 166276 2457 32
Records
The current world record for a single solve of the Pyraminx stands at 1.93 seconds, set by Yohei Oka of Japan at Japan Open 2011.[3] The best average time of 3.39 seconds is also held by Yohei Oka, set at the Kyotanabe Open 2011.[3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. mefferts. com/ puzzles-pyraminx-kokonotsu. htm [2] http:/ / www. mefferts. com [3] World Cube Association: Official results (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ regions. php?regionId=& eventId=pyram& years=& separate=Separate) retrieved 2nd May 2011.
External links
Jaap's Pyraminx and related puzzles page, with solution (http:// www.jaapsch.net/puzzles/pyraminx.htm)
A solved Tetraminx.
Pyraminx solution (http://www.puzzlesolver.com/puzzle.php?id=28) from PuzzleSolver (http://www. puzzlesolver.com/) A solution to the Pyraminx (ftp://ftp.comlab.ox.ac.uk/pub/Cards/txt/Pyramix.txt) by Jonathan Bowen An efficient and easy to follow solution favoured by speed solvers (http://web.archive.org/web/ 20071231043207/http://www.geocities.com/rubiks_galaxia/PyraSol.html)
Pyramorphix
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Pyramorphix
The Pyramorphix is a tetrahedral puzzle similar to the Rubik's Cube. It has a total of 8 movable pieces to rearrange, compared to the 20 of the Rubik's cube. Though it looks like a simpler version of the Pyraminx, it is an edge-turning puzzle with the mechanism identical to that of the Pocket Cube.
Description
At first glance, the Pyramorphix appears to be a trivial puzzle. It resembles the Pyraminx, and its appearance would suggest that only the four corners could be rotated. In fact, the puzzle is a specially shaped 222 cube. Four of the cube's corners are reshaped into pyramids and the other four are reshaped into triangles. The result of this is a puzzle that changes shape as it is turned. The purpose of the puzzle is to scramble the colors and the shape, and then restore it to its original state of being a tetrahedron with one color per face.
The Pyramorphix in its solved state.
Number of combinations
The puzzle is available either with stickers or plastic tiles on the faces. Both have a ribbed appearance, giving a visible orientation to the flat pieces. This results in 3,674,160 combinations, the same as the 222 cube. However, if there were no means of identifying the orientation of those pieces, the number of combinations would be reduced. There would be 8! ways to arrange the pieces, divided by 24 to account for the lack of center pieces, and there would be 34 ways to rotate the four pyramidal pieces.
The Pyramorphix can be rotated around three axes by multiples of The Pyramorphix, scrambled. 90. The corners cannot rotate individually as on the Pyraminx. The Pyramorphix rotates in a way that changes the position of center pieces not only with other center pieces but also with corner pieces, leading to a variety of shapes.
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Master Pyramorphix
The Master Pyramorphix is a more complex variant of the Pyramorphix. Like the Pyramorphix, it is an edge-turning tetrahedral puzzle capable of changing shape as it is twisted, leading to a large variety of irregular shapes. Several different variants have been made, including flat-faced custom-built puzzles by puzzle fans and Uwe Mffert's commercially-produced pillowed variant (pictured), sold through his puzzle shop Meffert's. The puzzle consists of 4 corner pieces, 4 face centers, 6 edge pieces, and 12 non-center face pieces. Being an edge-turning puzzle, the edge pieces only rotate in-place, while the rest of the pieces can be permuted. The face centers and corner pieces are interchangeable, and the non-center face pieces may be flipped, leading to a wide variety of exotic shapes as the puzzle is twisted. If only 180 turns are made, it is possible to scramble only the colors while retaining the puzzle's tetrahedral shape. In spite of superficial similarities, the puzzle is not related to the Pyraminx, which is a face-turning puzzle. The corner pieces are non-trivial; they cannot be simply rotated in-place to the right orientation.
The Master Pyramorphix
Solutions
Despite its appearance, the puzzle is in fact equivalent to a shape modification of the original 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube. Its 4 corner pieces and 4 face centers together are equivalent to the 8 corner pieces of the Rubik's Cube, its 6 edge pieces are equivalent to the face centers of the Rubik's Cube, and its non-center face pieces are equivalent to the edge pieces of the Rubik's Cube. The Master Pyramorphix, color-scrambled Thus, the same methods used to solve the Rubik's Cube may be used to solve the Master Pyramorphix, with a few minor differences: the edge pieces are sensitive to orientation, unlike the usual coloring scheme used for the Rubik's Cube, and the face centers are not sensitive to orientation. In effect, it behaves as a Rubik's Cube with a non-standard coloring scheme where face-center orientation matters, and the orientation of 4 of the 8 corner pieces do not matter.
Pyramorphix
287
Unlike the Square One, another shape-changing puzzle, the most straightforward solutions of the Master Pyramorphix do not involve first restoring the tetrahedral shape of the puzzle and then restoring the colors; most of the algorithms carried over from the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube translate to shape-changing permutations of the Master Pyramorphix. Some methods, such as the equivalent of Phillip Marshal's Ultimate Solution, show a gradual progression in shape as the solution progresses; first the non-center face pieces are put into place, resulting in a partial restoration of the tetrahedral shape except at the face centers and corners, and then the complete restoration of tetrahedral shape as the face centers and corners are solved.
The Master Pyramorphix, color- and shape- scrambled
Number of combinations
There are four corners and four face centers. These may be interchanged with each other in 8! different ways. There are 37 ways for these pieces to be oriented, since the orientation of the last piece depends on the preceding seven, and the texture of the stickers makes the face center orientation visible. There are twelve non-central face pieces. These can be flipped in 211 ways and there are 12!/2 ways to arrange them. The three pieces of a given color are distinguishable due to the texture of the stickers. There are six edge pieces which are fixed in position relative to one another, each of which has four possible orientations. If the puzzle is solved apart from these pieces, the number of edge twists will always be even, making 46/2 possibilities for these pieces.
The Master Pyramorphix, partially solved
The full number is 88 580 102 706 155 225 088 000. However, if the stickers were smooth the number of combinations would be reduced. There would be 34 ways for the corners to be oriented, but the face centers would not have visible orientations. The three non-central face pieces of a given color would be indistinguishable. Since there are six ways to arrange the three pieces of the same color and there are four colors, there would be 21112!/64 possibilities for these pieces.
Pyramorphix
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The full number is 5 062 877 383 753 728 000.
External links
Jaap's pyramorphix page [1] A Java applet which includes the Pyramorphix [2] Speedsolving.com Wiki - Solution (Master Pyramorphix) [3]
The Master Pyramorphix, with maximal face-piece flip, equivalent to the "superflip" configuration of the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube
References
[1] http:/ / www. jaapsch. net/ puzzles/ pyramorf. htm [2] http:/ / www. mud. ca/ puzzler/ JPuzzler/ JPuzzler. html [3] http:/ / www. speedsolving. com/ wiki/ index. php/ Master_Pyramorphix
Rubik's Cube
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Rubik's Cube
Rubik's Cube
Other names Type Inventor Company Country Availability
Magic Cube Puzzle Ern Rubik Seven Towns, ltd Hungary 1974present [1]
Official website
Rubik's Cube is a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974[2] by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ern Rubik. Originally called the "Magic Cube",[3] the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. in 1980[4] and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that year. As of January 2009, 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide[5][6] making it the world's top-selling puzzle game.[7][8] It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy.[9] In a classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces is covered by nine stickers, each of one of six solid colours (traditionally white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow).[10] A pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to consisting of one colour. Similar puzzles have now been produced with various numbers of stickers, not all of them by Rubik.
Conception and development

Prior attempts
In March 1970, Larry Nichols invented a 222 "Puzzle with Pieces Rotatable in Groups" and filed a Canadian patent application for it. Nichols's cube was held together with magnets. Nichols was granted U.S. Patent 3655201 [11] on April 11, 1972, two years before Rubik invented his Cube. On April 9, 1970, Frank Fox applied to patent his "Spherical 333". He received his UK patent (1344259) on January 16, 1974.
Rubik's Cube
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Rubik's invention
In the mid-1970s, Ern Rubik worked at the Department of Interior Design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts in Budapest.[12] Although it is widely reported that the Cube was built as a teaching tool to help his students understand 3D objects, his actual purpose was solving the structural problem of moving the parts independently without the entire mechanism falling apart. He did not realize that he had created a puzzle until the first time he scrambled his new Cube and then tried to restore it.[13] Rubik obtained Hungarian patent HU170062 for his "Magic Cube" in 1975. Rubik's Cube was first called the Magic Cube (Bvs kocka) in Hungary. The puzzle had not been patented internationally within a year of the original patent. Patent law then prevented the possibility of an international patent. Ideal wanted at least a recognizable name to trademark; of course, that arrangement put Rubik in the spotlight because the Magic Cube was renamed after its inventor.
Packaging of Rubik's Cube, Toy of the year 1980Ideal Toy Corp., Made in Hungary.
The first test batches of the product were produced in late 1977 and released to Budapest toy shops. Magic Cube was held together with interlocking plastic pieces that prevented the puzzle being easily pulled apart, unlike the magnets in Nichols's design. In September 1979, a deal was signed with Ideal to release the Magic Cube world wide, and the puzzle made its international debut at the toy fairs of London, Paris, Nuremberg and New York in January and February 1980. After its international debut, the progress of the Cube towards the toy shop shelves of the West was briefly halted so that it could be manufactured to Western safety and packaging specifications. A lighter Cube was produced, and Ideal decided to rename it. "The Gordian Knot" and "Inca Gold" were considered, but the company finally decided on "Rubik's Cube", and the first batch was exported from Hungary in May 1980. Taking advantage of an initial shortage of Cubes, many imitations appeared.
Patent disputes
Nichols assigned his patent to his employer Moleculon Research Corp., which sued Ideal in 1982. In 1984, Ideal lost the patent infringement suit and appealed. In 1986, the appeals court affirmed the judgment that Rubik's 222 Pocket Cube infringed Nichols's patent, but overturned the judgment on Rubik's 333 Cube.[14] Even while Rubik's patent application was being processed, Terutoshi Ishigi, a self-taught engineer and ironworks owner near Tokyo, filed for a Japanese patent for a nearly identical mechanism, which was granted in 1976 (Japanese patent publication JP55-008192). Until 1999, when an amended Japanese patent law was enforced, Japan's patent office granted Japanese patents for non-disclosed technology within Japan without requiring worldwide novelty.[15][16] Hence, Ishigi's patent is generally accepted as an independent reinvention at that time.[17][18][19] Rubik applied for another Hungarian patent on October 28, 1980, and applied for other patents. In the United States, Rubik was granted U.S. Patent 4378116 [20] on March 29, 1983, for the Cube. Greek inventor Panagiotis Verdes patented[21] a method of creating cubes beyond the 555, up to 111111, in 2003 although he claims he originally thought of the idea around 1985.[22] As of June 19, 2008, the 555, 666, and 777 models are in production in his "V-Cube" line.
Rubik's Cube
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Mechanics
A standard Rubik's cube measures 5.7cm (approximately 2 inches) on each side. The puzzle consists of twenty-six unique miniature cubes, also called "cubies" or "cubelets". Each of these includes a concealed inward extension that interlocks with the other cubes, while permitting them to move to different locations. However, the centre cube of each of the six faces is merely a single square faade; all six are affixed to the core mechanism. These provide structure for the other pieces to fit into and rotate around. So there are twenty-one pieces: a single core piece consisting of three intersecting axes holding the six centre squares in place but letting them rotate, and twenty smaller plastic pieces which fit into it to form the assembled puzzle.
Rubik's Cube partially disassembled
Each of the six centre pieces pivots on a screw (fastener) held by the centre piece, a "3-D cross". A spring between each screw head and its corresponding piece tensions the piece inward, so that collectively, the whole assembly remains compact, but can still be easily manipulated. The screw can be tightened or loosened to change the "feel" of the Cube. Newer official Rubik's brand cubes have rivets instead of screws and cannot be adjusted. The Cube can be taken apart without much difficulty, typically by rotating the top layer by 45 and then prying one of its edge cubes away from the other two layers. Consequently it is a simple process to "solve" a Cube by taking it apart and reassembling it in a solved state. There are six central pieces which show one coloured face, twelve edge pieces which show two coloured faces, and eight corner pieces which show three coloured faces. Each piece shows a unique colour combination, but not all combinations are present (for example, if red and orange are on opposite sides of the solved Cube, there is no edge piece with both red and orange sides). The location of these cubes relative to one another can be altered by twisting an outer third of the Cube 90, 180 or 270, but the location of the coloured sides relative to one another in the completed state of the puzzle cannot be altered: it is fixed by the relative positions of the centre squares. However, Cubes with alternative colour arrangements also exist; for example, with the yellow face opposite the green, the blue face opposite the white, and red and orange remaining opposite each other. Douglas Hofstadter, in the July 1982 issue of Scientific American, pointed out that Cubes could be coloured in such a way as to emphasise the corners or edges, rather than the faces as the standard colouring does; but neither of these alternative colourings has ever become popular.[17]
Mathematics
Permutations
The original (333) Rubik's Cube has eight corners and twelve edges. There are 8! (40,320) ways to arrange the corner cubes. Seven can be oriented independently, and the orientation of the eighth depends on the preceding seven, giving 37 (2,187) possibilities. There are 12!/2 (239,500,800) ways to arrange the edges, since an even permutation of the corners implies an even permutation of the edges as well. (When arrangements of centres are also permitted, as described below, the rule is that the combined arrangement of corners, edges, and centres must be an even permutation.) Eleven edges can be flipped independently, with the flip of the twelfth depending on the preceding ones, giving 211 (2,048) possibilities.[23] which is approximately forty-three quintillion.[24] The puzzle is often advertised as having only "billions" of positions, as the larger numbers are unfamiliar to many. To put this into perspective, if one had as many 57-millimeter Rubik's Cubes as there are permutations, one could
Rubik's Cube cover the Earth's surface 275 times. The preceding figure is limited to permutations that can be reached solely by turning the sides of the cube. If one considers permutations reached through disassembly of the cube, the number becomes twelve times as large: which is approximately five hundred and nineteen quintillion[24] possible arrangements of the pieces that make up the Cube, but only one in twelve of these are actually solvable. This is because there is no sequence of moves that will swap a single pair of pieces or rotate a single corner or edge cube. Thus there are twelve possible sets of reachable configurations, sometimes called "universes" or "orbits", into which the Cube can be placed by dismantling and reassembling it.
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Centre faces
The original Rubik's Cube had no orientation markings on the centre faces (although some carried the words "Rubik's Cube" on the centre square of the white face), and therefore solving it does not require any attention to orienting those faces correctly. However, with marker pens, one could, for example, mark the central squares of an unscrambled Cube with four coloured marks on each edge, each corresponding to the colour of the adjacent face. Some Cubes have also been produced commercially with markings on all of the squares, such as the Lo Shu magic square or playing card suits. Thus one can nominally solve a Cube yet have the markings on the centres rotated; it then becomes an additional test to solve the centres as well. Marking the Rubik's Cube's centres increases its difficulty because this expands the set of distinguishable possible configurations. There are 46/2 (2,048) ways to orient the centres, since an even permutation of the corners implies an even number of quarter turns of centres as well. In particular, when the Cube is unscrambled apart from the orientations of the central squares, there will always be an even number of centre squares requiring a quarter turn. Thus orientations of centres increases the total number of possible Cube permutations from 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (4.31019) to 88,580,102,706,155,225,088,000 (8.91022).[25] When turning a cube over is considered to be a change in permutation then we must also count arrangements of the centre faces. Nominally there are 6! ways to arrange the six centre faces of the cube, but only 24 of these are achievable without disassembly of the cube. When the orientations of centres are also counted, as above, this increases the total number of possible Cube permutations from 88,580,102,706,155,225,088,000 (8.91022) to 2,125,922,464,947,725,402,112,000 (2.11024).
Algorithms
In Rubik's cubists' parlance, a memorised sequence of moves that has a desired effect on the cube is called an algorithm. This terminology is derived from the mathematical use of algorithm, meaning a list of well-defined instructions for performing a task from a given initial state, through well-defined successive states, to a desired end-state. Each method of solving the Rubik's Cube employs its own set of algorithms, together with descriptions of what the effect of the algorithm is, and when it can be used to bring the cube closer to being solved. Most algorithms are designed to transform only a small part of the cube without scrambling other parts that have already been solved, so that they can be applied repeatedly to different parts of the cube until the whole is solved. For example, there are well-known algorithms for cycling three corners without changing the rest of the puzzle, or flipping the orientation of a pair of edges while leaving the others intact. Some algorithms have a certain desired effect on the cube (for example, swapping two corners) but may also have the side-effect of changing other parts of the cube (such as permuting some edges). Such algorithms are often simpler than the ones without side-effects, and are employed early on in the solution when most of the puzzle has not yet been solved and the side-effects are not important. Towards the end of the solution, the more specific (and usually more complicated) algorithms are used instead, to prevent scrambling parts of the puzzle that have already
Rubik's Cube been solved.
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Relevance and application of mathematical group theory

Rubik's Cube lends itself to the application of mathematical group theory, which has been helpful for deducing certain algorithms - in particular, those which have a commutator structure, namely XYX-1Y-1 (where X and Y are specific moves or move-sequences and X-1 and Y-1 are their respective inverses).[26] In addition, the fact that there are well-defined subgroups within the Rubik's cube group, enables the puzzle to be learned and mastered by moving up through various self-contained "Levels of Difficulty". For example, one such "Level" could involve solving cubes which have been scrambled using only 180-degree turns.
Solutions
Move notation
Many 333 Rubik's Cube enthusiasts use a notation developed by David Singmaster to denote a sequence of moves, referred to as "Singmaster notation".[27] Its relative nature allows algorithms to be written in such a way that they can be applied regardless of which side is designated the top or how the colours are organised on a particular cube. F (Front): the side currently facing the solver B (Back): the side opposite the front U (Up): the side above or on top of the front side D (Down): the side opposite the top, underneath the Cube L (Left): the side directly to the left of the front R (Right): the side directly to the right of the front (Front two layers): the side facing the solver and the corresponding middle layer b (Back two layers): the side opposite the front and the corresponding middle layer u (Up two layers) : the top side and the corresponding middle layer d (Down two layers) : the bottom layer and the corresponding middle layer l (Left two layers) : the side to the left of the front and the corresponding middle layer r (Right two layers) : the side to the right of the front and the corresponding middle layer x (rotate): rotate the entire Cube on R y (rotate): rotate the entire Cube on U z (rotate): rotate the entire Cube on F
When a prime symbol () follows a letter, it denotes a face turn counter-clockwise, while a letter without a prime symbol denotes a clockwise turn. A letter followed by a2 (occasionally a superscript2) denotes two turns, or a 180-degree turn. R is right side clockwise, but R' is right side counter-clockwise. The letters x, y, and z are used to indicate that the entire Cube should be turned about one of its axes. When x, y or z are primed, it is an indication that the cube must be rotated in the opposite direction. When they are squared, the cube must be rotated 180 degrees. For methods using middle-layer turns (particularly corners-first methods) there is a generally accepted "MES" extension to the notation where letters M, E, and S denote middle layer turns. It was used e.g. in Marc Waterman's Algorithm.[28] M (Middle): the layer between L and R, turn direction as L (top-down) E (Equator): the layer between U and D, turn direction as D (left-right) S (Standing): the layer between F and B, turn direction as F The 444 and larger cubes use an extended notation to refer to the additional middle layers. Generally speaking, uppercase letters (F B U D L R) refer to the outermost portions of the cube (called faces). Lowercase letters (f b u d l r) refer to the inner portions of the cube (called slices). An asterisk (L*), a number in front of it (2L), or two layers in
Rubik's Cube parenthesis (Ll), means to turn the two layers at the same time (both the inner and the outer left faces) For example: (Rr)'l2f' means to turn the two rightmost layers counterclockwise, then the left inner layer twice, and then the inner front layer counterclockwise.
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Optimal solutions
Although there are a significant number of possible permutations for the Rubik's Cube, a number of solutions have been developed which allow for the cube to be solved in well under 100 moves. Many general solutions for the Rubik's Cube have been discovered independently. The most popular method was developed by David Singmaster and published in the book Notes on Rubik's "Magic Cube" in 1981.[26] This solution involves solving the Cube layer by layer, in which one layer (designated the top) is solved first, followed by the middle layer, and then the final and bottom layer. After practice, solving the Cube layer by layer can be done in under one minute. Other general solutions include "corners first" methods or combinations of several other methods. In 1982, David Singmaster and Alexander Frey hypothesised that the number of moves needed to solve the Rubik's Cube, given an ideal algorithm, might be in "the low twenties".[29] In 2007, Daniel Kunkle and Gene Cooperman used computer search methods to demonstrate that any 333 Rubik's Cube configuration can be solved in 26 moves or fewer.[30][31][32] In 2008, Tomas Rokicki lowered that number to 22 moves,[33][34][35] and in July 2010, a team of researchers including Rokicki, working with Google, proved the so-called "God's number" to be 20.[36][37] This is optimal, since there exist some starting positions which require at least 20 moves to solve. More generally, it has been shown that an nnn Rubik's Cube can be solved optimally in (n2/log(n)) moves.[38] A solution commonly used by speed cubers was developed by Jessica Fridrich. It is similar to the layer-by-layer method but employs the use of a large number of algorithms, especially for orienting and permuting the last layer. The cross is done first followed by first-layer corners and second layer edges simultaneously, with each corner paired up with a second-layer edge piece, thus completing the first two layers (F2L). This is then followed by orienting the last layer then permuting the last layer (OLL and PLL respectively). Fridrich's solution requires learning roughly 120 algorithms but allows the Cube to be solved in only 55 moves on average. Philip Marshall's The Ultimate Solution to Rubik's Cube is a modified version of Fridrich's method, averaging only 65 twists yet requiring the memorization of only two algorithms.[39] A now well-known method was developed by Lars Petrus. In this method, a 222 section is solved first, followed by a 223, and then the incorrect edges are solved using a three-move algorithm, which eliminates the need for a possible 32-move algorithm later. The principle behind this is that in layer by layer you must constantly break and fix the first layer; the 222 and 223 sections allow three or two layers to be turned without ruining progress. One of the advantages of this method is that it tends to give solutions in fewer moves. In 1997, Denny Dedmore published a solution described using diagrammatic icons representing the moves to be made, instead of the usual notation.[40]
Competitions and records

Speedcubing competitions
Speedcubing (or speedsolving) is the practice of trying to solve a Rubik's Cube in the shortest time possible. There are a number of speedcubing competitions that take place around the world. The first world championship organised by the Guinness Book of World Records was held in Munich on March 13, 1981. All Cubes were moved 40 times and lubricated with petroleum jelly. The official winner, with a record of 38 seconds, was Jury Froeschl, born in Munich. The first international world championship was held in Budapest on June 5, 1982, and was won by Minh Thai, a Vietnamese student from Los Angeles, with a time of 22.95 seconds.
Rubik's Cube Since 2003, the winner of a competition is determined by taking the average time of the middle three of five attempts. However, the single best time of all tries is also recorded. The World Cube Association maintains a history of world records.[41] In 2004, the WCA made it mandatory to use a special timing device called a Stackmat timer. In addition to official competitions, informal alternative competitions have been held which invite participants to solve the Cube in unusual situations. Some such situations include: Blindfolded solving[42] Solving the Cube with one person blindfolded and the other person saying what moves to make, known as "Team Blindfold" Solving the Cube underwater in a single breath[43] Solving the Cube using a single hand[44] Solving the Cube with one's feet[45] Of these informal competitions, the World Cube Association sanctions only blindfolded, one-handed, and feet solving as official competition events.[46] In blindfolded solving, the contestant first studies the scrambled cube (i.e., looking at it normally with no blindfold), and is then blindfolded before beginning to turn the cube's faces. Their recorded time for this event includes both the time spent examining the cube and the time spent manipulating it.
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Records
The current world record for single time on a 333 Rubik's Cube was set by Feliks Zemdegs, who had a best time of 5.66 seconds at the Melbourne Winter Open 2011. The world record for average time per solve is also currently held by Zemdegs. At the same competition, he set a 7.64 second average.[47] On March 17, 2010, 134 school boys from Dr Challoner's Grammar School, Amersham, England broke the previous Guinness World Record for most people solving a Rubik's cube at once in 12 minutes.[48] The previous record set in December 2008 in Santa Ana, CA achieved 96 completions. New record was born at the Zonhoven Open 2012 in Belgium in blind solving when the Hungarian Marcell Endrey solved a cube in 28,8 seconds.[49]
Variations
There are different variations of Rubik's Cubes with up to seven layers: the 222 (Pocket/Mini Cube), the standard 333 cube, the 444 (Rubik's Revenge/Master Cube), and the 555 (Professor's Cube), the 666 (V-Cube 6), and 777 (V-Cube 7). CESailor Tech's E-cube is an electronic variant of the 333 cube, made with RGB LEDs and switches.[50] There are two switches on each row and column. Pressing the switches indicates the direction of rotation, which causes the LED display to change colours, simulating real rotations. The product was demonstrated at the Taiwan government show of college designs on October 30, 2008.
Variations of Rubik's Cubes, clockwise from upper left: V-Cube 7, Professor's Cube, V-Cube 6, Pocket Cube, original Rubik's Cube, Rubik's Revenge. Clicking on a cube in the picture will redirect to the respective cube's page.
Another electronic variation of the 333 Cube is the Rubik's TouchCube. Sliding a finger across its faces causes its patterns of coloured lights to rotate the same way they would on a mechanical cube. The TouchCube was introduced
Rubik's Cube at the American International Toy Fair in New York on February 15, 2009.[51][52] The Cube has inspired an entire category of similar puzzles, commonly referred to as twisty puzzles, which includes the cubes of different sizes mentioned above as well as various other geometric shapes. Some such shapes include the tetrahedron (Pyraminx), the octahedron (Skewb Diamond), the dodecahedron (Megaminx), the icosahedron (Dogic). There are also puzzles that change shape such as Rubik's Snake and the Square One.
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Custom-built puzzles
In the past, puzzles have been built resembling the Rubik's Cube or based on its inner workings. For example, a cuboid is a puzzle based on the Rubik's Cube, but with different functional dimensions, such as, 224, 234, 335.[53] Many cuboids are based on 444 or 555 mechanisms, via building plastic extensions or by directly modifying the mechanism itself. Some custom puzzles are not derived from any existing mechanism, such as the Gigaminx v1.5-v2, Bevel Cube, SuperX, Toru, Rua, and 123. These puzzles usually have a set of masters 3D printed, which then are copied using molding and casting techniques to create the final puzzle.
Novelty keychain
Other Rubik's Cube modifications include cubes that have been extended or truncated to form a new shape. An example of this is the Trabjer's Octahedron, which can be built by truncating and extending portions of a regular 33. Most shape mods can be adapted to higher-order cubes. In the case of Tony Fisher's Rhombic Dodecahedron, there are 33, 44, 55, and 66 versions of the puzzle.
Rubik's Cube software

Puzzles like the Rubik's Cube can be simulated by computer software, which provide functions such as recording of player metrics, storing scrambled Cube positions, conducting online competitions, analyzing of move sequences, and converting between different move notations. Software can also simulate very large puzzles that are impractical to build, such as 100100100 and 1,0001,0001,000 cubes, as well as virtual puzzles that cannot be physically built, such as 4- and 5-dimensional analogues of the cube.[54][55]
Popular culture
Many films and television shows have featured characters that solve Rubik's Cubes quickly to establish their high intelligence. Rubik's Cubes also regularly feature as motifs in works of art.
Magic Cube 4D, a 4444 virtual puzzle
Notes
[1] http:/ / www. rubiks. com/ [2] William Fotheringham (2007). Fotheringham's Sporting Pastimes. Anova Books. pp.50. ISBN1-86105-953-1. [3] 'Driven mad' Rubik's nut weeps on solving cube... after 26 years of trying (http:/ / www. dailymail. co. uk/ news/ article-1112396/ Driven-mad-Rubiks-nut-weeps-solving-cube--26-years-trying. html), Daily Mail Reporter, January 12, 2009.
Rubik's Cube
[4] Daintith, John (1994). A Biographical Encyclopedia of Scientists. Bristol: Institute of Physics Pub. pp.771. ISBN0-7503-0287-9. [5] William Lee Adams (2009-01-28). "The Rubik's Cube: A Puzzling Success" (http:/ / www. time. com/ time/ magazine/ article/ 0,9171,1874509,00. html). TIME. . Retrieved 2009-02-05.
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Magic Cube 5D, a 3x3x3x3x3 virtual puzzle
[6] Alastair Jamieson (2009-01-31). "Rubik's Cube inventor is back with Rubik's 360" (http:/ / www. telegraph. co. uk/ lifestyle/ 4412176/ Rubiks-Cube-inventor-is-back-with-Rubiks-360. html). The Daily Telegraph (London). . Retrieved 2009-02-05. [7] "eGames, Mindscape Put International Twist On Rubik's Cube PC Game" (http:/ / www. reuters. com/ article/ pressRelease/ idUS147698+ 06-Feb-2008+ PNW20080206). Reuters. 2008-02-06. . Retrieved 2009-02-06. [8] Marshall, Ray. Squaring up to the Rubchallenge (http:/ / icnewcastle. icnetwork. co. uk/ 1000expats/ expatsfeatures/ tm_objectid=15786140& method=full& siteid=50080& headline=squaring-up-to-the-rubik-challenge-name_page. html). icNewcastle. Retrieved August 15, 2005. [9] "Rubik's Cube 25 years on: crazy toys, crazy times" (http:/ / www. independent. co. uk/ news/ science/ rubiks-cube-25-years-on-crazy-toys-crazy-times-461768. html). The Independent (London). 2007-08-16. . Retrieved 2009-02-06. [10] Michael W. Dempsey (1988). Growing up with science: The illustrated encyclopedia of invention. London: Marshall Cavendish. pp.1245. ISBN0-8747-5841-6. [11] http:/ / www. google. com/ patents?vid=3655201 [12] Kelly Boyer Sagert (2007). The 1970s (American Popular Culture Through History). Westport, Conn: Greenwood Press. pp.130. ISBN0-313-33919-8. [13] PuzzleSolver: Rubik's Cube (http:/ / www. puzzlesolver. com/ puzzle. php?id=29;page=15) [14] Moleculon Research Corporation v. CBS, Inc. (http:/ / digital-law-online. info/ cases/ 229PQ805. htm) [15] Japan: Patents (http:/ / www. wipo. int/ clea/ en/ text_html. jsp?lang=EN& id=2657) (PCT), Law (Consolidation), 26 April 1978 (22 December 1999), No. 30 (No. 220) [16] Major Amendments to the Japanese Patent Law (since 1985) (http:/ / www. patents. jp/ Archive/ 20030210-02. pdf) [17] Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1985). Metamagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern. New York: Basic Books. ISBN0465045669. "Hofstadter gives the name as 'Ishige'." [18] Rubik's Cube Chronology (http:/ / cubeman. org/ cchrono. txt) Researched and maintained by Mark Longridge (c) 1996-2004 [19] The History of Rubik's Cube - Erno Rubik (http:/ / inventors. about. com/ library/ weekly/ aa040497. htm) [20] http:/ / www. google. com/ patents?vid=4378116 [21] Verdes, PK, Cubic logic game, Greek patent GR1004581, filed May 21, 2003, issued May 26, 2004. [22] Vcube Inventor (http:/ / www. v-cubes. com/ inventor. php) [23] Martin Schnert "Analyzing Rubik's Cube with GAP" (http:/ / www. gap-system. org/ Doc/ Examples/ rubik. html): the permutation group of Rubik's Cube is examined with GAP computer algebra system [24] Counting the Permutations of the Rubik's Cube (http:/ / faculty. mc3. edu/ cvaughen/ rubikscube/ cube_counting. ppt), Scott Vaughen. Professor of Mathematics. Miami Dade College. [25] Scientific American, p28, vol 246, 1982 retrieved online (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=vDo7AAAAMAAJ& q=orientations+ of+ face+ centers+ matter& dq=orientations+ of+ face+ centers+ matter& lr=& pgis=1) Jan 29, 2009. [26] Singmaster, David (1981). Notes on Rubik's Magic Cube. Harmondsworth, Eng: Penguin Books. ISBN0907395007. [27] Joyner, David (2002). Adventures in group theory: Rubik's Cube, Merlin's machine, and Other Mathematical Toys. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp.7. ISBN0-8018-6947-1. [28] Treep, Anneke; Waterman, Marc (1987). Marc Waterman's Algorithm, Part 2. Cubism For Fun 15. Nederlandse Kubus Club. p.10. [29] Frey, Jr., Alexander H.; Singmaster, David (1982). Handbook of Cubik Math. Hillside, N.J: Enslow Publishers. ISBN0894900587. [30] Kunkle, D.; Cooperman, C. (2007). "Twenty-Six Moves Suffice for Rubik's Cube" (http:/ / www. ccs. neu. edu/ home/ gene/ papers/ rubik. pdf). Proceedings of the International Symposium on Symbolic and Algebraic Computation (ISSAC '07). ACM Press. . [31] KFC (2008). "Rubiks cube proof cut to 25 moves" (http:/ / arxivblog. com/ ?p=332). . [32] Julie J. Rehmeyer. "Cracking the Cube" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20071011211147/ http:/ / blog. sciencenews. org/ mathtrek/ 2007/ 08/ cracking_the_cube. html). MathTrek. Archived from the original (http:/ / blog. sciencenews. org/ mathtrek/ 2007/ 08/ cracking_the_cube. html) on 2007-10-11. . Retrieved 2007-08-09. [33] Tom Rokicki (2008). "Twenty-Five Moves Suffice for Rubik's Cube". arXiv:0803.3435[cs.SC].
Rubik's Cube
[34] "Rubik's Cube Algorithm Cut Again, Down to 23 Moves" (http:/ / science. slashdot. org/ article. pl?sid=08/ 06/ 05/ 2054249). Slashdot (http:/ / slashdot. org). . Retrieved 2008-06-05. [35] Tom Rokicki. "Twenty-Two Moves Suffice" (http:/ / cubezzz. dyndns. org/ drupal/ ?q=node/ view/ 121). . Retrieved 2008-08-20. [36] Flatley, Joseph F. (2010-08-09). "Rubik's Cube solved in twenty moves, 35 years of CPU time" (http:/ / www. engadget. com/ 2010/ 08/ 09/ rubiks-cube-solved-in-twenty-moves-35-years-of-cpu-time/ ). Engadget. . Retrieved 2010-08-10. [37] Davidson, Morley; Dethridge, John; Kociemba, Herbert; Rokicki, Tomas. "God's Number is 20" (http:/ / www. cube20. org/ ). www.cube20.org. . Retrieved 2010-08-10. [38] Demaine, Erik D.; Demaine, Martin L.; Eisenstat, Sarah; Lubiw, Anna; Winslow, Andrew (2011). "Algorithms for Solving Rubik's Cubes". arXiv:1106.5736v1. [39] Philip Marshall (2005), The Ultimate Solution to Rubik's Cube (http:/ / helm. lu/ cube/ MarshallPhilipp/ ). [40] Website with solutions created by Denny Dedmore (http:/ / www. helm. lu/ cube/ solutions/ rubikscube/ ) [41] "World Cube Association Official Results" (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ regions. php?regionId=& eventId=333& years=& history=History). World Cube Association (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ ). . Retrieved 2008-02-16. [42] Rubik's 3x3x3 Cube: Blindfolded records (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ events. php?eventId=333bf& regionId=& years=& show=100+ Persons& single=Single) [43] Rubik's Cube 3x3x3: Underwater (http:/ / www. speedcubing. com/ records/ recs_fun_underwater. html) [44] Rubik's 3x3x3 Cube: One-handed (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ events. php?eventId=333oh& regionId=& years=& show=100+ Persons& single=Single) [45] Rubik's 3x3x3 Cube: With feet (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ events. php?eventId=333ft& regionId=& years=only+ 2006& show=100+ Persons& single=Single) [46] "Competition Regulations, Article 9: Events" (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ regulations/ #events). World Cube Association. 2008-04-09. . Retrieved 2008-04-16. [47] World Cube Association Official Results - 333 Cube (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ regions. php?eventId=333). [48] BBC: Pupils break Rubik's Cube Record (http:/ / news. bbc. co. uk/ local/ threecounties/ hi/ people_and_places/ newsid_8572000/ 8572975. stm) [49] "Rubik: magyar vilgcscs (Rubik: Hungarian world record)" (http:/ / www. szeretlekmagyarorszag. hu/ rubik-magyar-vilagcsucs/ / ). szeretlekmagyarorszag.hu. 20120301. . Retrieved 20120302. [50] "CESailor Tech. Co., Ltd" (http:/ / www. ebiz. co. jp/ cgi-bin/ out1. cgi?name=comp& value=cesailor). The Directory of Japanese Trading Companies. . Retrieved 3 December 2010. [51] "NY Toy Fair opens with new Rubik's Cube, Lego deals" (http:/ / uk. reuters. com/ article/ rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/ idUKN1546558020090216?sp=true). Reuters. 2009-02-16. . Retrieved 2009-03-23. [52] "Toy Fair Kicks Off At Javits Center" (http:/ / www. ny1. com/ Content/ Top_Stories/ 93988/ toy-fair-kicks-off-at-javits-center/ Default. aspx). . Retrieved 2009-03-23. [53] Martin, W. Eric. Gamebits: Ribik's Cube... Cubed. Games. Issue 199 (Vol. 28 No. 3). Pg.4. April 2004. [54] Magic Cube 4D (http:/ / www. superliminal. com/ cube/ cube. htm) [55] Magic Cube 5D (http:/ / www. gravitation3d. com/ magiccube5d)
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References
Bizek, Hana M. (1997). Mathematics of the Rubik's Cube Design. Pittsburgh, Pa: Dorrance Pub. Co. ISBN0805939199. Black, M. Razid; Taylor, Herbert (1980). Unscrambling the Cube. Burbank: Zephyr Engineering Design. ISBN0940874032. Cairns, Colin; Griffiths, Dave (September 1979). "Teach yourself cube-bashing" (http://www.village.demon. co.uk/cairns/ZIP/TeachYourselfCubeBashing_CC_DG_sep1979.pdf). Cairns Families' Website. Demon. Retrieved 3 December 2010. Eidswick, Jack (1981). Rubik's Cube Made Easy. Culver City, Calif: Peace Press. ISBN0915238527. Harris, Dan (2008). Speedsolving the Cube: Easy-to-follow, Step-by-Step Instructions for Many Popular 3-D Puzzles. New York: Sterling Pub. ISBN978-1402753138. McKinney, Todd (7 April 2008). "Photo: Blue-bik's cube" (http://www.ur.umich.edu/0708/Apr07_08/18. php). The University Record Online. The Regents of the University of Michigan. Retrieved 3 December 2010. Nourse, James G. (1981). The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube. New York: Bantam. ISBN0553140175. Taylor, Don; Rylands, Leanne (1981). Cube Games: 92 Puzzles & Solutions. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN0030615240.
Rubik's Cube Taylor, Donald E. (1981). Mastering Rubik's Cube: The Solution to the 20th Century's Most Amazing Puzzle. New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. ISBN0030599415.
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External links
Official website (http://www.rubiks.com/) Rubik's Cube (http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Puzzles/Mechanical/Rubik/) at the Open Directory Project How to solve a Rubik's Cube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=609nhVzg-5Q) on YouTube Rubik's Cube solution walkthrough (http://www.rubiksplace.com) World record 5.66 second solution (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v_Km6cv6DU)
Rubik's Revenge
The Rubik's Revenge (also known as the Master Cube) is the 444 version of Rubik's Cube. Invented by Pter Sebestny, the Rubik's Revenge was nearly called the Sebestny Cube until a somewhat last-minute decision changed the puzzle's name to attract fans of the original Rubik's Cube. Unlike the original puzzle (and the 555 cube), it has no fixed facets: the centre facets (four per face) are free to move to different positions. Methods for solving the 333 cube work for the edges and corners of the 444 cube, as long as one has correctly identified the relative positions of the colours since the centre facets can no longer be used for identification.
Rubik's Revenge in solved state
Mechanics
The puzzle consists of 56 unique miniature cubes ("cubies") on the surface. These consist of 24 centres which show one colour each, 24 edges which show two colours each, and 8 corners which show three colours each. The original Rubik's Revenge can be taken apart without much difficulty, typically by turning one side through a 30 angle and prying an edge upward until it dislodges. The original mechanism designed by Sebestny uses a grooved ball to hold the centre pieces in place. The edge pieces are held in place by the centres and the corners are held in place by the edges, much like the original cube. There are three mutually perpendicular grooves for the centre pieces to slide through. Each groove is only wide enough to allow one row of centre pieces to slide through it. The ball is shaped to Rubik's Revenge in scrambled state prevent the centre pieces of the other row from sliding, ensuring that the ball remains aligned with the outside of the cube. Turning one of the centre layers moves either just that layer or the ball as well.[1]
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The Eastsheen version of the cube, which is slightly smaller at 6cm to an edge, has a completely different mechanism. Its mechanism is very similar to Eastsheen's version of the Professor's cube, instead of the ball-core mechanism. There are 42 pieces (36 movable and six fixed) completely hidden within the cube, corresponding to the centre rows on the Professor's Cube. This design is more durable than the original and also allows for screws to be used to tighten or loosen the cube. The central spindle is specially shaped to prevent it from becoming misaligned with the exterior of the cube.[2] There are 24 edge pieces which show two coloured sides each, and eight corner pieces which show three colours. Each corner piece or pair of edge pieces shows a unique colour combination, but not all combinations are present (for example, there is no piece with both red and orange sides, if red and orange are on opposite sides of the solved Cube). The location of these cubes relative to one another can be altered by twisting the layers of the cube, but the location of the coloured sides relative to one another in the completed state of the puzzle cannot be altered: it is fixed by the relative positions of the centre squares and the distribution of colour combinations on edge and corner pieces. For most recent Cubes, the colours of the stickers are red opposite orange, yellow opposite white, and green opposite blue. However, there also exist Cubes with alternative colour arrangements (yellow opposite green, blue opposite white and red opposite orange). The Eastsheen version has purple (opposite red) instead of orange.
Early Rubik's Revenge cube, with white opposite blue and green opposite yellow
An Eastsheen cube is on the left, and an official Rubik's Revenge is on the right.
A disassembled Rubik's Revenge, showing all the pieces and central ball
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A disassembled Eastsheen 444
Permutations
Rubik's Revenge with a tilted side
There are 8 corners, 24 edges and 24 centres. Any permutation of the corners is possible, including odd permutations. Seven of the corners can be independently rotated, and the orientation of the eighth depends on the other seven, giving 8!37 combinations. There are 24 centres, which can be arranged in 24! different ways. Assuming that the four centres of each colour are indistinguishable, the number of permutations is reduced to 24!/(4!6) arrangements. The reducing factor comes about because there are 4! ways to arrange the four pieces of a given colour. This is raised to the sixth power because there are six colours. An odd permutation of the corners implies an odd permutation of the centres and vice versa; however, even and odd permutations of the centres are indistinguishable due to the identical appearance of the pieces.[3] There are several ways to make the centre pieces distinguishable, which would make an odd centre permutation visible. The 24 edges cannot be flipped, because the internal shape of the pieces is asymmetrical. Corresponding edges are distinguishable, since they are mirror images of each other. Any permutation of the edges is possible, including odd permutations, giving 24! arrangements, independently of the corners or centres. Assuming the cube does not have a fixed orientation in space, and that the permutations resulting from rotating the cube without twisting it are considered identical, the number of permutations is reduced by a factor of 24. This is because all 24 possible positions and orientations of the first corner are equivalent because of the lack of fixed centres. This factor does not appear when calculating the permutations of NNN cubes where N is odd, since those puzzles have fixed centres which identify the cube's spatial orientation.
Rubik's Revenge This gives a total number of permutations of
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The full number is 7 401 196 841 564 901 869 874 093 974 498 574 336 000 000 000 possible permutations[4] (about 7,401 septillion or 7.4 septilliard on the long scale or 7.4 quattuordecillion on the short scale). Some versions of Rubik's Revenge have one of the centre pieces marked with a logo, distinguishing it from the other three of the same colour. This increases the number of distinguishable permutations by a factor of four to 2.961046, although any of the four possible positions for this piece could be regarded as correct.
Solutions
There are several methods that can be used to solve a Rubik's Revenge. The layer by layer method that is often used for the 333 cube is usually used on the Rubik's Revenge. One of the most common methods is to first group the centre pieces of common colours together, then to pair edges that show the same two colours. Once this is done, turning only the outer layers of the cube allows it to be solved like a 333 cube. However, certain positions that cannot be solved on a standard 333 cube may be reached. There are two possible problems not found on the 3x3x3. The first is two edge pieces reversed on one edge, resulting in the colours for that edge not matching the rest of the cubies on either face: Notice that these two edge pieces are swapped. The second is two edge pairs being swapped with each other: These situations are known as parity errors. These positions are still solvable; however, special algorithms must be applied to fix the errors. One of several approaches to solve this cube is to first pair the edges, and then the centres. This, too, is vulnerable to the parity errors described above. Some methods are designed to avoid the parity errors described above. For instance, solving the corners and edges first and the centres last would avoid such parity errors. Once the rest of the cube is solved, any permutation of the centre pieces can be solved. Note that it is possible to apparently exchange a pair of face centres by cycling 3 face centres, two of which are visually identical.
World records
The world record for 444 Cube is held by Mats Valk of the Netherlands with a time of 30.02 seconds set at the Dutch Nationals 2011. The best average time of 34.82 seconds is held by Feliks Zemdegs of Australia set at the Melbourne Summer 2012.[5] Daniel Sheppard of the UK holds the world record for solving the 4x4x4 cube blindfolded in 3 mins 26.11 seconds.[6]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] United States Patent 4421311 (http:/ / www. freepatentsonline. com/ 4421311. html) United States Patent 5992850 (http:/ / www. freepatentsonline. com/ 5992850. html) Cubic Circular Issue 7 & 8 (http:/ / www. jaapsch. net/ puzzles/ cubic7. htm#p11) David Singmaster, 1985 Cubic Circular Issues 3 & 4 (http:/ / www. jaapsch. net/ puzzles/ cubic3. htm#p14) David Singmaster, 1982 World Cube Association Official Results - 444 Cube (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ regions. php?eventId=444). World Cube Association Official Results - 444 Cube Blindfolded (http:/ / www. worldcubeassociation. org/ results/ regions. php?regionId=& eventId=444bf& years=& mixed=Mixed).
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Further reading
Rubik's Revenge: The Simplest Solution by William L. Mason Speedsolving the Cube by Dan Harris, 'Rubik's Revenge' pages 100-120. The Winning Solution to Rubik's Revenge by Minh Thai, with Herbert Taylor and M. Razid Black.
External links
Beginner/Intermediate solution to the Rubik's Revenge (http://www.speedcubing.com/chris/4-solution.html) by Chris Hardwick 'K4' Method (http://snk.digibase.ca/k4/) Advanced direct solving method. Patterns (http://www.randelshofer.ch/rubik/patterns_revenge.html) A collection of pretty patterns for Rubik's Revenge Program Rubik's Cube 3D Unlimited size (http://kubrub.googlepages.com/rubikscube)
Rubik's Snake
A Rubik's Snake (also Rubik's Twist, Rubik's Transformable Snake, Rubiks Snake Puzzle) is a toy with twenty-four wedges identically shaped liked prisms,[1] specifically right isosceles triangular prisms. The wedges are connected, by spring bolts,[1] such that they can be twisted, but not separated. Through this twisting the Rubik's Snake can attain positions including a straight line, a ball (technically a nonuniform concave rhombicuboctahedron), a dog, a duck, a rectangle, a snake, and many more imaginative shapes and figures. The snake was invented by Professor Ern Rubik, better known as the inventor of the Rubik's Cube.[1]
Snake in a ball solution
Structure
The 24 prisms are aligned in row with an alternating orientation (normal and upside down). Each prism can adopt 4 different positions each with an offset of 90. Usually the prisms have an alternating color.
Notation
Twisting instructions
The description of an arbitrary shape or figure can be described using a set of instructions for twisting the prisms. The starting point is a straight line with the triangular edges facing towads you, where the 12 prisms of one colour at the bottom are numbered from the left from 1 to 12. The left and the right sloping faces of these prisms are labeled L and R respectively. The four
Snake bent in 4 sides.
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possible positions of the adjacent prism on each L and R sloping face are numbered 0, 1, 2 and 3 (representing the number of twists between the bottom prism and the L or R adjacent prism). The numbering is based on always twisting the adjacent prism towards you: position 1 turns the adjacent blocks towards you, position 2 makes a 90 turn, and position 3 turns the adjacent block away from you. Position 0 is the starting position and therefore isnt explicitly noted in instructions. Using these rules, a twist can be simply described as: 1. Number of the downward-facing prism (from the left): 1 to 12 2. Left or right sloping side of the prism: L or R 3. Position of the twist: 1, 2 or 3
Example Figure Two identically formed rubik's snakes: one octahedron
Twisting Instructions Three Peaks 6R1-6L3-5R2-5L3-4R2-4L1-1R1-3L3-3R2-7L2-7R3-8L1-8R2-9L1-9R2-10L3-12R3-11L1-10R2
Cat 9R2-9L2-8L2-7R2-6R2-6L2-5L3-4L2-3R2-2R2-2L2
Machine processing
The position of the 23 turning areas can also be written directly after each other. Here the positions 0, 1, 2 and 3 are always based on the degrees of twist between the right-hand prisms relative to the left-hand prism, when viewed from the right of the axis of rotation. However, this notation is impractical for human readers, because it is difficult to determine the order of the twists. for example Three Peaks 10012321211233232123003 for example Cat 02202201022022022000000
Fiore method
Rather than numbers Albert Fiore uses letters to refer to the direction the second (rightward) section is turned in relation to the first (leftward) section: D, L, U, and R.[2] These are listed consecutively rather than numbered, so that a completely straight figure rather than being presumed as a starting point is notated DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD.[3]
Mathematics
The number of different shapes of the Rubik's Snake is at most 423 = 70 368 744 177 664 ( 71013), i.e. 23 turning areas with 4 positions each. The real number of different shapes is lower since some configurations are spatially impossible (because they would require multiple prisms to occupy the same region of space). Peter Aylett computed via an exhaustive search that 13 535 886 319 159 ( 11013) positions are possible when prohibiting prism collisions, or passing through a collision to reach another position; or 6 770 518 220 623 ( 71012) when mirror
Rubik's Snake images (defined as the same sequence of turns, but from the other end of the snake) are counted as the one position.[4]
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Sources
Fiore, Albie (1981). Shaping Rubik's Snake. Penguin Books. ISBN0 14 00 6181 9.
Notes
[1] [2] [3] [4] Fiore (1981), p.7. Fiore (1981), p.9. Fiore (1981), p.11. Aylett, Peter (18 September 2011). "Rubik's Snake Combinations" (http:/ / blog. ylett. com/ 2011/ 09/ rubiks-snake-combinations. html). Pete's Soapbox. . Retrieved 2011-09-20.
External links
Official Rubik's Online Site (http://www.rubiks.com/) Collection of shapes and figures of Rubik's Snake (http://www.thomas-wolter.de/index_en.htm) glsnake (http://spacepants.org/src/glsnake/) - open-source cross-platform implementation of Rubik's Snake (also ported to XScreenSaver)
Sliding puzzle
A sliding puzzle, sliding block puzzle, or sliding tile puzzle is a puzzle that challenges a player to slide usually flat pieces along certain routes (usually on a board) to establish a certain end-configuration. The fifteen puzzle is the oldest type of sliding block puzzle. It was invented by Noyes Chapman and created a puzzle craze in 1880. Sam Loyd is often wrongly credited with making sliding puzzles popular based on his false claim that he invented the fifteen puzzle. Unlike other tour puzzles, a sliding block puzzle prohibits lifting any piece off the board. This property separates sliding puzzles from rearrangement puzzles. Hence, finding moves and the paths opened up by each move within the two-dimensional confines of the board are important parts of solving sliding block puzzles. Sliding puzzles are essentially two-dimensional in nature, even if the sliding is facilitated by mechanically interlinked pieces (like partially encaged marbles) or three-dimensional tokens. As this example shows, some sliding puzzles are mechanical puzzles. However, the mechanical fixtures are usually not essential to these puzzles; the parts could as well be tokens on a flat board that are moved according to certain rules. This type of puzzle has been computerized (as puzzle video games) and is available to play for free on-line from many Web pages. It is a descendant of the jigsaw puzzle in that its point is to form a picture on-screen. The last square of the puzzle is then displayed automatically once the other pieces have been lined up.
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A solved 15-puzzle.
A 7x7 sliding block puzzle. The task for this puzzle is to arrange it so that no tile design is repeated in any row column or diagonal. There is more than one solution to this puzzle.
A 7x7 puzzle. This one solves to a picture, like a jigsaw puzzle.
Inakube, an example of a 3D slider puzzle. The puzzle is unique for requiring the user to complete a 3D model contained within the cubes.
Examples of sliding puzzles

Fifteen puzzle Inakube Klotski Minus Cube Jumbly Sokoban
References
Sliding Piece Puzzles (by Edward Hordern, 1986, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-853204-0) is said to be the definitive volume on this type of puzzle. Winning Ways (by Elwyn Ralph Berlekamp et al., 1982, Academic Press) The 15 Puzzle (by Jerry Slocum & Dic Sonneveld, 2006, Slocum Puzzle Foundation) maa.org column on Sliding-block puzzles (http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_12_13_04. html) which rebuts the claims in the Economist. US Patent 4872682 (http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?patentnumber=4872682) - sliding puzzle wrapped on Rubik's Cube
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Soma cube
The pieces of a Soma cube (with extra coloring)
The same puzzle, assembled into a cube
The Soma cube is a solid dissection puzzle invented by Piet Hein in 1933[1] during a lecture on quantum mechanics conducted by Werner Heisenberg. Seven pieces made out of unit cubes must be assembled into a 3x3x3 cube. The pieces can also be used to make a variety of other 3D shapes. The pieces of the Soma cube consist of all possible combinations of four or fewer unit cubes, excluding all convex shapes (i.e., the 1x1x1, 1x1x2, 1x1x3, 1x1x4 and 1x2x2 cuboids). This leaves just one three-block piece and six four-block pieces, of which two are mirror images of each other (see Chirality). A similar puzzle consisting solely of all eight four-block pieces (including the cuboids) would contain 32 unit cubes and, thus, could not be assembled into a cube. The Soma cube is often regarded as the 3D equivalent of polyominoes. There are interesting parity properties relating to solutions of the Soma puzzle. Soma has been discussed in detail by Martin Gardner and John Horton Conway, and the book Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays contains a detailed analysis of the Soma cube problem. There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cube puzzle, excluding rotations and reflections: these are easily generated by a simple recursive backtracking search computer program similar to that used for the eight queens puzzle. The seven Soma pieces are all polycubes of order three or four: The "L" tricube. T tetracube: a row of three blocks with one added below the center. L tetracube: a row of three blocks with one added below the left side. S tetracube: bent triomino with block placed on outside of clockwise side.
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Left screw tetracube: unit cube placed on top of anticlockwise side. Chiral in 3D. Right screw tetracube: unit cube placed on top of clockwise side. Chiral in 3D. Branch tetracube: unit cube placed on bend. Not chiral in 3D.
Trivia
Similar to Soma cube is the 3D pentomino puzzle, which can fill boxes of 2310, 256 and 345 units. Piet Hein (Denmark) authorized a finely crafted rosewood version of the Soma cube manufactured by Theodor Skjde Knudsen's company Skjde Skjern (of Denmark). Beginning in about 1967, it was marketed in the U.S. for several years by the game manufacturer Parker Brothers. Plastic Soma cube sets were also commercially produced by Parker Brothers in two colors (blue and red) during the 1970s.
References
[1] Ole Poul Pedersen (February 2010). "The birth of SOMA" (http:/ / www. fam-bundgaard. dk/ SOMA/ NEWS/ N030310. HTM). In Thorleif Bundgaard. . Retrieved 2010-12-04.
External links
http://www.mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de/~sillke/POLYCUBE/SOMA/cube-secrets Soma Cube -- from MathWorld (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SomaCube.html) Thorleif's SOMA page (http://www.fam-bundgaard.dk/SOMA/SOMA.HTM) SOMA CUBE ANIMATION by TwoDoorsOpen and Friends (http://www.youtube.com/user/ TwoDoorsOpenaFriends?feature=mhee#p/u/7/9ngzN2RQEtM)
Sudoku Cube
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Sudoku Cube
The Sudoku Cube is a variation on a Rubik's Cube in which the faces have numbers one to nine on the sides instead of colours. The aim is to solve Sudoku puzzles on one or more of the sides. The toy was created in 2006 by Jay Horowitz in Sebring, Ohio.[1]
Production
The Sudoku Cube was invented by veteran toy maker Jay Horowitz after he had the idea to combine Sudoku and a Rubik's Cube. Horowitz already owned molds to produce Rubik's Cubes and was able to use them to produce his new design.[2] Mass production is completed in China by American Classic Toy Inc, a company belonging to Horowitz. The product is sold in the United States in retailers such as Barnes & Noble and FAO Schwarz. There are 12 types of Sudoku Cube, which differ in difficulty and are aimed at different age ranges.[3]
Description
A scrambled Sudokube puzzle In a standard Rubik's Cube, the player must match up colours on each side of the cube. In the Sudoku Cube, the player must place the numbers one to nine on each side with no repetition. This is achieved by rotating the sides of the cube. Variations of the Sudoku Cube are the Sudokube and Roxdoku, as well as cubes with 444 squares instead of the normal 333.
Computer simulations
3-D programming languages such as VPython can be used to create simulations of a Sudoku Cube[4]. Such simulations can offer features such as scaling the sudokube (to create 444 or 555 puzzles), saving, resetting, undoing, and the option to design one's own sudokube patterns.
References
[1] "US toy maker combines Sudoku and Rubik's Cube amid popularity of brain teasers" (http:/ / www. iht. com/ articles/ ap/ 2007/ 02/ 18/ america/ NA-GEN-US-Toy-Guy. php). International Herald Tribune. 2007-02-17. . Retrieved 2008-09-30. [2] "Veteran toy maker combines Sudoku and Rubik's Cube" (http:/ / www. cantonrep. com/ index. php?ID=335451& Category=13& subCategoryID=). Canton Repository. 2007-02-10. . Retrieved 2008-09-30. [3] Pawlyna, Andrea. "American Classic Toy, Inc" (http:/ / info. hktdc. com/ prodmag/ worldent/ worldent200704SupplierSpotlight01. htm). IT Figures. . Retrieved 2008-09-30. [4] http:/ / www. youtube. com/ watch?v=fLvs5nvT2j8
Think-a-Dot
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Think-a-Dot
The Think-a-Dot was a mathematical toy made by E.S.R., Inc. during the 1960s that demonstrated group theory. It had eight coloured disks on its front, and three holes on its top - left, right, and center - through which a ball bearing could be dropped. Each disk would display either a yellow or blue face, depending on whether the mechanism behind it was tipped to the right or the left. The Think-a-Dot thus had 28=256 internal states. When the ball fell to the bottom it would exit either to a hole on the left or the right of the device. As the ball passed through the Think-a-Dot, it would flip the disk mechanisms that it passed, and they in turn would determine whether the ball would be deflected to the left or to the right. Various puzzles and games were possible with the Think-a-Dot, such as flipping the colours of all cells in the minimum number of moves, or reaching a given state from a monochrome state or vice-versa.
External links
Picture of a Think-a-Dot [1] Think-a-Dot instruction leaflet [2]
References
[1] http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20091027092753/ http:/ / geocities. com/ mikegleen/ knex/ thinkadot/ pic06-ad. html [2] http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20091027092802/ http:/ / geocities. com/ mikegleen/ knex/ thinkadot/ pic10-leaflet. html
Tower of Hanoi
The Tower of Hanoi (also called the Tower of Brahma or Lucas' Tower,[1] and sometimes pluralised) is a mathematical game or puzzle. It consists of three rods, and a number of disks of different sizes which can slide onto any rod. The puzzle starts with the disks in a neat stack in ascending order of size on one rod, the smallest at the top, thus making a conical shape. The objective of the puzzle is to move the entire stack to another rod, obeying the following rules: Only one disk may be moved at a time. Each move consists of taking the upper disk from one of the rods and sliding it onto another rod, on top of the other disks that may already be present on that rod. No disk may be placed on top of a smaller disk.
A model set of the Towers of Hanoi (with 8 disks)
An animated solution of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle for T(4,3).
With three disks, the puzzle can be solved in seven moves.
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Origins
The puzzle was invented by the French mathematician douard Lucas in 1883. There is a legend about an Indian temple which contains a large room with three time-worn posts in it surrounded by 64 golden disks. Brahmin priests, acting out the command of an ancient prophecy, have been moving these disks, in accordance with the rules of the puzzle, since that time. The puzzle is therefore also known as the Tower of Brahma puzzle. According to the legend, when the last move of the puzzle is completed, the world will end.[2] It is not clear whether Lucas invented this legend or was inspired by it. If the legend were true, and if the priests were able to move disks at a rate of one per second, using the smallest number of moves, it would take them 2641 seconds or roughly 585 billion years[3] or 18,446,744,073,709,551,615 turns to finish. There are many variations on this legend. For instance, in some tellings, the temple is a monastery and the priests are monks. The temple or monastery may be said to be in different parts of the world including Hanoi, Vietnam, and may be associated with any religion. In some versions, other elements are introduced, such as the fact that the tower was created at the beginning of the world, or that the priests or monks may make only one move per day.
Solution
The puzzle can be played with any number of disks, although many toy versions have around seven to nine of them. The game seems impossible to many novices, yet is solvable with a simple algorithm. The number of moves required to solve a Tower of Hanoi puzzle is 2n -1, where n is the number of disks.[4]
Iterative solution
The following solution is a simple solution for the toy puzzle. Alternate moves between the smallest piece and a non-smallest piece. When moving the smallest piece, always move it to the next position in the same direction (to the right if the starting number of pieces is even, to the left if the starting number of pieces is odd). If there is no tower position in the chosen direction, move the piece to the opposite end, but then continue to move in the correct direction. For example, if you started with three pieces, you would move the smallest piece to the opposite end, then continue in the left direction after that. When the turn is to move the non-smallest piece, there is only one legal move. Doing this will complete the puzzle using the fewest number of moves to do so.[5] It should perhaps be noted that this can be rewritten as a strikingly elegant set of rules:
Simpler statement of iterative solution

Alternating between the smallest and the next-smallest disks, follow the steps for the appropriate case: For an even number of disks: make the legal move between pegs A and B make the legal move between pegs A and C make the legal move between pegs B and C repeat until complete
For an odd number of disks: make the legal move between pegs A and C make the legal move between pegs A and B make the legal move between pegs B and C repeat until complete In each case, a total of 2n-1 moves are made.
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Equivalent Iterative Solution

Another way to generate the unique optimal iterative solution, is to number the disks 1 through n, largest to smallest. If n is odd, the first move is from the Start to the Finish peg, and if n is even the first move is from the Start to the Using peg. Now, add the constraint that no odd disk may be placed directly on an odd disk, and no even disk may be placed directly on an even disk. With this extra constraint, and the obvious rule of never undoing your last move, there is only one move at every turn. The sequence of these unique moves is an optimal solution to the problem equivalent to the iterative solution described above.[6]
Recursive solution
A key to solving this puzzle is to recognize that it can be solved by breaking the problem down into a collection of smaller problems and further breaking those problems down into even smaller problems until a solution is reached. The following procedure demonstrates this approach. label the pegs A, B, Cthese labels may move at different steps let n be the total number of discs number the discs from 1 (smallest, topmost) to n (largest, bottommost) To move n discs from peg A to peg C: 1. move n1 discs from A to B. This leaves disc n alone on peg A 2. move disc n from A to C 3. move n1 discs from B to C so they sit on disc n The above is a recursive algorithm: to carry out steps 1 and 3, apply the same algorithm again for n1. The entire procedure is a finite number of steps, since at some point the algorithm will be required for n = 1. This step, moving a single disc from peg A to peg B, is trivial. This approach can be given a rigorous mathematical formalism with the theory of dynamic programming,[7][8] and is often used as an example of recursion when teaching programming.
Logical analysis of the recursive solution

As in many mathematical puzzles, finding a solution is made easier by solving a slightly more general problem: how to move a tower of h (h=height) disks from a starting peg A (f=from) onto a destination peg C (t=to), B being the remaining third peg and assuming tf. First, observe that the problem is symmetric for permutations of the names of the pegs (symmetric group S3). If a solution is known moving from peg A to peg C, then, by renaming the pegs, the same solution can be used for every other choice of starting and destination peg. If there is only one disk (or even none at all), the problem is trivial. If h=1, then simply move the disk from peg A to peg C. If h>1, then somewhere along the sequence of moves, the largest disk must be moved from peg A to another peg, preferably to peg C. The only situation that allows this move is when all smaller h-1 disks are on peg B. Hence, first all h-1 smaller disks must go from A to B. Subsequently move the largest disk and finally move the h-1 smaller disks from peg B to peg C. The presence of the largest disk does not impede any move of the h-1 smaller disks and can temporarily be ignored. Now the problem is reduced to moving h-1 disks from one peg to another one, first from A to B and subsequently from B to C, but the same method can be used both times by renaming the pegs. The same strategy can be used to reduce the h-1 problem to h-2, h-3, and so on until only one disk is left. This is called recursion. This algorithm can be schematized as follows. Identify the disks in order of increasing size by the natural numbers from 0 up to but not including h. Hence disk 0 is the smallest one and disk h-1 the largest one. The following is a procedure for moving a tower of h disks from a peg A onto a peg C, with B being the remaining third peg: Step 1: If h>1 then first use this procedure to move the h-1 smaller disks from peg A to peg B. Step 2: Now the largest disk, i.e. disk h-1 can be moved from peg A to peg C.
Tower of Hanoi Step 3: If h>1 then again use this procedure to move the h-1 smaller disks from peg B to peg C. By means of mathematical induction, it is easily proven that the above procedure requires the minimal number of moves possible, and that the produced solution is the only one with this minimal number of moves. Using recurrence relations, the exact number of moves that this solution requires can be calculated by: . This result is obtained by noting that steps 1 and 3 take moves, and step 2 takes one move, giving .
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Non-recursive solution
The list of moves for a tower being carried from one peg onto another one, as produced by the recursive algorithm has many regularities. When counting the moves starting from 1, the ordinal of the disk to be moved during move m is the number of times m can be divided by 2. Hence every odd move involves the smallest disk. It can also be observed that the smallest disk traverses the pegs f, t, r, f, t, r, etc. for odd height of the tower and traverses the pegs f, r, t, f, r, t, etc. for even height of the tower. This provides the following algorithm, which is easier, carried out by hand, than the recursive algorithm. In alternate moves: move the smallest disk to the peg it has not recently come from. move another disk legally (there will be one possibility only) For the very first move, the smallest disk goes to peg t if h is odd and to peg r if h is even. Also observe that: Disks whose ordinals have even parity move in the same sense as the smallest disk. Disks whose ordinals have odd parity move in opposite sense. If h is even, the remaining third peg during successive moves is t, r, f, t, r, f, etc. If h is odd, the remaining third peg during successive moves is r, t, f, r, t, f, etc.
With this knowledge, a set of disks in the middle of an optimal solution can be recovered with no more state information than the positions of each disk: Call the moves detailed above a disk's 'natural' move. Examine the smallest top disk that is not disk 0, and note what its only (legal) move would be: (if there is no such disc, then we are either at the first or last move). If that move is the disk's 'natural' move, then the disc has not been moved since the last disc 0 move, and that move should be taken. If that move is not the disk's 'natural' move, then move disk 0.
Binary solutions
Disk positions may be determined more directly from the binary (base 2) representation of the move number (the initial state being move #0, with all digits 0, and the final state being #2n1, with all digits 1), using the following rules: There is one binary digit (bit) for each disk The most significant (leftmost) bit represents the largest disk. A value of 0 indicates that the largest disk is on the initial peg, while a 1 indicates that it's on the final peg. The bitstring is read from left to right, and each bit can be used to determine the location of the corresponding disk. A bit with the same value as the previous one means that the corresponding disk is stacked on top the previous disk on the same peg. (That is to say: a straight sequence of 1's or 0's means that the corresponding disks are all on the same peg). A bit with a different value to the previous one means that the corresponding disk is one position to the left or right of the previous one. Whether it is left or right is determined by this rule:
Tower of Hanoi Assume that the initial peg is on the left and the final peg is on the right. Also assume "wrapping" - so the right peg counts as one peg "left" of the left peg, and vice versa. Let n be the number of greater disks that are located on the same peg as their first greater disk and add 1 if the largest disk is on the left peg. If n is even, the disk is located one peg to the left, if n is odd, the disk located one peg to the right. For example, in an 8-disk Hanoi: Move 0 The largest disk is 0, so it is on the left (initial) peg. All other disks are 0 as well, so they are stacked on top of it. Hence all disks are on the initial peg. Move 28-1 The largest disk is 1, so it is on the right (final) peg. All other disks are 1 as well, so they are stacked on top of it. Hence all disks are on the final peg and the puzzle is complete. Move 011011000 = 21610 The largest disk is 1, so it is on the right (final) peg. Disk two is also 1, so it is stacked on top of it, on the right peg. Disk three is 0, so it is on another peg. Since n is odd(n=3), it is one peg to the right, i.e. on the left peg. Disk four is 1, so it is on another peg. Since n is even(n=2), it is one peg to the left, i.e. on the right peg. Disk five is also 1, so it is stacked on top of it, on the right peg. Disk six is 0, so it is on another peg. Since n is odd(n=5), the disk is one peg to the right, i.e. on the left peg. Disks seven and eight are also 0, so they are stacked on top of it, on the left peg.
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The source and destination pegs for the mth move can also be found elegantly from the binary representation of m using bitwise operations. To use the syntax of the C programming language, move m is from peg (m&m-1)%3 to peg ((m|m-1)+1)%3, where the disks begin on peg 0 and finish on peg 1 or 2 according as whether the number of disks is even or odd. Another formulation is from peg (m-(m&-m))%3 to peg (m+(m&-m))%3. Furthermore the disk to be moved is determined by the number of times the move count (m) can be divided by 2 (i.e. the number of zero bits at the right), counting the first move as 1 and identifying the disks by the numbers 0, 1, 2 etc. in order of increasing size. This permits a very fast non-recursive computer implementation to find the positions of the disks after m moves without reference to any previous move or distribution of disks. The count trailing zeros (ctz) operation, which counts the number of consecutive zeros at the end of a binary number, gives a simple solution to the problem: the disks are numbered from zero, and at move m, disk number ctz(m) is moved the minimum possible distance to the right (circling back around to the left as needed).[9]
Gray code solution

The binary numeral system of Gray codes gives an alternative way of solving the puzzle. In the Gray system, numbers are expressed in a binary combination of 0s and 1s, but rather than being a standard positional numeral system, Gray code operates on the premise that each value differs from its predecessor by only one (and exactly one) bit changed. The number of bits present in Gray code is important, and leading zeros are not optional, unlike in positional systems. If one counts in Gray code of a bit size equal to the number of disks in a particular Tower of Hanoi, begins at zero, and counts up, then the bit changed each move corresponds to the disk to move, where the least-significant-bit is the smallest disk and the most-significant-bit is the largest. Counting moves from 1 and identifying the disks by numbers starting from 0 in order of increasing size, the ordinal of the disk to be moved during move m is the number of times m can be divided by 2.
Tower of Hanoi This technique identifies which disk to move, but not where to move it to. For the smallest disk there are always two possibilities. For the other disks there is always one possibility, except when all disks are on the same peg, but in that case either it is the smallest disk that must be moved or the objective has already been achieved. Luckily, there is a rule which does say where to move the smallest disk to. Let f be the starting peg, t the destination peg and r the remaining third peg. If the number of disks is odd, the smallest disk cycles along the pegs in the order f->t->r->f->t->r, etc. If the number of disks is even, this must be reversed: f->r->t->f->r->t etc.[10]
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Visual solution
A visual solution may be discovered by looking closely at a ruler with imperial measurements.[11] These are typically subdivided into progressively smaller marks of 1inch, 1/2inch, 1/4inch, 1/8inch, 1/16inch and 1/32inch divisions. These can be considered to correspond to the progressively smaller discs. Beginning with the smallest division The divisions on a typical Imperial ruler can act as a key for the sequence of disc moves. corresponding to the smallest disc, each step along the ruler shows which disc will be moved next. A common ruler with 1/32inch divisions can be used to solve a Tower of Hanoi puzzle with up to six discs. Note that this only provides a key for the sequence of disc movements, not their direction. As mentioned earlier, the smallest disc should always be cycled through pegs A, B, C, then back to A (or C, B, A, then back to C).
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Graphical representation
The game can be represented by an undirected graph, the nodes representing distributions of disks and the edges representing moves. For one disk, the graph is a triangle:
The graph for 2 disks is 3 triangles arranged in a larger triangle:
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The nodes at the vertices of the outermost triangle represent distributions with all disks on the same peg. For h+1 disks, take the graph of h disks and replace each small triangle with the graph for 2 disks. For 3 disks the graph is:
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call the pegs a, b and c list disk positions from left to right in order of increasing size The sides of the outermost triangle represent the shortest ways of moving a tower from one peg to another one. The edge in the middle of the sides of the largest triangle represents a move of the largest disk. The edge in the middle of the sides of each next smaller triangle represents a move of each next smaller disk. The sides of the smallest triangles represent moves of the smallest disk. In general, for a puzzle with n disks, there are 3n nodes in the graph; every node has three edges to other nodes, except the three corner nodes, which have two: it is always possible to move the smallest disk to the one of the two other pegs; and it is possible to move one disk between those two pegs except in the situation where all disks are stacked on one peg. The corner nodes represent the three cases where all the disks are stacked on one peg. The diagram for n+1 disks is obtained by taking three copies of the n-disk diagrameach one representing all the states and moves of the smaller disks for one particular position of the new largest diskand joining them at the corners with three new edges, representing the only three opportunities to move the largest disk. The resulting figure thus has 3n+1 nodes and still has three corners remaining with only two edges.
The game graph of level 7 shows the relatedness to the Sierpiski Triangle
As more disks are added, the graph representation of the game will resemble the Fractal figure, Sierpiski triangle. It is clear that the great majority of positions in the puzzle will never be reached when using the shortest possible
Tower of Hanoi solution; indeed, if the priests of the legend are using the longest possible solution (without re-visiting any position) it will take them 3641 moves, or more than 1023 years. The longest non-repetitive way for three disks can be visualized by erasing the unused edges:
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Incidentally, this longest non-repetitive path can be obtained by forbidding all moves from a to b. The circular Hamiltonian path for three disks is:
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The graphs clearly show that: From every arbitrary distribution of disks, there is exactly one shortest way to move all disks onto one of the three pegs. Between every pair of arbitrary distributions of disks there are one or two different shortest paths. From every arbitrary distribution of disks, there are one or two different longest non selfcrossing paths to move all disks to one of the three pegs. Between every pair of arbitrary distributions of disks there are one or two different longest non selfcrossing paths. Let Nh be the number of non selfcrossing paths for moving a tower of h disks from one peg to another one. Then: N1 = 2 Nh+1 = (Nh)2 + (Nh)3. For example: N8 1.545610795
Applications
The Tower of Hanoi is frequently used in psychological research on problem solving. There also exists a variant of this task called Tower of London for neuropsychological diagnosis and treatment of executive functions. The Tower of Hanoi is also used as Backup rotation scheme when performing computer data Backups where multiple tapes/media are involved. As mentioned above, the Tower of Hanoi is popular for teaching recursive algorithms to beginning programming students. A pictorial version of this puzzle is programmed into the emacs editor, accessed by typing M-x hanoi. There is also a sample algorithm written in Prolog. The Tower of Hanoi is also used as a test by neuropsychologists trying to evaluate frontal lobe deficits.
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General shortest paths and the number 466/885

A curious generalization of the original goal of the puzzle is to start from a given configuration of the disks where all disks are not necessarily on the same peg, and to arrive in a minimal number of moves at another given configuration. In general it can be quite difficult to compute a shortest sequence of moves to solve this problem. A solution was proposed by Andreas Hinz, and is based on the observation that in a shortest sequence of moves, the largest disk that needs to be moved (obviously one may ignore all of the largest disks that will occupy the same peg in both the initial and final configurations) will move either exactly once or exactly twice. The mathematics related to this generalized problem becomes even more interesting when one considers the average number of moves in a shortest sequence of moves between two initial and final disk configurations that are chosen at random. Hinz and Chan Hat-Tung independently discovered [12] [13] (see also, [14] Chapter 1, p.14) that the average number of moves in an n-disk Tower is given by the following exact formula:
Note that for large enough n, only the first and second terms are not converging to zero, so we get an asymptotic expression: , as . Thus, intuitively we could interpret the fraction of as representing the ratio of the labor one has to perform when going from a randomly chosen configuration to another randomly chosen configuration, relative to the difficulty of having to cross the "most difficult" path of length which involves moving all the disks from one peg to another. An alternative explanation for the appearance of the constant 466/885 , as well as a new and somewhat improved algorithm for computing the shortest path, was given by Romik. [15]
Variations
Cyclic Hanoi
Cyclic Hanoi is a variation of the Hanoi in which each disk must be moved in the same cyclic direction, in most cases, clockwise.[16] For example, given a standard three peg set-up, a given disk can be moved from peg A to peg B, then from B to C, C to A, etc. This can be solved using two mutually recursive procedures: To move n discs clockwise from peg A to peg C: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. move n 1 discs clockwise from A to C move disc #n from A to B move n 1 discs counterclockwise from C to A move disc #n from B to C move n 1 discs clockwise from A to C
To move n discs counterclockwise from peg A to peg C: 1. move n 1 discs clockwise from A to B 2. move disc #n from A to C 3. move n 1 discs clockwise from B to C
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Four pegs and beyond

Although the three-peg version has a simple recursive solution as outlined above, the optimal solution for the Tower of Hanoi problem with four pegs (called Reve's puzzle), let alone more pegs, is still an open problem. This is a good example of how a simple, solvable problem can be made dramatically more difficult by slightly loosening one of the problem constraints. The fact that the problem with four or more pegs is an open problem does not imply that no algorithm exists for finding (all of) the optimal solutions. Simply represent the game by an undirected graph, the nodes being distributions of disks and the edges being moves and use breadth first search to find one (or all) shortest path(s) moving a tower from one peg onto another one. However, even smartly implemented on the fastest computer now available, this algorithm provides no way of effectively computing solutions for large numbers of disks; the program would require more time and memory than available. Hence, even having an algorithm, it remains unknown how many moves an optimal solution requires and how many optimal solutions exist for 1000 disks and 10 pegs. Though it is not known exactly how many moves must be made, there are some asymptotic results. There is also a "presumed-optimal solution" given by the Frame-Stewart algorithm, discovered independently by Frame and Stewart in 1941.[17] The related open Frame-Stewart conjecture claims that the Frame-Stewart algorithm always gives an optimal solution. The optimality of the Frame-Stewart algorithm has been computationally verified for 4 pegs with up to 30 disks.[18] For other variants of the four-peg Tower of Hanoi problem, see Paul Stockmeyer's survey paper.[19] FrameStewart algorithm The FrameStewart algorithm, giving a presumably-optimal solution for four (or even more) pegs, is described below: Let Let be the number of disks. be the number of pegs. to be the minimum number of moves required to transfer n disks using r pegs , , transfer the top disks to a single peg other than the start or destination pegs, disks, transfer the remaining moves. moves. should be picked for disks to the
Define 1. For some
The algorithm can be described recursively: taking moves. 2. Without disturbing the peg that now contains the top destination peg, using only the remaining 3. Finally, transfer the top The entire process takes which this quantity is minimum. This algorithm (with the above choice for
pegs, taking
disks to the destination peg, taking
moves. Therefore, the count
) is presumed to be optimal, and no counterexamples are known.
Multistack Towers of Hanoi

U.S. patent number 7,566,057 issued to Victor Mascolo discloses multistack Tower of Hanoi puzzles with two or more stacks and twice as many pegs as stacks. After beginning on a particular peg, each stack displaces and is displaced by a different colored stack on another peg when the puzzle is solved. Disks of one color also have another peg that excludes all other colors, so that there are three pegs available for each color disk, two that are shared with other colors, and one that is not shared. On the shared pegs, a disk may not be placed on a different colored disk of the same size, a possibility that does not arise in the standard puzzle. The simplest multistack game, Tower of Hanoi (24), has two stacks and four pegs, and it requires 3[T(n)] moves to solve where T(n) is the number of moves needed to solve a single stack classic of n disks. The game proceeds in seesaw fashion with longer and longer series of moves that alternate between colors. It concludes in reverse seesaw
Tower of Hanoi fashion with shorter and shorter such series of moves. Starting with the second series of three moves, these alternate series of moves double in length for the first half of the game, and the lengths are halved as the game concludes. The solution involves nesting an algorithm suitable for Tower of Hanoi into an algorithm that indicates when to switch between colors. When there are k stacks of n disks apiece in a game, and k>2, it requires k[T(n)]+T(n1)+1 moves to relocate them. The addition of a centrally located universal peg open to disks from all stacks converts these multistack Tower of Hanoi puzzles to multistack Reve's puzzles as described in the preceding section. In these games each stack may move among four pegs, the same combination of three in the 24 game plus the central universal peg. The simplest game of this kind (25) has two stacks and five pegs. A solution conjectured to be optimal interlocks the optimal solution of the 24 puzzle with the presumed optimal solution to Reve's puzzle. It takes R(n)+2R(n1)+2 moves, where R(n) is the number of moves in the presumed optimal Reve's solution for a stack of n disks.
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In popular culture
In the science fiction story "Now Inhale", by Eric Frank Russell,[20] the human is a prisoner on a planet where the local custom is to make the prisoner play a game until it is won or lost, and then execution is immediate. The hero knows a rescue ship might take a year or more to arrive, so chooses to play Towers of Hanoi with 64 disks. This story makes reference to the legend about the Buddhist monks playing the game until the end of the world.) In the 1966 Doctor Who story The Celestial Toymaker, the titular villain forces the Doctor to play a ten-piece 1023-move Tower of Hanoi game entitled The Trilogic Game with the pieces forming a pyramid shape when stacked. In the 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes the puzzle, named in the film as the "Lucas Tower", is used as a test to study the intelligence of apes. The puzzle is featured regularly in adventure and puzzle games. Since it is easy to implement, and easily recognised, it is well-suited to use as a puzzle in a larger graphical game (e.g. Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and Mass Effect[21]). Some implementations use straight disks, but others disguise the puzzle in some other form. There is an arcade version by Sega/Andamiro.[22] The problem is featured as part of a reward challenge in a 2011 episode of the American version of the Survivor TV series. Both players (Ozzy Lusth and Benjamin "Coach" Wade) struggle to understand how to solve the puzzle and are aided by their fellow tribe members.
Notes
[1] Hofstadter, Douglas R. (1985). Metamagical Themas : Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern. New York: Basic Books. ISBN0465045405. [2] Spitznagel, Edward L. (1971). Selected topics in mathematics. Holt, Rinehart and Winston. pp.137. ISBN0030846935. [3] Ivan Moscovich, 1000 playthinks: puzzles, paradoxes, illusions & games, Workman Pub., 2001 ISBN 0-7611-1826-8. [4] Petkovi, Miodrag (2009). Famous Puzzles of Great Mathematicians. AMS Bookstore. pp.197. ISBN0821848143. [5] Troshkin, M. Doomsday Comes: A Nonrecursive Analysis of the Recursive Towers-of-Hanoi Problem, Focus, 95(2): 10-14 (in Russian). [6] Herbert Mayer and Don Perkins (1984). "Towers of Hanoi Revisited". SIGPLAN Notices: 8084. doi:10.1145/948566.948573. [7] Moshe Sniedovich (2002). "OR/MS Games: 2. The Towers of Hanoi Problem," (http:/ / archive. ite. journal. informs. org/ Vol3No1/ Sniedovich/ ). INFORMS Transactions on Education 3(1): 3451. . [8] Sniedovich, Moshe (2010). Dynamic Programming: Foundations and Principles (http:/ / www. taylorandfrancis. com/ books/ details/ 9780824740993/ ). Taylor & Francis. ISBN9780824740993. . [9] Warren, Henry S. (2003). Hacker's delight (1st ed.). Boston, Mass.: Addison-Wesley. ISBN0201914654. Section 5-4: Counting Trailing 0's. [10] (http:/ / occawlonline. pearsoned. com/ bookbind/ pubbooks/ miller2_awl/ chapter4/ essay1/ deluxe-content. html#tower) [11] Gardner, Martin (2008). Hexaflexagons, Probability Paradoxes, and the Tower of Hanoi, Postscript to Chapter 6, Cambridge University Press. [12] A. Hinz (1989). "The Tower of Hanoi". Enseignement Mathematique 35: 289321. [13] T. Chan (1988). "A statistical analysis of the towers of Hanoi problem". Internat. J. Comput. Math. 28: 5765. doi:10.1080/00207168908803728.
Tower of Hanoi
[14] Stewart, Ian (2004). Another Fine Math You've Got Me Into.... Courier Dover Publications. ISBN0716723425. [15] D. Romik (2006). "Shortest paths in the Tower of Hanoi graph and finite automata". SIAM Journal on Discrete Mathematics 20 (3): 610622. doi:10.1137/050628660. [16] T. D. Gedeon (1996). "The Cyclic Towers of Hanoi: An Iterative Solution Produced by Transformation". The Computer Journal 39 (4). [17] Solution to advanced problem 3819, American Mathematical Monthly, 1941. [18] Korf, Richard E., and Ariel Felner (2007). "Recent Progress in Heuristic Search: a Case Study of the Four-Peg Towers of Hanoi Problem" (http:/ / www. ijcai. org/ papers07/ Papers/ IJCAI07-374. pdf). IJCAI: 23242329. . [19] Paul Stockmeyer (1994). "Variations on the Four-Post Tower of Hanoi Puzzle" (http:/ / www. cs. wm. edu/ ~pkstoc/ boca. ps). Congressus Numerantium 102: 312. . [20] Russell, Eric Frank (April 1959). "Now Inhale". Astounding Science Fiction. [21] "Tower of Hanoi (video game concept)" (http:/ / www. giantbomb. com/ tower-of-hanoi/ 92-5744/ ). iantbomb.com. . Retrieved 2010-12-05. [22] http:/ / www. segaarcade. com/ towerofhanoi
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External links
Weisstein, Eric W., " Tower of Hanoi (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/TowerofHanoi.html)" from MathWorld. Tower of Hanoi (http://www.dmoz.org/Science/Math/Recreations/Famous_Problems/Tower_of_Hanoi/) at the Open Directory Project
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Number placement puzzles

Fill-In
Fill-Ins, also known as Fill-It-Ins or Word Fills, are a variation of the common crossword puzzle in which words, rather than clues, are given.[1][2][3][4] Fill-Ins are common in puzzle magazines along with word searches, cryptograms, and other logic puzzles.[5] Some consider Fill-Ins to be an easier version of the crossword.[6] Since the Fill-In requires no outside knowledge of specific subjects,[7] one can solve the puzzle in another language.[3] Solving a Fill-In usually requires trial-and-error. Many times, a first word is already given to help the solver start, but some difficult puzzles require the solver to begin from scratch without any help. Word entries are listed alphabetically by amount of letters.[3]
An unsolved Fill-In (left) and a solved one (right).
Rules
The solver is given a grid and a list of words. To solve the puzzle correctly, the solver must find a solution that fits all of the available words into the grid.[1][2][8][9] Generally, these words are listed by amount of letters, and further alphabetically.[2][8] Many times, one word is filled in for the solver to help him or her begin the game.[2][3][4]
Solution methods
Solving a Fill-In typically amounts to searching for words of a certain length with letters in specific places. If a starter word is given in the grid, it is often useful to use it as the beginning search point. Raw "trial and error" is best used when there are only two or three words that can potentially fit at a given location; temporarily assume one of the words, and see if an impossible letter combination results. If so, that word is not the one that should go in the grid at that location.[3] Smaller words may be easier to fit in the grid, but longer words give more clues to connecting words.[10] Care must be given to marking out words that are not explicitly placed in the grid; this occurs when one fills in a vertical sequence of horizontal words, or vice versa. Forgetting to do this results in "extra words" and often makes the puzzle more difficult to solve.[3]
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Starting grid for a simple Fill-In. The word list is: GI IO ON OR DAG EVO OED REF ARID CLEF CLOD DAIS DENS DOLE EDIT SILO ARTICLE VESICLE
Solved Fill-In.
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Variations
A common variation on the standard Fill-In is using numbers, instead of specific words, sometimes called "cross numbers."[1][8] In this puzzle, the entries could be listed as the number, a mathematical expression, or even an important year.[8] A more complex variation on the Fill-In is the "diagramless" Fill-In, where the grid is initially empty.[8] Another variation is having no words listed at all, but gathering them from a known group of words, such as the fifty American states.[9]
References
[1] Can You Use Ink? (http:/ / patriciahysell. wordpress. com/ 2010/ 12/ 21/ 4035/ ). Little Bits of History. Retrieved 15 April 2011. [2] BigOpolis: Online Game Help (http:/ / www. bigopolis. com/ BigOp/ fill-it-ins/ xrisxros_help. html). BigOpolis Fill-It-In Puzzles. Retrieved 15 April 2011. A "cross number" Fill-In.
[3] Fill-in Crossword Puzzles from YourDictionary (http:/ / www. yourdictionary. com/ dictionary-articles/ word-fill-puzzles. html). YourDictionary.com. Retrieved 16 April 2011. [4] Fill-It-In: A Reverse Crossword-Puzzle Generator (http:/ / www. atarimagazines. com/ startv5n4/ puzzle. html). Atarimagazines.com. Retrieved 17 April 2011. [5] Advertising. (http:/ / www. kappapuzzles. com/ pages/ advertising. html) Kappa Puzzles. Retrieved 15 April 2011. [6] BigOpolis: About (http:/ / www. bigopolis. com/ BigOp/ about/ index. html). BigOpolis Fill-It-In Puzzles. Retrieved 15 April 2011. [7] Printable Fill In Puzzles (http:/ / printable-mazes-for-kids. blogspot. com/ 2009/ 01/ printable-fill-in-puzzles. html). Printable Mazes for Kids. Retrieved 17 April 2011. [8] Advice on the Major Variations of Crosswords. (http:/ / positivearticles. com/ blog/ 7046/ advice-on-the-major-variations-of-crosswords/ ) Educational Articles. Retrieved 16 April 2011. [9] puzzleFast Frequently Asked Questions (http:/ / www. puzzlefast. com/ faq. html). puzzleFast. Retrieved 16 April 2011. [10] Solving Spanish Crossword and Fill-In Puzzles Like a Pro. (http:/ / www. dummies. com/ how-to/ content/ solving-spanish-crossword-and-fillin-puzzles-like-. html) Dummies.com. Retrieved 17 April 2011.
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Futoshiki
Futoshiki ( futshiki) or Unequal is a logic puzzle game from Japan. Its name means "inequality". It is also spelled hutosiki (using Kunrei-shiki romanization). The puzzle is played on a square grid, such as 5 x 5. The objective is to place the numbers 1 to 5 (or whatever the dimensions are) such that each row, and column contains each of the digits 1 to 5. Some digits may be given at the start. In addition, inequality constraints are also initially specifed between some of the squares, such that one must be higher or lower than its neighbour. These constraints must be honoured as the grid is filled out.
Solving the puzzle

Solving the puzzle requires a combination of logical techniques.[1] Numbers in each row and column restrict the number of possible values for each position, as do the inequalities. Once the table of possibilities has been determined, a crucial tactic to solve the puzzle involves "AB elimination", in which subsets are identified within a row whose range of values can be determined. For example, if the first two squares within a row must contain 1 or 2, then these numbers can be excluded from the remaining squares. Similarly, if the first three squares must contain 1 or 2; 1 or 3; and 1 or 2 or 3, then those remaining must contain other values (4 and 5 in a 5x5 puzzle). Another important technique is to work through the range of possibilities in open inequalities. A value on one side of an inequality determines others, which then can be worked through the puzzle until a contradiction is reached and the first value is excluded. Additionally, many Futoshiki puzzles are promised to possess unique solutions. If this is strictly true, then regions of the form
An example of a 5x5 Futoshiki puzzle ...
... and its solution
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The first step to solve the puzzle is to enumerate possible values based on inequalities and non-duplication within rows and columns. Then AB elimination may be usable to narrow down the range of possibilities. As shown here, the top and bottom positions in the center column must contain 5 and 3, so these can be excluded from the second and fourth positions.
Logical deduction within the inequalities can restrict the range of possibilities. As shown here, a 2 in the upper left corner requires a 1 in the second position due to the first inequality; but a 1 in the second position allows only a 3 in the fifth position ... and so on, until we conclude two 4s would need to be placed in the same column. Likewise a 3 in the upper left corner would require the top row to be 3 2 5 4 1 and the bottom again to be 1 2 3 4 5 - leading to the same contradiction. Only a 5 is permissible in the top left corner, from which we deduce 5 4 3 2 1 at top and 1 2 5 4 3 at bottom. The remainder of the solution is simple elimination.
A . B . . .
Futoshiki B . A cannot be present, unless an inequality or pre-filled number can specify which of the two numbers is B and which number is A. A solved Futoshiki puzzle is a Latin square.
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Futoshiki in the United Kingdom

The puzzle is published every Saturday in The Guardian and in The Daily Telegraph, and daily in The Times and also in the Dundee Courier.
Notes
[1] "What strategy tips will help me solve Futoshiki puzzles?" (http:/ / www. clarity-media. co. uk/ puzzleanswer/ faq-24). .
External links
Guardian article on the launch of Futoshiki (http://www.guardian.co.uk/japan/story/0,,1884417,00.html) Java implementation (http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/java/unequal.html) Futoshiki.org: online implementation (http://www.futoshiki.org/)
Hidato
A Hidato puzzle...
...and its solution
Hidato is a logic puzzle game invented by Dr. Gyora Benedek, an Israeli mathematician. The goal of Hidato is to fill the grid with consecutive numbers that connect horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.
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About the puzzle

In every Hidato puzzle the smallest and the highest number are listed on the grid. There are more numbers on the board to help to direct the player how to start the solution and to ensure that Hidato has only a single solution. It is usually played on a square grid like Sudoku or Kakuro but can also include irregular shaped grids like hearts, skulls, and so forth. Hidato puzzles are published in newspapers such as the Daily Mail and Detroit Free Press. Every Hidato puzzle has a unique solution that can be found by simple logic. A similar number puzzle to Hidato is the famous Numbrix puzzle invented by Marilyn Vos Savant. The goal of Numbrix is the same as Hidato, except for the fact that diagonal moves are not allowed.
External links
Hidato official web site [1] Hidato puzzles [2] Printable Hidato puzzles [3]
References
[1] http:/ / www. hidato. com/ [2] http:/ / www. edhelper. com/ Internet [3] http:/ / www. mathinenglish. com/ Hidato. php
Hitori
Hitori (Japanese for: Alone or one person) ( Hitori ni shite kure; literally "leave me alone") is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli.
Rules
Hitori is played with a grid of squares or cells, and each cell contains a number. The objective is to eliminate numbers by filling in the squares such that remaining cells do not contain numbers that appear more than once in either a given row or column. Filled-in cells cannot be horizontally or vertically adjacent, although they can be diagonally adjacent. The remaining un-filled cells must form a single component connected horizontally and vertically.
Example of an incomplete Hitori puzzle (see bottom of page for solution)
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Solving techniques
When it is confirmed that a cell must be black, one can see all orthogonally adjacent cells must not be black. Some players find it useful to circle any numbers which must be white as it makes the puzzle easier to read as you progress. If a number has been circled to show that it must be white, any cells containing the same number in that row and column must also be black. If a cell would separate a white area of the grid if it were painted black, the cell must be white. In a sequence of three identical, adjacent numbers; the centre number must be white. If one of the end numbers were white this would result in two adjacent filled in cells which is not allowed. In a sequence of two identical, adjacent numbers; if the same row or column contains another cell of the same number the number standing on its own must be black. If it were white this would result in two adjacent filled in cells which is not allowed. Any number that has two identical numbers on opposite sides of itself must be white, because one of the two identical numbers must be black, and it cannot be adjacent to another black cell. When four identical numbers are in a two by two square on the grid, two of them must be black along a diagonal. There are only two possible combinations, and it is sometimes possible to decide which is correct by determining if one variation will cut white squares off from the remainder of the grid. When four identical numbers form a square in the corner of a grid, the corner square and the one diagonally opposite must be black. The alternative would leave the corner square isolated from the other white numbers.
History
Hitori is an original puzzle of Nikoli; it first appeared in Puzzle Communication Nikoli in issue #29 (March 1990).
In media
Episode 11 of xxxHolic: Kei is titled Hitori in reference to this.
References
Puzzle Cyclopedia, Nikoli, 2004. ISBN.
External links
Sample Hitori puzzles [1] on the Nikoli web site Hitori tutorials [2] on the Nikoli website Hitori Number Puzzle Game [3] Play online at Funmin
Example of a completed Hitori puzzle (see top of page for incomplete puzzle)
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References
[1] http:/ / www. nikoli. com/ en/ puzzles/ hitori [2] http:/ / www. nikoli. com/ en/ puzzles/ hitori/ rule. html [3] http:/ / funmin. com/ online-games/ hitori/ index. php
Kakuro
Kakuro or Kakkuro (Japanese: ) is a kind of logic puzzle that is often referred to as a mathematical transliteration of the crossword. Kakuro puzzles are regular features in many math-and-logic puzzle publications in the United States. Dell Magazines came up with the original English name Cross Sums and other names such as Cross Addition have also been used, but the Japanese name Kakuro, abbreviation of Japanese kasan kurosu, ( , addition cross) seems to have gained general acceptance and the puzzles appear to be titled this way now in most publications. The popularity of Kakuro in Japan is immense, second only to Sudoku among Nikoli's famed logic-puzzle offerings.[1] The canonical Kakuro puzzle is played in a grid of filled and barred cells, "black" and "white" respectively. Puzzles are usually 1616 in size, although these dimensions can vary widely. Apart from the top row and leftmost column which are entirely black, the grid is divided into "entries" lines of white cells by the black cells. The black cells contain a diagonal slash from upper-left to lower-right and a number in one or both halves, such that each horizontal entry has a number in the black half-cell to its immediate left and each vertical entry has a number in the black half-cell immediately above it. These numbers, borrowing crossword terminology, are commonly called "clues".
An easy Kakuro puzzle
The object of the puzzle is to insert a digit from 1 to 9 inclusive into each white cell such that the sum of the numbers in each entry matches the clue associated with it and that no digit is duplicated in any entry. It is that lack of duplication that makes creating Kakuro puzzles Solution for the above puzzle with unique solutions possible, and which means solving a Kakuro puzzle involves investigating combinations more, compared to Sudoku in which the focus is on permutations. There is an unwritten rule for making Kakuro puzzles that each clue must have at least two numbers that add up to it. This is because including one number is mathematically trivial when solving Kakuro puzzles; one can simply disregard the number entirely and
Kakuro subtract it from the clue it indicates. At least one publisher[2] includes the constraint that a given combination of numbers can only be used once in each grid, but still markets the puzzles as plain Kakuro. Some publishers prefer to print their Kakuro grids exactly like crossword grids, with no labeling in the black cells and instead numbering the entries, providing a separate list of the clues akin to a list of crossword clues. (This eliminates the row and column that are entirely black.) This is purely an issue of image and does not affect solving. In discussing Kakuro puzzles and tactics, the typical shorthand for referring to an entry is "(clue, in numerals)-in-(number of cells in entry, spelled out)", such as "16-in-two" and "25-in-five". The exception is what would otherwise be called the "45-in-nine" simply "45" is used, since the "-in-nine" is mathematically implied (nine cells is the longest possible entry, and since it cannot duplicate a digit it must consist of all the digits from 1 to 9 once). Curiously, "3-in-two", "4-in-two", "43-in-eight", and "44-in-eight" are still frequently called as such, despite the "-in-two" and "-in-eight" being equally implied.
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Solving techniques
Although brute-force guessing is of course possible, a better weapon is the understanding of the various combinatorial forms that entries can take for various pairings of clues and entry lengths. Those entries with sufficiently large or small clues for their length will have fewer possible combinations to consider, and by comparing them with entries that cross them, the proper permutation or part of it can be derived. The simplest example is where a 3-in-two crosses a 4-in-two: the 3-in-two must consist of '1' and '2' in some order; the 4-in-two (since '2' cannot be duplicated) must consist of '1' and '3' in some order. Therefore, their intersection must be '1', the only digit they have in common. When solving longer sums there are additional ways to find clues to locating the correct digits. One such method would be to note where a few squares together share possible values thereby eliminating the possibility that other squares in that sum could have those values. For instance, if two 4-in-two clues cross with a longer sum, then the 1 and 3 in the solution must be in those two squares and those digits cannot be used elsewhere in that sum. When solving sums which have a limited number of solution sets then that can lead to useful clues. For instance, a 30-in-seven sum only has two solution sets: {1,2,3,4,5,6,9} and {1,2,3,4,5,7,8}. If one of the squares in that sum can only take on the values of {8,9} (if the crossing clue is a 17-in-two sum, for example) then that not only becomes an indicator of which solution set fits this sum, it eliminates the possibility of any other digit in the sum being either of those two values, even before determining which of the two values fits in that square. Another useful approach in more complex puzzles is to identify which square a digit goes in by eliminating other locations within the sum. If all of the crossing clues of a sum have many possible values, but it can be determined that there is only one square which could have a particular value which the sum in question must have, then whatever other possible values the crossing sum would allow, that intersection must be the isolated value. For example, a 36-in-eight sum must contain all digits except 9. If only one of the squares could take on the value of 2 then that must be the answer for that square. A "box technique" can also be applied on occasion, when the geometry of the unfilled white cells at any given stage of solving lends itself to it: by summing the clues for a series of horizontal entries (subtracting out the values of any digits already added to those entries) and subtracting the clues for a mostly-overlapping series of vertical entries, the difference can reveal the value of a partial entry, often a single cell. This is possible because addition is both associative and commutative. It is common practice to mark potential values for cells in the cell corners until all but one have been proven impossible; for particularly challenging puzzles, sometimes entire ranges of values for cells are noted by solvers in the hope of eventually finding sufficient constraints to those ranges from crossing entries to be able to narrow the ranges to single values. Because of space constraints, instead of digits some solvers use a positional notation, where
Kakuro a potential numerical value is represented by a mark in a particular part of the cell, which makes it easy to place several potential values into a single cell. This also makes it easier to distinguish potential values from solution values. Some solvers also use graph paper to try various digit combinations before writing them into the puzzle grids.
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Mathematics of Kakuro
Kakuro puzzles are NP-complete[3] There are two kinds of mathematical symmetry readily identifiable in kakuro puzzles: minimum and maximum constraints are duals, as are missing and required values. All sum combinations can be represented using a bitmapped representation. This representation is useful for determining missing and required values using bitwise logic operations.
Variants
A relatively common variant of Kakuro is its logical successor, Cross Products (or Cross Multiplication), where the clues are the product of the digits in the entries rather than the sum. Dell Magazines has produced such puzzles but also allowed repeating of digits aside from 1 because of space limitations in the number of digits in each product in a puzzle. Puzzles by Games Magazines are more like crossword puzzles, allowing the implementation of the no-repeating digits rule. Another variant is having a different range of values that are inserted in the cells, such as 1 to 12, instead of the standard 1 to 9. A genuine combination of Sudoku and Kakuro is the so called "Cross Sums Sudoku" in which clues are given as cross sums on a standard 9 x 9 Sudoku grid. A relevant variant is the so-called "Cryptic Kakuro" where the clues are given in terms of alphametics and each number represents a digit from 1 to 9. The final puzzle of the 2004 United States qualifier for the World Puzzle Championship is titled Cross Number Sums Place: it is a Cross Sums where every row and column of the grid (except the top row and leftmost column as usual) contains exactly nine white cells, none of which even across multiple entries are allowed to use the same digit twice, like a Number Place (Sudoku); in addition, small circles are printed on the borders between some white cells; numerically adjacent digits must be placed astride those circles, and may not appear orthogonally adjacent when not astride a circle.
References
[1] http:/ / www. conceptispuzzles. com/ index. aspx?uri=puzzle/ kakuro/ history [2] Keesing Group B.V, publishing in Belgium, Denmark, France, and the Netherlands. (http:/ / www. tazuku. nl/ default. aspx?id=8bee251a-c830-4fc3-8e46-a9e3fbbdc44b) shows the restriction. [3] Takahiro, S. (2001). The complexities of puzzles, cross sum and their another solution problems (ASP). Thesis for BSc, Department of Information Science, University of Tokyo.
External links
Tutorial at Nikoli (http://www.nikoli.co.jp/en/puzzles/kakuro/) (Macromedia Flash required) The New Grid on the Block (http://www.guardian.co.uk/g2/story/0,,1569223,00.html): The Guardian newspaper's introduction to Kakuro
KenKen
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KenKen
KenKen or KenDoku is a style of arithmetic and logic puzzle invented in 2004 by the Japanese math teacher Tetsuya Miyamoto, an innovator who says he practices "the art of teaching without teaching".[1] He intends the puzzles as an instruction-free method of training the brain.[2] The names Calcudoku and Mathdoku are sometimes used by those who don't have the rights to use the KenKen or KenDoku trademarks.[3] The name derives from the Japanese word for cleverness ( ken, kashiko(i)).[1] As in sudoku, the goal of each puzzle is to fill a grid with digits 1 through 4 for a 44 grid, 1 through 5 for a 55, etc. so that no digit appears more than once in any row or column (a Latin square). Grids range in size from 33 to 99. Additionally, KenKen grids are divided into heavily outlined groups of cells often called cages and the numbers in the cells of each cage must produce a certain target number when combined using a specified mathematical operation (either addition, subtraction, multiplication or division). For example, a three-cell cage specifying addition and a target number of 6 in a 44 puzzle might be satisfied with the digits 1, 2, and 3. Digits may be repeated within a cage, as long as they are not in the same row or column. No operation is relevant for a single-cell cage: placing the "target" in the cell is the only possibility (thus being a "free space"). The target number and operation appear in the upper left-hand corner of the cage. In the English-language KenKen books of Will Shortz, the issue of the non-associativity of division and subtraction is addressed by restricting clues based on either of those operations to cages of only two cells. Some puzzle authors have not done this and have published puzzles that use more than two cells for these operations.
History
In 2005, toy inventor Robert Fuhrer encountered KenKen books published in Japan by the educational publisher Gakken Co., Ltd. and titled "Kashikoku naru Puzzle" ( kashikoku naru pazuru, lit. "smartness puzzle").[2] Fuhrer's company Nextoy, LLC (now holder of a trademark on "KenKen" and "KenDoku" as a name for brain-training puzzles) and chess International Master Dr. David Levy helped bring the puzzles to the attention of Michael Harvey, features editor of The Times (London).[4] Harvey, impressed with what he calls its "depth and magnitude", arranged for publication of such puzzles, starting in March 2008, in The Times. Other papers, including the New York Times, followed suit. KenKen now appears in more than 40 newspapers in the United States, as well as numerous international publications.
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Example
The objective is to fill the grid in with the digits 1 through 6 such that: Each row contains exactly one of each digit Each column contains exactly one of each digit Each bold-outlined group of cells is a cage containing digits which achieve the specified result using the specified mathematical operation: addition (+), subtraction (), multiplication (), and division (). (Unlike Killer Sudoku, digits may repeat within a group.) Some of the techniques from Sudoku and Killer Sudoku can be used here, but much of the process involves the listing of all the possible options and eliminating the options one by one as other information requires. In the example here: "11+" in the leftmost column can only be "5,6" "2" in the top row must be one of "1,2", "2,4" or "3,6" "20" in the top row must be "4,5". "6" in the top right must be "1,1,2,3". Therefore the two "1"s must be in separate columns, thus row 1 column 5 is a "1". "30x" in the fourth row down must contain "5,6" "240" on the left side is one of "6,5,4,2" or "3,5,4,4". Either way the five must be in the upper right cell because we have "5,6" already in column 1, and "5,6" in row 4. etc.
A typical KenKen problem.
Extensions
More complex KenKen problems are formed using the principles described above but omitting the symbols +, , and , thus leaving them as yet another unknown to be determined.
Solution to the above problem.
The restriction of puzzle size to the range two through nine is not absolute. A KenKen of size two is of little value even as an example, as it can immediately be solved by trying the two possibilities ones on the "rising" diagonal and twos on the "falling" one, or vice versa. But extension beyond nine presents only difficulties of calculation with larger numbers, and the need, in recording possible values, to avoid confusing multi-digit numbers with items in a list of single digit ones.
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References
[1] A New Puzzle Challenges Math Skills (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2009/ 02/ 09/ arts/ 09ken. html?_r=1& em), New York Times, February 8, 2009 [2] Tetsuya Miyamoto creates KenKen. Train your brain (http:/ / entertainment. timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ arts_and_entertainment/ games_and_puzzles/ article3599704. ece), The Times, 21 March 2008 [3] KenDoku renamed to CalcuDoku (http:/ / www. conceptispuzzles. com/ index. aspx?uri=info/ news/ 285) [4] Stephey, M. J. "The Next Sudoku?" Time Magazine 23 Mar. 2009: 72.
External links
kenken.com (official site) (http://www.kenken.com) Puzzle Guru Will Shortz (http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1882455,00.html), Time Magazine, March 2, 2009
Killer sudoku
Killer sudoku (also killer su doku, sumdoku, sum doku, addoku, or samunamupure) is a puzzle that combines elements of sudoku and kakuro. Despite the name, the simpler killer sudokus can be easier to solve than regular sudokus, depending on the solver's skill at mental arithmetic; the hardest ones, however, can take hours to crack. A typical problem is shown on the right, using colors to define the groups of cells. More often, puzzles are printed in black and white, with thin dotted lines used to outline the "cages" (see below for terminology).
History
Example of a Killer Sudoku problem.
Killer sudokus were already an established variant of sudoku in Japan by the mid 1990s, where they were known as "samunamupure." The name stemmed from a Japanized form of the English words "sum number place." Killer sudokus were introduced to most of the English-speaking world by The Times in 2005. Traditionally, as with regular sudoku puzzles, the grid layout is symmetrical around a diagonal, horizontal or vertical axis, or a quarter or half turn about the centre. This is a matter of aesthetics, though, rather than obligatory: many Japanese puzzle-makers will make small deviations from perfect symmetry for the sake of improving the puzzle. Other puzzle-makers may produce entirely asymmetrical puzzles.
Terminology
Cell A single square that contains one number in the grid Row A horizontal line of 9 cells
Solution to the example above.
Killer sudoku
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Column A vertical line of 9 cells Nonet A 33 grid of cells, as outlined by the bolder lines in the diagram above Cage The grouping of cells denoted by a dotted line or by individual colours. House Any nonrepeating set of 9 cells: can be used as a general term for "row, column, or nonet" (or, in Killer X variants, "long diagonal")
The same example problem, as it would be printed in black and white.
Rules
The objective is to fill the grid with numbers from 1 to 9 in a way that the following conditions are met: Each row, column, and nonet contains each number exactly once. The sum of all numbers in a cage must match the small number printed in its corner. No number appears more than once in a cage. (This is the standard rule for killer sudokus, and implies that no cage can include more than 9 cells.) In 'Killer X', an additional rule is that each of the long diagonals contains each number once.
Duplicate cell ambiguity

By convention in Japan, killer sudoku cages do not include duplicate numbers. However, when The Times first introduced the killer sudoku on 31 August 2005, the newspaper did not make this rule explicit. Even though the vast majority of killer sudoku puzzles followed the rule anyway, English-speaking solvers scratched their heads over appropriate solving strategies given the ambiguity. On September 16, 2005 The Times added a new ruling that Within each dotted-line shape, a digit CAN be repeated if the normal row, column and 3x3 box rules are not broken. But on September 19 the rule changed to Within each dotted-line shape, a digit CANNOT be repeated if the normal row, column and 3x3 box rules are not broken - causing even more scratching of heads. This revised rule stuck and the world standard is no duplicates within cages.
Solving strategies
Fewest possible combinations
Generally the problem is best tackled starting from the extreme sums cages with the largest or the smallest sums. This is because these have the fewest possible combinations. For example, 3 cells within the same cage totalling 23 can only be 6, 8, and 9. In the early stages of the game, the most common way to begin filling in numbers is to look at such low-sum or high-sum cages that form a 'straight line'. As the solver can infer from these that certain numbers are in a certain row or column, he can begin 'cross-hatching' across from them.
Killer sudoku
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The 45 rule
A further technique can be derived from the knowledge that the numbers in all houses (rows, columns and nonets) add up to 45. By adding up the cages and single numbers in a particular house, the user can deduce the result of a single cell. If the cell calculated is within the house itself, it is referred to as an 'innie'; conversely if the cell is outside it, it is called an 'outie'. Even if this is not possible, advanced players may find it useful to derive the sum of two or three cells, then use other elimination techniques (see below for an example of this). The '45' technique can also be extended to calculate the innies or outies of N adjacent houses, as the difference between the cage-sums and N*45.
Initial analysis of the sample problem

Fewest possible combinations The two cells in the top left must be 1+2. The 3 cells to the right totaling 15 cannot therefore have either a 1 or a 2, so they must be either 3+4+8, 3+5+7, or 4+5+6. The two vertical cells in the top left of the top right nonet cannot be 2+2 as that would mean duplicates, so they must be 1+3. The 1 cannot be in the top line as that conflicts with our first 2 cells therefore the top cell of this pair is 3 and the lower cell 1. This also means the 3 cell cage 15 to the left cannot contain a 3 and so is 4+5+6. Similarly the neighbouring 16 must be 9+7. The four cells in the top right cage (totaling 15) can only include one The sample problem. of 1, 3, 7, or 9 (if at all) because of the presence of 1, 3, 7, and 9 in the top right hand nonet. If any one of 1, 3, 7, or 9 is present then this must be the lone square in the nonet below. Therefore these 4 cells is one of 1+2+4+8 or 2+3+4+6. The 2 cells in the middle of the left edge must be either 1+5 or 2+4. And so on. 45 Looking at the nonet on the left hand side in the middle, we can see that there are three cages which do not cross over into another nonet; these add up to 33, meaning that the sum of the remaining two cells must be 12. This does not seem particularly useful, but consider that the cell in the bottom right of the nonet is part of a 3-cage of 6; it can therefore only contain 1, 2 or 3. If it contained 1 or 2, the other cell would have to contain 11 or 10 respectively; this is impossible. It must, therefore, contain 3, and the other cell 9.
Cage total tables

The following tables list the possible combinations for various sums. 2 cells 3: 12 4: 13 5: 14 6: 15 7: 16 8: 17 9: 18 10: 19
23 24 25 26 27 28
34 35 36 45 37 46
Killer sudoku 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 29 39 49 59 69 79 89 38 47 56 48 57 58 67 68 78
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3 cells 6: 123 7: 124 8: 125 9: 126 10: 127 11: 128 12: 129 13: 139 14: 149 15: 159 16: 169 17: 179 18: 189 19: 289 20: 389 21: 489 22: 589 23: 689 24: 789 4 cells 10: 11: 12: 13: 14: 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 1234 1235 1236 1237 1238 1239 1249 1259 1269 1279 1289 1389 1489 1589 1689 1789 2789
134 135 136 137 138 148 158 168 178 269 279 379 479 579 679
234 145 146 147 157 167 249 259 278 369 469 569 678
235 236 156 238 239 258 268 359 378 478 578
245 237 247 248 267 349 368 459 568
246 256 257 348 358 458 468
345 346 347 356 357 456 367 457 467 567
1245 1246 1247 1248 1258 1268 1278 1369 1379 1479 1579 1679 2589 2689 3689
1345 1256 1257 1267 1349 1359 1378 1469 1569 1678 2489 2679 3589 4589
1346 1347 1348 1358 1368 1459 1478 1578 2389 2579 3489 3679 4679
2345 1356 1357 1367 1458 1468 1568 2379 2479 2678 3579 4579 5678
2346 1456 1457 1467 1567 2369 2469 2569 3479 3678 4678
2347 2348 2349 2359 2378 2478 2578 3569 4569
2356 2357 2358 2368 2459 2568 3469 3578 4578
2456 2367 2458 2468 3459 3478 4568
2457 2467 2567 3468 3568
3456 3457 3458 3467 3567 4567
Killer sudoku 27: 28: 29: 30: 3789 4689 5679 4789 5689 5789 6789
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5 cells 15: 16: 17: 18: 19: 20: 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31: 32: 33: 34: 35: 12345 12346 12347 12348 12349 12359 12369 12379 12389 12489 12589 12689 12789 13789 14789 15789 16789 26789 36789 46789 56789
12356 12357 12358 12368 12378 12469 12479 12579 12679 13589 13689 14689 15689 24789 25789 35789 45789
12456 12367 12458 12459 12478 12569 12678 13489 13679 14589 15679 23789 25689 34789 45689
12457 12467 12468 12568 12578 13479 13579 14579 14679 23689 24689 34689 35689
13456 13457 12567 13459 13469 13569 13678 14678 15678 24589 25679 35679 45679
23456 13458 13468 13478 13578 14569 23489 23589 24679 34589 45678
13467 13567 13568 14568 14578 23579 23679 25678 34679
23457 23458 14567 23469 23479 23678 24579 34579 35678
23467 23459 23478 23569 24569 24678 34678
23468 23568 23578 24578 34569
23567 24567 24568 34567 34568 34578
6 cells 21: 22: 23: 24: 25: 26: 27: 28: 29: 30: 31: 32: 33: 34: 35: 36: 37: 38: 123456 123457 123458 123459 123469 123479 123489 123589 123689 123789 124789 125789 126789 136789 146789 156789 256789 356789
123467 123468 123478 123569 123579 123679 124589 124689 125689 134789 135789 145789 236789 246789 346789
123567 123568 123578 123678 124579 124679 125679 134689 135689 145689 235789 245789 345789
124567 124568 124569 124678 125678 134589 135679 145679 234789 245689 345689
134567 124578 134569 134579 134679 145678 234689 235689 345679
134568 134578 134678 135678 234589 235679 245679
234567 234568 234569 234578 234579 234678 234679 235678 245678 345678
Killer sudoku 39: 456789 7 cells 28: 29: 30: 31: 32: 33: 34: 35: 36: 37: 38: 39: 40: 41: 42: 1234567 1234568 1234569 1234579 1234589 1234689 1234789 1235789 1236789 1246789 1256789 1356789 1456789 2456789 3456789
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1234578 1234678 1234679 1235679 1235689 1245689 1245789 1345789 1346789 2346789 2356789
1235678 1245678 1245679 1345678 1345679 2345678 1345689 2345679 2345689 2345789
8 cells 36: 37: 38: 39: 40: 41: 42: 43: 44: 12345678 12345679 12345689 12345789 12346789 12356789 12456789 13456789 23456789
9 cells 45: 123456789
6, 7, and 8 cells
It is easiest to determine the combinations within large cages by means of complements. The table for 6 cell cages is the complement of the 3 cell table adding up to 45 minus the listed value; similarly, the 7 cell table complements the 2 cell table. An 8-cell cage is of course missing only one digit (45 minus the sum of the cage).
External links
Too good for Fiendish? Then try Killer Su Doku [1] - article in The Times
References
[1] http:/ / www. timesonline. co. uk/ article/ 0,,7-1757275,00. html
Mathematics of Sudoku
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The class of Sudoku puzzles consists of a partially completed row-column grid of cells partitioned into N regions each of size N cells, to be filled in using a prescribed set of N distinct symbols (typically the numbers {1, ..., N}), so that each row, column and region contains exactly one of each element of the set. The puzzle can be investigated using mathematics.
Overview
The mathematical analysis of Sudoku falls into two main areas: analyzing the properties of a) completed grids and b) puzzles. Grid analysis has largely focused on counting (enumerating) possible solutions for different variants. Puzzle analysis centers on the initial given values. The techniques used in either are largely the same: combinatorics and permutation group theory, augmented by the dexterous application of programming tools. There are many Sudoku variants, (partially) characterized by the size (N) and shape of their regions. For classic Sudoku, N=9 and the regions are 3x3 squares (called blocks or boxes). A rectangular Sudoku uses rectangular regions of row-column dimension RC. For R1 (and 1C), i.e. where the region is a row or column, Sudoku becomes a Latin square. Other Sudoku variants also exist, such as those with irregularly-shaped regions or with additional constraints (hypercube) or different (Samunamupure) constraint types. See Sudoku - Variants for a discussion of variants and Sudoku terms and jargon for an expanded listing. The mathematics of Sudoku is a relatively new area of exploration, mirroring the popularity of Sudoku itself. NP-completeness was documented late 2002 [1], enumeration results began appearing in May 2005 [2]. In contrast with the two main mathematical approaches of Sudoku mentioned above, an approach resting on mathematical logic and dealing with the resolution of the puzzles from the viewpoint of a player has recently been proposed in Denis Berthier's book "The Hidden Logic of Sudoku". This formalizes certain mathematical symmetries of the game and elicits resolution rules based on them, such as "hidden xy-chains".
Mathematical context
The general problem of solving Sudoku puzzles on n2 n2 boards of n n blocks is known to be NP-complete [1]. For n=3 (classical Sudoku), however, this result is of little relevance: algorithms such as Dancing Links can solve puzzles in fractions of a second. Solving Sudoku puzzles can be expressed as a graph coloring problem. Consider the 9 9 = 32 32 case. The aim of the puzzle in its standard form is to construct a proper 9-coloring of a particular graph, given a partial 9-coloring. The graph in question has 81 vertices, one vertex for each cell of the grid. The vertices can be labeled with the ordered pairs (x, y), where x and y are integers between 1 and 9. In this case, two distinct vertices labeled by (x, y) and (x, y) are joined by an edge if and only if: x = x (same column) or, y = y (same row) or, x/3 = x/3 and y/3 = y/3 (same 3 3 cell) The puzzle is then completed by assigning an integer between 1 and 9 to each vertex, in such a way that vertices that are joined by an edge do not have the same integer assigned to them. A valid Sudoku solution grid is also a Latin square. There are significantly fewer valid Sudoku solution grids than Latin squares because Sudoku imposes the additional regional constraint. Nonetheless, the number of valid Sudoku solution grids for the standard 99 grid was calculated by Bertram Felgenhauer and Frazer Jarvis in 2005 to be 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 [3] (sequence A107739 in OEIS). This number is equal to 9! 722 27
Mathematics of Sudoku 27,704,267,971, the last factor of which is prime. The result was derived through logic and brute force computation. Russell and Jarvis also showed that when symmetries were taken into account, there were 5,472,730,538 solutions [4] (sequence A109741 in OEIS). The number of valid Sudoku solution grids for the 1616 derivation is not known. The maximum number of givens that can be provided while still not rendering the solution unique, regardless of variation, is four short of a full grid; if two instances of two numbers each are missing and the cells they are to occupy are the corners of an orthogonal rectangle, and exactly two of these cells are within one region, there are two ways the numbers can be added. The inverse of this would be the fewest givens that render a solution unique. Japanese puzzle enthusiasts have found a number of valid puzzles with 17 givens[5][6], and 18 with the givens in rotationally symmetric cells. Researchers at University College, Dublin have shown by exhaustive search that no valid puzzles with just 16 givens exist[7]. Sudokus from group tables As in the case of Latin squares the (addition- or) multiplication tables (Cayley tables) of finite groups can be used to construct Sudokus and related tables of numbers. Namely, one has to take subgroups and quotient groups into account: Take for example the group of pairs, adding each component separately modulo some . By omitting one of the components, we suddenly find ourselves in (and this mapping is obviously compatible with the
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respective additions, i.e. it is a group homomorphism). One also says that the latter is a quotient group of the former, because some once different elements become equal in the new group. However, it is also a subgroup, because we can simply fill the missing component with to get back to . Under this view, we write down the example :
The addition table in

(0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (0,1) (0,2) (0,0) (0,2) (0,0) (0,1) (1,0) (1,1) (1,2) (1,1) (1,2) (1,0) (1,2) (1,0) (1,1) (2,0) (2,1) (2,2) (2,1) (2,2) (2,0) (2,2) (2,0) (2,1)
(1,0) (1,1) (1,2) (1,1) (1,2) (1,0) (1,2) (1,0) (1,1)
(2,0) (2,1) (2,2) (2,1) (2,2) (2,0) (2,2) (2,0) (2,1)
(0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (0,1) (0,2) (0,0) (0,2) (0,0) (0,1)
(2,0) (2,1) (2,2) (2,1) (2,2) (2,0) (2,2) (2,0) (2,1)
(0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (0,1) (0,2) (0,0) (0,2) (0,0) (0,1)
(1,0) (1,1) (1,2) (1,1) (1,2) (1,0) (1,2) (1,0) (1,1)
Each Sudoku region looks the same on the second component (namely like the subgroup
), because these are
added regardless of the first one. On the other hand, the first components are equal in each block, and if we imagine each block as one cell, these first components show the same pattern (namely the quotient group ). As already outlined in the article of Latin squares, this really is a Latin square of order . Now, to yield a Sudoku, let us permute the rows (or equivalently the columns) in such a way, that each block is redistributed exactly once into each block - for example order them . This of course preserves the Latin square property. Furthermore, in each block the lines have distinct first component by construction and each line in a block has distinct entries via the second component, because the blocks' second
Mathematics of Sudoku components originally formed a Latin square of order (from the subgroup ).
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Thus we really get a Sudoku (Rename the pairs to numbers 1...9 if you wish)! With the example and the row permutation above, we yield:
Generating a Sudoku
(0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (1,0) (1,1) (1,2) (2,0) (2,1) (2,2) (1,0) (1,1) (1,2) (2,0) (2,1) (2,2) (0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (2,0) (2,1) (2,2) (0,0) (0,1) (0,2) (1,0) (1,1) (1,2)
(0,1) (0,2) (0,0) (1,1) (1,2) (1,0) (2,1) (2,2) (2,0)
(1,1) (1,2) (1,0) (2,1) (2,2) (2,0) (0,1) (0,2) (0,0)
(2,1) (2,2) (2,0) (0,1) (0,2) (0,0) (1,1) (1,2) (1,0)
(0,2) (0,0) (0,1) (1,2) (1,0) (1,1) (2,2) (2,0) (2,1)
(1,2) (1,0) (1,1) (2,2) (2,0) (2,1) (0,2) (0,0) (0,1)
(2,2) (2,0) (2,1) (0,2) (0,0) (0,1) (1,2) (1,0) (1,1)
For this method to work, one generally does not need a product of two equally-sized groups. A so-called short exact sequence of finite groups of appropriate size already does the job! Try for example the group with quotient- and subgroup . It seems clear (already from enumeration arguments), that not all Sudokus can be generated this way!
Terminology
A puzzle is a partially completed grid. The initial puzzle values are known as givens or clues. The regions are also called boxes or blocks. The use of the term square is generally avoided because of ambiguity. Horizontally adjacent blocks constitute a band (the vertical equivalent is called a stack). A proper puzzle has a unique solution. The constraint 'each digit appears in each row, column and region' is called the One Rule. See basic terms [8] or the List of Sudoku terms and jargon for an expanded list of terminology.
Variants
Sudoku regions are polyominoes. Although the classic "3x3" Sudoku is made of square nonominoes, it is possible to apply the rules of Sudoku to puzzles of other sizes the 2x2 and 4x4 square puzzles, for example. Only N2xN2 Sudoku puzzles can be tiled with square polyominoes. Another popular variant is made of rectangular regions for example, 2x3 hexominoes tiled in a 6x6 grid. The following notation is used for discussing this variant. RxC denotes a rectangular region with R rows and C columns. The implied grid configuration has R blocks per band (C blocks per stack), CR bandsstacks and grid dimensions NxN, with N = R C. Puzzles of size NxN, where N is prime can only be tiled with irregular N-ominoes. Each NxN grid can be tiled multiple ways with N-ominoes. Before enumerating the number of solutions to a Sudoku grid of size NxN, it is necessary to determine how many N-omino tilings exist for a given size (including the standard square tilings, as well as the rectangular tilings). The size ordering of Sudoku puzzle can be used to define an integer series, e.g. for square Sudoku, the integer series of possible solutions ((sequence A107739 in OEIS)).
Mathematics of Sudoku Sudoku with square NxN regions are more symmetrical than immediately obvious from the One Rule. Each row and column intersects N regions and shares N cells with each. The number of bands and stacks also equals N. Rectangular Sudoku do not have these properties. The "3x3" Sudoku is additionally unique: N is also the number of row-column-region constraints from the One Rule (i.e. there are N=3 types of units). See the List of Sudoku terms and jargon for an expanded list and classification of variants.
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Definition of terms and labels Term Labels

1 2 3 4 5 B2 6 7 8 B3 9
2 B1 3
4 5 B4 6 r
c B5 5 5 6
B6
7 8 B7 9
B8
B9
Let s be a solution to a Sudoku grid with specific dimensions, satisfying the One Rule constraints S = {s}, be the set of all solutions |S|, the cardinality of S, is the number of elements in S, i.e. the number of solutions, also known as the size of S. The number of solutions depends on the grid dimensions, rules applied and the definition of distinct solutions. For the 33 region grid, the conventions for labeling the rows, columns, blocks (boxes) are as shown. Bands are numbered top to bottom, stacks left to right. By extension the labeling scheme applies to any rectangular Sudoku grid. Term labels for box-row and box-column triplets are also shown. triplet - an unordered combination of 3 values used in a box-row (or box-column), e.g. a triplet = {3, 5, 7} means the values 3, 5, 7 occur in a box-row (column) without specifying their location order. A triplet has 6 (3!) ordered permutations. By convention, triplet values are represented by their ordered digits. Triplet objects are labeled as: rBR, identifies a row triplet for box B and (grid) row R, e.g. r56 is the triplet for box 5, row 6, using the grid row label. cBC, identifies similarly a column triplet for box B and (grid) column row C. The {a, b, c} notation also reflects that fact a triplet is a subset of the allowed digits. For regions of arbitrary dimension, the related object is known as a minicol(umn) or minirow.
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Enumerating Sudoku solutions

The answer to the question 'How many Sudokus are there?' depends on the definition of when similar solutions are considered different.
Enumerating all possible Sudoku solutions

For the enumeration of all possible solutions, two solutions are considered distinct if any of their corresponding (81) cell values differ. Symmetry relations between similar solutions are ignored., e.g. the rotations of a solution are considered distinct. Symmetries play a significant role in the enumeration strategy, but not in the count of all possible solutions. Enumerating the Sudoku 99 grid solutions directly The first approach taken historically to enumerate Sudoku solutions ('Enumerating possible Sudoku grids' [2] by Felgenhauer and Jarvis) was to analyze the permutations of the top band used in valid solutions. Once the Band1 symmetries and equivalence classes for the partial grid solutions were identified, the completions of the lower two bands were constructed and counted for each equivalence class. Summing completions over the equivalence classes, weighted by class size, gives the total number of solutions as 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 (6.671021). The value was subsequently confirmed numerous times independently. The Algorithm details section (below) describes the method. Enumeration using band generation A second enumeration technique based on band generation was later developed that is significantly less computationally intensive.
Enumerating essentially different Sudoku solutions

Two valid grids are essentially the same if one can be derived from the other. Sudoku preserving symmetries The following operations always translate a valid Sudoku grid into another valid grid: (values represent permutations for classic Sudoku) Relabeling symbols (9!) Band permutations (3!) Row permutations within a band (3!3) Stack permutations (3!) Column permutations within a stack (3!3) Reflection, transposition and rotation (2). (Given any transposition or quarter-turn rotation in conjunction with the above permutations, any combination of reflections, transpositions and rotations can be produced, so these operations only contribute a factor of 2.)
These operations define a symmetry relation between equivalent grids. Excluding relabeling, and with respect to the 81 grid cell values, the operations form a subgroup of the symmetric group S81, of order 3!82 = 3359232. It has been shown that any fixed operation on the tiles that always translates a valid Sudoku grid into another valid grid can be generated from the operations listed above (excluding relabeling).
Mathematics of Sudoku Identifying distinct solutions with Burnside's Lemma For a solution, the set of equivalent solutions which can be reached using these operations (excluding relabeling), form an orbit of the symmetric group. The number of essentially different solutions is then the number of orbits, which can be computed using Burnside's lemma. The Burnside fixed points are solutions that differ only by relabeling. Using this technique, Jarvis/Russell [4] computed the number of essentially different (symmetrically distinct) solutions as 5,472,730,538.
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Enumeration results
The number of ways of filling in a blank Sudoku grid was shown in May 2005 to be 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 (~6.671021) (original announcement [9]). The paper 'Enumerating possible Sudoku grids' [2], by Felgenhauer and Jarvis, describes the calculation. Since then, enumeration results for many Sudoku variants have been calculated: these are summarised below.
Sudoku with rectangular regions

In the table, "Dimensions" are those of the regions (e.g. 3x3 in normal Sudoku). The "Rel Err" column indicates how a simple approximation, using the generalised method of Kevin Kilfoil [10], compares to the true grid count: it is an underestimate in all cases evaluated so far.
Dimensions 1x? 22 23 24 25 26 33 34 35 44 45 55 288 28200960 = c. 2.8107 29136487207403520 = c. 2.91016 1903816047972624930994913280000 = c. 1.91030 Nr Grids see Latin squares various [11] [12] Yes Yes Yes Yes No [3] Yes No n/a n/a n/a [20] n/a Attribution Verified? Rel Err n/a -11.1% -5.88% -1.91% -0.375% -0.238% -0.207% -0.132%
Pettersen Russell
[13] [14] [15]
Pettersen
38296278920738107863746324732012492486187417600000 = c. 3.81049 Pettersen 6670903752021072936960 = c. 6.71021 81171437193104932746936103027318645818654720000 = c. 8.11046 unknown, estimated c. 3.50861084 unknown, estimated c. 5.95841098 unknown, estimated c. 3.176410175 unknown, estimated c. 4.364810308
Felgenhauer/Jarvis Pettersen / Silver Silver Silver Silver [17] [18] [19]
[16]
Silver / Pettersen
The standard 33 calculation can be carried out in less than a second on a PC. The 34 (= 43) problem is much harder and took 2568 hours to solve, split over several computers.
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Sudoku bands
For large (R,C), the method of Kevin Kilfoil [21] (generalised method:[10]) is used to estimate the number of grid completions. The method asserts that the Sudoku row and column constraints are, to first approximation, conditionally independent given the box constraint. Omitting a little algebra, this gives the Kilfoil-Silver-Pettersen formula:
where bR,C is the number of ways of completing a Sudoku band [8] of R horizontally adjacent RC boxes. Petersen's algorithm [22], as implemented by Silver [23], is currently the fastest known technique for exact evaluation of these bR,C. The band counts for problems whose full Sudoku grid-count is unknown are listed below. As in the previous section, "Dimensions" are those of the regions.
Dimensions 2C 3C (2C)! (C!)2 Nr Bands Attribution (obvious result) Pettersen [12] Verified? Yes Yes
4C 44 45 46 47
(long expression: see below) 16! 4!12 1273431960 = c. 9.73041038 20! 5!12 879491145024 = c. 1.90781055 24! 6!12 677542845061056 = c. 8.15891072 28! 7!12 563690747238465024 = c. 4.61691091 (calculations up to 4100 have been performed by Silver [29]
Pettersen Silver
[24]
Yes
[25]
[18] [26] [27] [28]
Yes Yes Yes Yes
Russell Russell Russell , but are not listed here) Silver Silver
53 54 55
15! 3!20 324408987992064 = c. 1.55101042 20! 4!20 518910423730214314176 = c. 5.07511066 25! 5!20 1165037550432885119709241344 = c. 6.92801093
[19] [19]
Yes# Yes# No
Pettersen / Silver [30] Pettersen / Silver [31] Pettersen / Silver [32] Pettersen / Silver [33] Pettersen / Silver [34] Pettersen / Silver [35]
56
30! 6!20 3261734691836217181002772823310336 = c. 1.212710123
No
57
35! 7!20 10664509989209199533282539525535793414144 = c. 1.232510154
No
58
40! 8!20 39119312409010825966116046645368393936122855616 = c. 4.115710186
No
59
45! 9!20 156805448016006165940259131378329076911634037242834944 = c. 2.940610220
No
510
50! 10!20 674431748701227492664421138490224315931126734765581948747776 = c. 3.215710255
No
# : same author, different method
Mathematics of Sudoku The expression for the 4C case is:
351
where: the outer summand is taken over all a,b,c such that 0<=a,b,c and a+b+c=2C the inner summand is taken over all k12,k13,k14,k23,k24,k34 0 such that k12,k34 a and k13,k24 b and k14,k23 c and k12+k13+k14 = a-k12+k23+k24 = b-k13+c-k23+k34 = c-k14+b-k24+a-k34 = C
Sudoku with additional constraints

The following are all restrictions of 3x3 Sudokus. The type names have not been standardised: click on the attribution links to see the definitions.
Type 3doku Nr Grids 104015259648 Attribution Stertenbrink Verified?
[36] Yes Yes [38] Yes [39] Yes Yes Yes
Disjoint Groups 201105135151764480 Russell [37] Hypercube Magic Sudoku Sudoku X NRC Sudoku 37739520 5971968 55613393399531520 6337174388428800 Stertenbrink Stertenbrink Russell [40] [41]
Brouwer
All Sudokus remain valid (no repeated numbers in any row, column or region) under the action of the Sudoku preserving symmetries (see also Jarvis [4]). Some Sudokus are special in that some operations merely have the effect of relabelling the digits; several of these are enumerated below.
Transformation Transposition Quarter Turn Half Turn Band cycling Nr Grids Verified?
10980179804160 Indirectly 4737761280 Indirectly
56425064693760 Indirectly 5384326348800 Indirectly
Within-band row cycling 39007939461120 Indirectly
Further calculations of this ilk combine to show that the number of essentially different Sudoku grids is 5,472,730,538, for example as demonstrated by Jarvis / Russell [4] and verified by Pettersen [42]. Similar methods have been applied to the 2x3 case, where Jarvis / Russell [43] showed that there are 49 essentially different grids (see also the article by Bailey, Cameron and Connelly [44]), to the 2x4 case, where Russell [45] showed that there are 1,673,187 essentially different grids (verified by Pettersen [46]), and to the 2x5 case where Pettersen [47] showed that there are 4,743,933,602,050,718 essentially different grids (not verified).
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Minimum number of givens

Proper puzzles have a unique solution. An irreducible puzzle (or minimal puzzle) is a proper puzzle from which no givens can be removed leaving it a proper puzzle (with a single solution). It is possible to construct minimal puzzles with different numbers of givens. This section discusses the minimum number of givens for proper puzzles.
Ordinary Sudoku
A paper by Gary McGuire, Bastian Tugemann, and Gilles Civario, released on 1 January 2012 proved through exhaustive computer search that the minimum number of givens is 17 in general Sudoku.[48] A few 17-clue puzzles with diagonal symmetry were provided by Ed Russell, after a search through equivalence transformations of Gordon Royle's database of 17-clue puzzles.
Ordinary Sudoku: 17 clues.
When the positions of the givens are constrained to be half-turn rotationally symmetric, there exist 18-clue puzzles although it is not known whether this number is minimal.
Sudoku with additional constraints

Additional constraints (here, on 33 Sudokus) lead to a smaller minimum number of clues. 3doku: no results for this variant Disjoint Groups: some 12-clue puzzles[49] have been demonstrated by Glenn Fowler. Later also 11-clue puzzles are found. It is not known if this is the best possible. Hypercube: various 8-clue puzzles[50] (the best possible) have been demonstrated by Guenter Stertenbrink. Magic Sudoku: a 7-clue example[51] has been provided by Guenter Stertenbrink. It is not known if this is the best possible. Sudoku X: a list of 1167 12-clue puzzles[52] has been collected by Ruud van der Werf. It is not known if this is the best possible.
Disjoint Groups: 11 clues
NRC Sudoku: an 11-clue example[41] has been provided by Andries Brouwer. It is not known if this is the best possible. 2-Quasi-Magic Sudoku: a 4-clue example[53] has been provided by Tony Forbes. It is suspected that this is the best possible.
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Sudoku with irregular regions

"Du-sum-oh"[54] (a.k.a. "geometry number place") puzzles replace the 33 (or RC) regions of Sudoku with irregular shapes of a fixed size. Bob Harris has proved[55] that it is always possible to create N-1 clue du-sum-ohs on an NN grid, and has constructed several examples. Johan de Ruiter has proved[56] that for any N>3 there exist polyomino tilings that can not be turned into a Sudoku puzzle with N irregular shapes of size N.
Sum number place ("Killer Sudoku")

In sum number place (Samunamupure), the regions are of irregular shape and various sizes. The usual constraints of no repeated value in any row, column or region apply. The clues are given as sums of values within regions (e.g. a 4-cell region with sum 10 must consist of values 1,2,3,4 in some order). The minimum number of clues for Samunamupure is not known, nor even conjectured. A variant on Miyuki Misawa's web site[57] replaces sums with relations: the clues are symbols =, < and > showing the relative values of (some but not all) adjacent region sums. She demonstrates an example with only eight relations. It is not known whether this is the best possible.
Method and algorithm details for the 99 grid direct enumeration

The approach described here was the historically first strategy employed to enumerate the Sudoku 99 grid solutions, as published by Felgenhauer and Jarvis in 'Enumerating possible Sudoku grids' [2]. The methods and algorithms used are very straight forward and provide a practical introduction to several mathematical concepts. The development is presented here for those wishing to explore these topics. The strategy begins by analyzing the permutations of the top band used in valid solutions. Once the Band1 symmetries and equivalence class for the partial solutions are identified, the completions of the lower two bands are constructed and counted for each equivalence class. Summing the completions over the equivalence classes gives the total number of solutions as 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 (c. 6.671021).
Counting the top band permutations

The Band1 algorithm proceeds as follows: Choose a canonical labeling of the digits by assigning values for B1, e.g. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Compute the rest of the Band1 permutations relative to the B1 canonical choice. Compute the permutations of B2 by partitioning the B1 cell values over the B2 row triplets. From the triplet combinations compute the B2 permutations. There are k=0..3 ways to choose the: B1 r11 values for B2 r22, the rest must go to r23, B1 r12 values for B2 r23, the rest must go to r21, B1 r13 values for B2 r21, the rest must go to r22, i.e.
(This expression may be generalized to any R3 box band variant. (Pettersen permutations.
[12]
). Thus B2 contributes 56 63
The choices for B3 triplets are row-wise determined by the B1 B2 row triplets. B3 always contributes 63 permutations.
Mathematics of Sudoku The permutations for Band1 are 9!5666 = 9!2612736 ~ 9.481011. Band1 permutation details
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Triplet rBR(box/row) Labels

r 1 1 r 1 2 r 1 3 r 2 1 r 2 2 r 2 3 r 3 1 r 3 2 r 3 3
The permutations of B1 are the number of ways to relabel the 9 digits, 9! = 362880. Counting the permutations for B2 is more complicated, because the choices for B2 depend on the values in B1. (This is a visual representation of the expression given above.) The conditional calculation needs a branch (sub-calculation) for each alternative. Fortunately, there are just 4 cases for the top B2 triplet (r21): it contains either 0, 1, 2, or 3 of the digits from the B1 middle row triplet(r12). Once this B2 top row choice is made, the rest of the B2 combinations are fixed. The Band1 row triplet labels are shown on the right. (Note: Conditional combinations becomes an increasingly difficult as the computation progresses through the grid. At this point the impact is minimal.)
Case 0 Matching Cells Triplets

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 7 8 9 1 2 3 4 5 6 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 2 3
Case 0: No Overlap. The choices for the triplets can be determined by elimination. r21 can't be r11 or r12 so it must be = r13; r31 must be = r12 etc. The Case 0 diagram shows this configuration, where the pink cells are triplet values that can be arranged in any order within the triplet. Each triplet has 3! = 6 permutations. The 6 triplets contribute 66 permutations. Case 3: 3 Digits Match: triplet r21 = r12. The same logic as case 0 applies, but with a different triplet usage. Triplet r22 must be = r13, etc. The number of permutations is again 66. (Felgenhauer/Jarvis [2] call the cases 0 and 3 the pure match case.
Case 1 Match - Triplet Cell Options

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 3 3 2 1 3 2 1 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1
Case 1: 1 Match for r21 from r12 In the Case 1 diagram, B1 cells show canonical values, which are color coded to show their row-wise distribution in B2 triplets. Colors reflect distribution but not location or values. For this case: the B2 top row triplet (r21) has 1 value from B1 middle triplet, the other colorings can now be deduced. E.g. the B2 bottom row triplet (r23) coloring is forced by r21: the other 2 B1 middle values must go to bottom, etc. Fill in the number of B2 options for each
Mathematics of Sudoku color, 3..1, beginning top left. The B3 color coding is omitted since the B3 choices are row-wise determined by B1, B2. B3 always contributes 3! permutations per row triplet, or 63 for the block. For B2, the triplet values can appear in any position, so a 3! permutation factor still applies, for each triplet. However, since some of the values were paired relative to their origin, using the raw option counts would overcount the number of permutations, due to interchangeability within the pairing. The option counts need to be divided by the permuted size of their grouping (2), here 2!.= 2 (See n Choose k) The pair in each row cancels the 2s for the B2 option counts, leaving a B2 contribution of 3363. The B2B3 combined contribution is 3366.
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Case 2 Match - Triplet Cell Options

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 3 2 3 2 1 3 2 1 1 3 2 1 3 2 1 3 2 1
Case 2: 2 Matches for r21 from r12. The same logic as case 1 applies, but with the B2 option count column groupings reversed. Case 3 also contributes 3366 permutations. Totaling the 4 cases for Band1 B1..B3 gives 9!2(33+1)66 = 9!5666 permutations.
Band1 symmetries and equivalence classes

Symmetries are used to reduce the computational effort to enumerate the Band1 permutations. A symmetry in mathematics is an operation that preserves a quality of an object. For a Sudoku solution grid, a symmetry is a transformation whose result is also a solution grid. The following symmetries apply independently for the top band: Block B1 values may be relabeled, giving 9! permutations Blocks B1..3 may be interchanged, with 3!=6 permutations Rows 1..3 may be interchanged, with 3!=6 permutations Within each block, the 3 columns may be interchanged, giving 63 permutations.
Combined, the symmetries give 9! 65 = 362880 7776 equivalent permutations for each Band1 solution. A symmetry defines an equivalence relation, here, between the solutions, and partitions the solutions into a set of equivalence classes. The Band1 row, column and block symmetries divide the 56*6^6 permutations into (not less than) 336 (566) equivalence classes with (up to) 65 permutations in each, and 9! relabeling permutations for each class. (Min/Max caveats apply since some permutations may not yield distinct elements due to relabeling.) Since the solution for any member of an equivalence class can be generated from the solution of any other member, we only need to enumerate the solutions for a single member in order to enumerate all solutions over all classes. Let sb : be a valid permutation of the top band Sb = [sb] : be an equivalence class, relative to sb and some equivalence relation Sb.z = |Sb| : the size of Sb, be the number of sb elements (permutations) in [sb] Sb.n : be the number of Band2,3 completions for (any) sb in Sb {Sb} : be the set of all Sb equivalence classes relative to the equivalence relation {Sb}.z = |{Sb}| : be the number of equivalence classes
The total number of solutions N is then:
Mathematics of Sudoku Solution and counting permutation symmetry The Band1 symmetries (above) are solution permutation symmetries defined so that a permuted solution is also a solution. For the purpose of enumerating solutions, a counting symmetry for grid completion can be used to define band equivalence classes that yield a minimal number of classes. Counting symmetry partitions valid Band1 permutations into classes that place the same completion constraints on lower bands; all members of a band counting symmetry equivalence class must have the same number of grid completions since the completion constraints are equivalent. Counting symmetry constraints are identified by the Band1 column triplets (a column value set, no implied element order). Using band counting symmetry, a minimal generating set of 44 equivalence classes [58] was established. The following sequence demonstrates mapping a band configuration to a counting symmetry equivalence class. Begin with a valid band configuration. Build column triplets by ordering the column values within each column. This is not a valid Sudoku band, but does place the same constraints on the lower bands as the example. Construct an equivalence class ID from the B2, B3 column triplet values. Use column and box swaps to achieve the lowest lexicographical ID. The last figure shows the column and box ordering for the ID: 124 369 578 138 267 459. All Band1 permutations with this counting symmetry ID will have the same number of grid completions as the original example. An extension of this process can be used to build the largest possible band counting symmetry equivalence classes.
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Band1 Example
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 5 8 6 9 1 7 4 3 2 7 4 9 8 2 3 5 1 6
Column Triplets
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 4 1 2 5 3 6 9 8 7 5 1 3 7 2 6 8 4 9
Ordered Column Triplets

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 3 5 2 6 7 4 9 8 1 2 4 3 6 5 8 7 9
Note, while column triplets are used to construct and identify the equivalence classes, the class members themselves are the valid Band1 permutations: class size (Sb.z) reflects column triplet permutations compatible with the One Rule solution requirements. Counting symmetry is a completion property and applies only to a partial grid (band or stack). Solution symmetry for preserving solutions can be applied to either partial grids (bands, stacks) or full grid solutions. Lastly note, counting symmetry is more restrictive than simple numeric completion count equality: two (distinct) bands belong to the same counting symmetry equivalence class only if they impose equivalent completion
Mathematics of Sudoku constraints. Band 1 reduction details Symmetries group similar object into equivalence classes. Two numbers need to be distinguished for equivalence classes, and band symmetries as used here, a third: the number of equivalence classes ({Sb}.n). the cardinality, size or number of elements in an equivalence class, which may vary by class (Sb.z) the number of Band2,3 completions compatible with a member of a Band1 equivalence class (Sb.n) The Band1 (65) symmetries divide the (5666) Band1 valid permutations into (not less than) 336 (566) equivalence classes with (up to) 6^5 permutations each. The not less than and up to caveats are necessary, since some combinations of the transformations may not produce distinct results, when relabeling is required (see below). Consequently some equivalence classes may contain less than 65 distinct permutations and the theoretical minimum number of classes may not be achieved. Each of the valid Band1 permutations can be expanded (completed) into a specific number of solutions with the Band2,3 permutations. By virtue of their similarity, each member of an equivalence class will have the same number of completions. Consequently we only need to construct the solutions for one member of each equivalence class and then multiply the number of solutions by the size of the equivalence class. We are still left with the task of identifying and calculating the size of each equivalence class. Further progress requires the dexterous application of computational techniques to catalogue (classify and count) the permutations into equivalence classes. Felgenhauer/Jarvis [2] catalogued the Band1 permutations using lexicographical ordered IDs based on the ordered digits from blocks B2,3. Block 1 uses a canonical digit assignment and is not needed for a unique ID. Equivalence class identification and linkage uses the lowest ID within the class. Application of the (262) B2,3 symmetry permutations produces 36288 (2864) equivalence classes, each of size 72. Since the size is fixed, the computation only needs to find the 36288 equivalence class IDs. (Note: in this case, for any Band1 permutation, applying these permutations to achieve the lowest ID provides an index to the associated equivalence class.) Application of the rest of the block, column and row symmetries provided further reduction, i.e. allocation of the 36288 IDs into fewer, larger equivalence classes. When the B1 canonical labeling is lost through a transformation, the result is relabeled to the canonical B1 usage and then catalogued under this ID. This approach generated 416 equivalence classes, somewhat less effective than the theoretical 336 minimum limit for a full reduction. Application of counting symmetry patterns for duplicate paired digits achieved reduction to 174 and then to 71 equivalence classes. The introduction of equivalence classes based on band counting symmetry (subsequent to Felgenhauer/Jarvis by Russell [58]) reduced the equivalence classes to a minimum generating set of 44. The diversity of the ~2.6106, 5666 Band1 permutations can be reduced to a set of 44 Band1 equivalence classes. Each of the 44 equivalence classes can be expanded to millions of distinct full solutions, but the entire solution space has a common origin in these 44. The 44 equivalence classes play a central role in other enumeration approaches as well, and speculation will return to the characteristics of the 44 classes when puzzle properties are explored later.
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Band 2-3 completion and results

Enumerating the Sudoku solutions breaks into an initial setup stage and then into two nested loops. Initially all the valid Band1 permutations are grouped into equivalence classes, who each impose a common constraint on the Band2,3 completions. For each of the Band1 equivalence classes, all possible Band2,3 solutions need to be enumerated. An outer Band1 loop iterates over the 44 equivalence classes. In the inner loop, all lower band completions for each of the Band1 equivalence class are found and counted.
Mathematics of Sudoku The computation required for the lower band solution search can be minimised by the same type of symmetry application used for Band1. There are 6! (720) permutations for the 6 values in column 1 of Band2,3. Applying the lower band (2) and row within band (66) permutations creates 10 equivalence classes of size 72. At this point, completing 10 sets of solutions for the remaining 48 cells with a recursive descent, backtracking algorithm is feasible with 2GHz class PC so further simplification is not required to carry out the enumeration. Using this approach, the number of ways of filling in a blank Sudoku grid was shown in May 2005 (original announcement [59]) to be 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 (6.671021). The paper 'Enumerating possible Sudoku grids' [2] by Felgenhauer and Jarvis, describes the calculation. The result, as confirmed by Russell [58], also contains the distribution of solution counts for the 44 equivalence classes. The listed values are before application of the 9! factor for labeling and the two 72 factors (722 = 5184) for each of Stack 2,3 and Band2,3 permutations. The number of completions for each class is consistently on the order of 100,000,000, while the number of Band1 permutations covered by each class however varies from 4 3240. Within this wide size range, there are clearly two clusters. Ranked by size, the lower 33 classes average ~400 permutations/class, while the upper 11 average ~2100. The disparity in consistency between the distributions for size and number of completions or the separation into two clusters by size is yet to be examined.
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Constraints of Clue Geometry

It has been postulated that no proper sudoku can have clues limited to the range of positions in the pattern below.[60]
A range of clue positions insufficient for a proper sudoku
The largest rectangular orthogonal "hole" (region with no clues) in a proper sudoku is believed to be a rectangle of 30 cells (a 5 x 6 rectangular area).[61] [62] One such example is the following with 22 clues:
Sudoku with 30 cell (5 x 6) empty rectangle
Mathematics of Sudoku The largest total number of empty groups (rows, columns, and squares) in a sudoku is believed to be nine. One example is the following; a sudoku which has 3 empty squares, 3 empty rows, and 3 empty columns and gives 22 clues.[63] [64]
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Sudoku with nine empty groups
Automorphic Sudokus
Automorphic sudokus are sudoku puzzles which solve to an automorphic grid. A grid is automorphic if it can be transformed in a way that leads back to the original grid, when that same transformation would not otherwise lead back to the original grid. An example of a grid which is automorphic would be a grid which can be rotated 180 degrees resulting in a new grid where the new cell values are a permutation of the original grid. An example of an automorphic sudoku which solves to such a grid is below[65].
Example of an Automorphic Sudoku
Notice that if this sudoku is rotated 180 degrees, and the clues relabeled with the permutation (123456789) -> (987654321), it returns to the same sudoku. Expressed another way, this sudoku has the property that every 180 degree rotational pair of clues (a, b) follows the rule (a) + (b) = 10. Since this sudoku is automorphic, so too its solution grid must be automorphic. Furthermore, every cell which is solved has a symmetrical partner which is solved with the same technique (and the pair would take the form a + b = 10). In this example the automorphism is easy to identify, but in general automorphism is not always obvious. There are several types of transformations of a sudoku, and therefore automorphism can take several different forms too. Among the population of all sudoku grids, those that are automorphic are rare. They are considered interesting because of their intrinsic mathematical symmetry.
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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] http:/ / www-imai. is. s. u-tokyo. ac. jp/ ~yato/ data2/ SIGAL87-2. pdf http:/ / www. afjarvis. staff. shef. ac. uk/ sudoku/ sudoku. pdf http:/ / www. afjarvis. staff. shef. ac. uk/ sudoku/ http:/ / www. afjarvis. staff. shef. ac. uk/ sudoku/ sudgroup. html http:/ / www2. ic-net. or. jp/ ~takaken/ auto/ guest/ bbs46. html Minimum Sudoku (http:/ / www. csse. uwa. edu. au/ ~gordon/ sudokumin. php) by Gordon Royle Yirka, Bob (1/6/12). "Mathematicians Use Computer to Solve Minimum Sudoku Solution Problem" (http:/ / www. physorg. com/ news/ 2012-01-mathematicians-minimum-sudoku-solution-problem. html). PhysOrg. . Retrieved 1/6/12. [8] Basic terms (http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ viewtopic. php?t=4120) by "Pappocom" (Wayne Gould) [9] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ viewtopic. php?p=1721#p1721 [10] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post15920. html#p15920 [11] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post2992. html#p2992 [12] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post11444. html#p11444 [13] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post11874. html#p11874 [14] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post12191. html#p12191 [15] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ viewtopic. php?p=37761#p37761 [16] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post25773. html#p25773 [17] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post17768. html#p17768 [18] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post15909. html#p15909 [19] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post17750. html#p17750 [20] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post19318. html#p19318 [21] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post788. html#p788 [22] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post18161. html#p18161 [23] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post20867. html#p20867 [24] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post16169. html#p16169 [25] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post18396. html#p18396 [26] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post16071. html#p16071 [27] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post16071. html#p16071 [28] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post16071. html#p16071 [29] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post21245. html#p21245 [30] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post19318. html#p19318 [31] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post19318. html#p19318 [32] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post19416. html#p19416 [33] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post20867. html#p20867 [34] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post20867. html#p20867 [35] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post20867. html#p20867 [36] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post11088. html#p11088 [37] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post2536. html#p2536 [38] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post11216. html#p11216 [39] http:/ / www. setbb. com/ phpbb/ viewtopic. php?t=366& mforum=sudoku [40] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post3366. html#p3366 [41] http:/ / homepages. cwi. nl/ ~aeb/ games/ sudoku/ nrc. html [42] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post13388. html#p13388 [43] http:/ / www. afjarvis. staff. shef. ac. uk/ sudoku/ sud23gp. html [44] http:/ / www. maths. qmul. ac. uk/ ~pjc/ preprints/ sudoku. pdf [45] http:/ / www. afjarvis. staff. shef. ac. uk/ sudoku/ sud24gp. html [46] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post29983. html#p29983 [47] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post32483. html#p32483 [48] McGuire, Gary (1 January 2012). There is no 16-Clue Sudoku: Solving the Sudoku Minimum Number of Clues Problem (http:/ / www. math. ie/ checker. html). . [49] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post22062. html#p22062 [50] http:/ / magictour. free. fr/ sudoku6 [51] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post13320. html#p13320 [52] http:/ / www. sudocue. net/ minx. php [53] http:/ / anthony. d. forbes. googlepages. com/ M215qm. pdf [54] http:/ / www. bumblebeagle. org/ dusumoh/ 9x9/ index. html [55] http:/ / www. bumblebeagle. org/ dusumoh/ proof/ index. html
[56] http:/ / www. liacs. nl/ assets/ Bachelorscripties/ 10-04-JohandeRuiter. pdf [57] http:/ / www7a. biglobe. ne. jp/ ~sumnumberplace/ 79790008/ [58] http:/ / www. afjarvis. staff. shef. ac. uk/ sudoku/ ed44. html [59] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post1721. html#p1721 [60] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ viewtopic. php?t=5384& postdays=0& postorder=asc& start=0 (ask for some patterns that they don't have puzzles) [61] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ viewtopic. php?t=4209 largest hole in a sudoko; largest empty space [62] http:/ / www. flickr. com/ photos/ npcomplete/ 2471768905/ large empty space [63] http:/ / forum. enjoysudoku. com/ post7486. html#p7486 largest number of empty groups? [64] http:/ / www. flickr. com/ photos/ npcomplete/ 2361922691/ clues bunched in clusters [65] http:/ / www. flickr. com/ photos/ npcomplete/ 2629305621/ ''(Six Dots with 5 x 5 Empty Hole)
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External links
Enumerating possible Sudoku grids (http://www.afjarvis.staff.shef.ac.uk/sudoku/sudoku.pdf) by Felgenhauer and Jarvis, describes the all-solutions calculation V. Elser's difference-map algorithm also solves Sudoku (http://plus.maths.org/latestnews/jan-apr06/sudoku/ index.html) Sudoku Puzzle - an Exercise in Constraint Programming and Visual Prolog 7 (http://www.visual-prolog.com/ vip/example/pdcExample/sudoku.htm) by Carsten Kehler Holst (in Visual Prolog) Sudoku Squares and Chromatic Polynomials (http://www.ams.org/notices/200706/tx070600708p.pdf) by Herzberg and Murty, treats Sudoku puzzles as vertex coloring problems in graph theory.
Ripple Effect
For the sociological term, see Ripple effect. For the episode of Stargate SG-1, see Ripple Effect (Stargate SG-1). Ripple Effect (Japanese: Hakyuu Kouka) is a logic puzzle published by Nikoli. As of 2007, two books consisting entirely of Ripple Effect puzzles have been published by Nikoli. The second was published on October 4, 2007.
Rules
Ripple Effect is played on a rectangular grid divided into polyominoes. The solver must place one positive integer into each cell of the grid some of which may be given in advance - according to these rules: Every polyomino must contain the consecutive integers from 1 to the quantity of cells in that polyomino inclusive. Moderately difficult sample puzzle 2005-6 Adam R. Wood, licensed under GFDL If two identical numbers appear in the same row or column, at least that many cells with other numbers must separate them. For example, two cells both containing '1' may not be orthogonally adjacent, but must have at least one cell between them with a different number. Two cells marked '3' in the same row or column must have at least three cells with other numbers between them in that row or column, and so on.
Ripple Effect
362
History
Ripple Effect is an original puzzle of Nikoli; it first appeared in Puzzle Communication Nikoli #73 (May 1998).
External links
http://www.nikoli.co.jp/ja/puzzles/ripple_effect/
Sudoku
A Sudoku puzzle...
...and its solution numbers marked in red
Sudoku ( sdoku, ) listen; English pronunciation: /sudoku/ soo-DOH-koo is a logic-based,[1][2] combinatorial[3] number-placement puzzle. The objective is to fill a 99 grid with digits so that each column, each row, and each of the nine 33 sub-grids that compose the grid (also called "boxes", "blocks", "regions", or "sub-squares") contains all of the digits from 1 to 9. The puzzle setter provides a partially completed grid, which typically has a unique solution. Completed puzzles are always a type of Latin square with an additional constraint on the contents of individual regions. For example, the same single integer may not appear twice in the same 99 playing board row or column or in any of the nine 33 subregions of the 99 playing board.[4] The puzzle was popularized in 1986 by the Japanese puzzle company Nikoli, under the name Sudoku, meaning single number.[5] It became an international hit in 2005.[6]
Sudoku
363
History
Number puzzles appeared in newspapers in the late 19th century, when French puzzle setters began experimenting with removing numbers from magic squares. Le Sicle, a Paris-based daily, published a partially completed 99 magic square with 33 sub-squares on November 19, 1892.[7] It was not a Sudoku because it contained double-digit numbers and required arithmetic rather than logic to solve, but it shared key characteristics: each row, column and sub-square added up to the same number. On July 6, 1895, Le Sicle's rival, La France, refined the puzzle so that it was almost a modern Sudoku. It simplified the 99 magic square puzzle so that each row, column and broken diagonals contained only the numbers 19, but did not mark the sub-squares. Although they are unmarked, each 33 sub-square does indeed comprise the numbers 19 and the additional constraint on the broken diagonals leads to only one solution.[8]
From La France newspaper, July 6, 1895
These weekly puzzles were a feature of French newspapers such as L'Echo de Paris for about a decade but disappeared about the
time of World War I.[9] According to Will Shortz, the modern Sudoku was most likely designed anonymously by Howard Garns, a 74-year-old retired architect and freelance puzzle constructor from Indiana, and first published in 1979 by Dell Magazines as Number Place (the earliest known examples of modern Sudoku). Garns's name was always present on the list of contributors in issues of Dell Pencil Puzzles and Word Games that included Number Place, and was always absent from issues that did not.[10] He died in 1989 before getting a chance to see his creation as a worldwide phenomenon.[10] It is unclear if Garns was familiar with any of the French newspapers listed above. The puzzle was introduced in Japan by Nikoli in the paper Monthly Nikolist in April 1984[10] as Sji wa dokushin ni kagiru ( ), which can be translated as "the digits must be single" or "the digits are limited to one occurrence." (In Japanese, dokushin means an "unmarried person".) At a later date, the name was abbreviated to Sudoku ( ) by Maki Kaji ( Kaji Maki), taking only the first kanji of compound words to form a shorter version.[10] In 1986, Nikoli introduced two innovations: the number of givens was restricted to no more than 32, and puzzles became "symmetrical" (meaning the givens were distributed in rotationally symmetric cells). It is now published in mainstream Japanese periodicals, such as the Asahi Shimbun.
Variants
Sudoku
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A nonomino or Jigsaw Sudoku puzzle, as seen in the Sunday Telegraph
Solution numbers in red for above puzzle
Although the 99 grid with 33 regions is by far the most common, variations abound. Sample puzzles can be 44 grids with 22 regions; 55 grids with pentomino regions have been published under the name Logi-5; the World Puzzle Championship has featured a 66 grid with 23 regions and a 77 grid with six heptomino regions and a disjoint region. Larger grids are also possible. The Times offers a 1212-grid Dodeka sudoku with 12 regions of 43 squares. Dell regularly publishes 1616 Number Place Challenger puzzles (the 1616 variant often uses 1 through G rather than the 0 through F used in hexadecimal). Nikoli offers 2525 Sudoku the Giant behemoths. Sudoku-zilla,[11] a 100100-grid was published in print in 2010. Another common variant is to add limits on the placement of numbers beyond the usual row, column, and box requirements. Often the limit takes the form of an extra "dimension"; the most common is to require the numbers in the main diagonals of the grid also to be unique. The aforementioned Number Place Challenger puzzles are all of this variant, as are the Sudoku X puzzles in the Daily Mail, which use 66 grids.
Mini Sudoku
A variant named "Mini Sudoku" appears in the American newspaper USA Today and elsewhere, which is played on a 66 grid with 32 regions. The object is the same as standard Sudoku, but the puzzle only uses the numbers 1 through 6.
Cross Sums Sudoku

Another variant is the combination of Sudoku with Kakuro on a 99 grid, called Cross Sums Sudoku, in which clues are given in terms of cross sums. The clues can also be given by cryptic alphametics in which each letter represents a single digit from 0 to 9. An example is NUMBER+NUMBER=KAKURO which has a unique solution 186925+186925=373850. Another example is SUDOKU=ISFUNNY whose solution is 426972=3412558.
Killer Sudoku
Sudoku
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A Killer Sudoku puzzle
Solution for puzzle to the left
The Killer Sudoku variant combines elements of Sudoku and Kakuro.
Photo Sudoku
Photo Sudoku [12] is a variation that allows users to play Sudoku with pictures.
Alphabetical Sudoku
A Wordoku puzzle
Solution in red for puzzle to the left
Alphabetical variations have emerged, sometimes called Wordoku; there is no functional difference in the puzzle unless the letters spell something. Some variants, such as in the TV Guide, include a word reading along a main diagonal, row, or column once solved; determining the word in advance can be viewed as a solving aid. A Wordoku might contain other words, other than the main word.
Sudoku
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Hypersudoku
Hypersudoku puzzle
Solution numbers for puzzle to the left
Hypersudoku is one of the most popular variants. It is published by newspapers and magazines around the world and is also known as "NRC Sudoku," "Windoku," "Hyper-Sudoku" and "4 Square Sudoku." The layout is identical to a normal Sudoku, but with additional interior areas defined in which the numbers 1 to 9 must appear. The solving algorithm is slightly different from the normal Sudoku puzzles because of the leverage on the overlapping squares. This overlap gives the player more information to logically reduce the possibilities in the remaining squares. The approach to playing is similar to Sudoku but with possibly more emphasis on scanning the squares and overlap rather than columns and rows. Puzzles constructed from multiple Sudoku grids are common. Five 99 grids which overlap at the corner regions in the shape of a quincunx is known in Japan as Gattai 5 (five merged) Sudoku. In The Times, The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald this form of puzzle is known as Samurai SuDoku. The Baltimore Sun and the Toronto Star publish a puzzle of this variant (titled High Five) in their Sunday edition. Often, no givens are to be found in overlapping regions. Sequential grids, as opposed to overlapping, are also published, with values in specific locations in grids needing to be transferred to others. Str8ts shares the Sudoku requirement of uniqueness in the rows and columns but the third constraint is very different. Str8ts uses black cells (some with clue numbers) to divide the board into compartments. These must be filled with a set of numbers that form a "straight," like the poker hand. A straight is a set of numbers with no gaps in them, such as "4,3,6,5"and the order can be non-sequential. 99 is the traditional size but with suitable placement of black cells any size board is possible. A tabletop version of Sudoku can be played with a standard 81-card Set deck (see Set game). A three-dimensional Sudoku puzzle was invented by Dion Church and published in the Daily Telegraph in May 2005. The Times also publishes a three-dimensional version under the name Tredoku. There is a Sudoku version of the Rubik's Cube named Sudoku Cube. There are many other variants. Some are different shapes in the arrangement of overlapping 99 grids,
An example of Greater Than Sudoku
Sudoku such as butterfly, windmill, or flower.[13] Others vary the logic for solving the grid. One of these is Greater Than Sudoku. In this a 33 grid of the Sudoku is given with 12 symbols of Greater Than (>) or Less Than (<) on the common line of the two adjacent numbers.[10] Another variant on the logic of solution is Clueless Sudoku, in which nine 99 Sudoku grids are themselves placed in a three-by-three array. The center cell in each 33 grid of all nine puzzles is left blank and form a tenth Sudoku puzzle without any cell completed; hence, "clueless".[13]
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A completed Sudoku grid is a special type of Latin square with the additional property of no repeated values in any of the 9 blocks of contiguous 33 cells. The relationship between the two theories is now completely known, after it was proven that a first-order formula that does not mention blocks (also called boxes or regions) is valid for Sudoku if and only if it is valid for Latin Squares (this property is trivially true for the axioms and it can be extended to any formula).[14] The number of classic 99 Sudoku solution grids is 6,670,903,752,021,072,936,960 (sequence A107739 in OEIS), or approximately 6.671021. This is roughly 1.2106 times the number of 99 Latin squares.[15] Various other grid sizes have also been enumeratedsee the main article for details. The number of essentially different solutions, when symmetries such as rotation, reflection, permutation and relabelling are taken into account, was shown to be just 5,472,730,538[16] (sequence A109741 in OEIS). The maximum number of givens provided while still not rendering a unique solution is four short of a full grid (77); if two instances of two numbers each are missing from cells which occupy the corners of an orthogonal rectangle, and exactly two of these cells are within one region, there are two ways the numbers can be assigned. Since this applies to Latin squares in general, most variants of Sudoku have the same maximum. The inverse problemthe fewest givens that render a solution uniquewas recently proven to be 17.[17] A number of valid puzzles with 17 givens have been found for the standard variation without a symmetry constraint, by Japanese puzzle enthusiasts,[18][19] and 18 with the givens in rotationally symmetric cells. Over 48,000 examples of Sudoku puzzles with 17 givens resulting in a unique solution are known. In 2010 mathematicians of the University of Southern California showed that the arrangement of numbers in Sudoku puzzles have greater Shannon entropy than the number arrangements in randomly generated 99 matrices. This is because the rules of Sudoku exclude some random arrangements that have an innate symmetry.[20]
Recent popularity
In 1997, New Zealander and retired Hong Kong judge Wayne Gould, then in his early 50s, saw a partly completed puzzle in a Japanese bookshop. Over six years he developed a computer program to produce puzzles quickly. Knowing that British newspapers have a long history of publishing crosswords and other puzzles, he promoted Sudoku to The Times in Britain, which launched it on November 12, 2004 (calling it Su Doku). The first letter to The Times regarding Su Doku was published the following day on November 13 from Ian Payn of Brentford, complaining that the puzzle had caused him to miss his stop on the tube.[21] The rapid rise of Sudoku in Britain from relative obscurity to a front-page feature in national newspapers attracted commentary in the media and parody (such as when The Guardian's G2 section advertised itself as the first newspaper supplement with a Sudoku grid on every page).[22] Recognizing the different psychological appeals of easy and difficult puzzles, The Times introduced both side by side on June 20, 2005. From July 2005, Channel 4 included a daily Sudoku game in their Teletext service. On August 2, the BBC's program guide Radio Times featured a weekly Super Sudoku which features a 1616 grid. In the United States, the first newspaper to publish a Sudoku puzzle by Wayne Gould was The Conway Daily Sun (New Hampshire), in 2004.[23]
Sudoku The world's first live TV Sudoku show, Sudoku Live, was a puzzle contest first broadcast on July 1, 2005 on Sky One. It was presented by Carol Vorderman. Nine teams of nine players (with one celebrity in each team) representing geographical regions competed to solve a puzzle. Each player had a hand-held device for entering numbers corresponding to answers for four cells. Phil Kollin of Winchelsea, England was the series grand prize winner taking home over 23,000 over a series of games. The audience at home was in a separate interactive competition, which was won by Hannah Withey of Cheshire. Later in 2005, the BBC launched SUDO-Q, a game show that combines Sudoku with general knowledge. However, it uses only 44 and 66 puzzles. Four seasons were produced, before the show ended in 2007. In 2006, a Sudoku website published songwriter Peter Levy's Sudoku tribute song,[24] but quickly had to take down the mp3 due to heavy traffic. British and Australian radio picked up the song, which is to feature in a British-made Sudoku documentary. The Japanese Embassy also nominated the song for an award, with Levy doing talks with Sony in Japan to release the song as a single.[25] Sudoku software is very popular on PCs, websites, and mobile phones. It comes with many distributions of Linux. Software has also been released on video game consoles, such as the Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable, the Game Boy Advance, Xbox Live Arcade, the Nook e-book reader, Kindle Fire tablet, several iPod models, and the iPhone. In fact, just two weeks after Apple Inc. debuted the online App Store within its iTunes store on July 11, 2008, there were already nearly 30 different Sudoku games, created by various software developers, specifically for the iPhone and iPod Touch. One of the most popular video games featuring Sudoku is Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!. Critically and commercially well-received, it generated particular praise for its Sudoku implementation[26][27][28] and sold more than 8 million copies worldwide.[29] Due to its popularity, Nintendo made a second Brain Age game titled Brain Age2, which has over 100 new Sudoku puzzles and other activities. In June 2008 an Australian drugs-related jury trial costing over A$1 million was aborted when it was discovered that five of the twelve jurors had been playing Sudoku instead of listening to evidence.[30]
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Competitions
The first World Sudoku Championship was held in Lucca, Italy, from March 1012, 2006. The winner was Jana Tylov of the Czech Republic.[31] The competition included numerous variants.[32] The second World Sudoku Championship was held in Prague from March 28 April 1, 2007.[33] The individual champion was Thomas Snyder of the USA. The team champion was Japan.[34] The third World Sudoku Championship was held in Goa, India, from April 1416, 2008. Thomas Snyder repeated as the individual overall champion, and also won the first ever Classic Trophy (a subset of the competition counting only classic Sudoku). The Czech Republic won the team competition.[35] The fourth World Sudoku Championship was held in ilina, Slovakia, from April 2427, 2009. After past champion Thomas Snyder of USA won the general qualification, Jan Mrozowski of Poland emerged from a 36-competitor playoff to become the new World Sudoku Champion. Host nation Slovakia emerged as the top team in a separate competition of three-membered squads.[36] The fifth World Sudoku Championship was held in Philadelphia, USA from April 29 May 2, 2010. Jan Mrozowski of Poland successfully defended his world title in the individual competition while Germany won a separate team event. The puzzles were written by Thomas Snyder and Wei-Hwa Huang, both past US Sudoku champions.[37] In the United States, The Philadelphia Inquirer Sudoku National Championship has been held three times, each time offering a $10,000 prize to the advanced division winner and a spot on the U.S. National Sudoku Team traveling to the world championships. Puzzlemaster Will Shortz has served as tournament host. The winners of the event have been Thomas Snyder (2007),[38] Wei-Hwa Huang (2008), and Tammy McLeod (2009).[39] In the most recent event, the third place finalist in the advanced division, Eugene Varshavsky, performed quite poorly onstage after setting a very fast qualifying time on paper, which caught the attention of organizers and
Sudoku competitors including past champion Thomas Snyder who requested organizers reconsider his results due to a suspicion of cheating.[40] Following an investigation and a retest of Varshavsky, the organizers disqualified him and awarded Chris Narrikkattu third place.[41]
369
Notes
[1] Arnoldy, Ben. "Sudoku Strategies". The Home Forum (The Christian Science Monitor). [2] Schaschek, Sarah (March 22, 2006). "Sudoku champ's surprise victory" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20060813145953/ http:/ / www. praguepost. com/ P03/ 2006/ Art/ 0323/ news5. php). The Prague Post. Archived from the original (http:/ / www. praguepost. com/ P03/ 2006/ Art/ 0323/ news5. php) on August 13, 2006. . Retrieved February 18, 2009. [3] Lawler, E.L.; Jan Karel Lenstra, A.H.G. Rinnooy Kan, D.B. Shmoys (1985). The Traveling Salesman problem A Guided Tour of Combinatorial Optimization. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN0471904139. [4] Sudoku.name (http:/ / www. sudoku. name/ rules/ en) [5] Brian Hayes (2006). Unwed Numbers. 94. American Scientist. pp.1215. [6] So you thought Sudoku came from the Land of the Rising Sun ... (http:/ / www. guardian. co. uk/ media/ 2005/ may/ 15/ pressandpublishing. usnews) The puzzle gripping the nation actually began at a small New York magazine by David Smith The Observer, Sunday May 15, 2005 Accessed June 13, 2008 [7] Boyer, Christian (May 2006). "Supplment de larticle Les anctres franais du sudoku " (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20061210103525/ http:/ / cboyer. club. fr/ multimagie/ SupplAncetresSudoku. pdf) (PDF). Pour la Science: 16. Archived from the original (http:/ / cboyer. club. fr/ multimagie/ SupplAncetresSudoku. pdf) on December 10, 2006. . Retrieved 3 August 2009. [8] Boyer, Christian (2007). "Sudoku's French ancestors" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20071010081626/ http:/ / cboyer. club. fr/ multimagie/ English/ SudokuAncestors. htm). Archived from the original (http:/ / cboyer. club. fr/ multimagie/ / English/ SudokuAncestors. htm) on October 10, 2007. . Retrieved 3 August 2009. [9] Malvern, Jack (2006-06-03). "Les fiendish French beat us to Su Doku" (http:/ / www. timesonline. co. uk/ article/ 0,,2-2208881,00. html). Times Online (London). . Retrieved 2006-09-16. [10] Pegg, Ed, Jr. (2005-09-15). "Ed Pegg Jr.'s Math Games: Sudoku Variations" (http:/ / www. maa. org/ editorial/ mathgames/ mathgames_09_05_05. html). MAA Online. The Mathematical Association of America. . Retrieved October 3, 2006. [11] Eisenhauer, William (2010). Sudoku-zilla. CreateSpace. pp.220. ISBN978-1-45-151049-2. [12] http:/ / www. photosudoku. com [13] "www.janko.at" (http:/ / www. janko. at/ Raetsel/ Zahlenraetsel. htm). . [14] Berthier, Denis (2007). The Hidden Logic of Sudoku (http:/ / books. google. be/ books?id=ME9oJwAACAAJ). LULU PR. p.76. ISBN1847534724. . (Citation taken from p.76: "any block-free resolution rule is already valid in the theory of Latin Squares extended to candidates"which is restated more explicitly in the second edition, p.86, as: "a block-free formula is valid for Sudoku if and only if it is valid for Latin Squares"). [15] Jarvis, Frazer (2006-07-31). "Sudoku enumeration problems" (http:/ / www. afjarvis. staff. shef. ac. uk/ sudoku/ ). Frazer Jarvis's home page. . Retrieved September 16, 2006. Detailed calculation of this figure. [16] Jarvis, Frazer; Ed Russell (2005-09-07). "There are 5472730538 essentially different Sudoku grids ... and the Sudoku symmetry group" (http:/ / www. afjarvis. staff. shef. ac. uk/ sudoku/ sudgroup. html). Frazer Jarvis's home page. . Retrieved September 16, 2006. [17] G. McGuire, B. Tugemann, G. Civario. There is no 16-Clue Sudoku: Solving the Sudoku Minimum Number of Clues Problem (http:/ / arxiv. org/ abs/ 1201. 0749). [18] " " (http:/ / www2. ic-net. or. jp/ ~takaken/ auto/ guest/ bbs46. html) (in Japanese). / Programming Puzzle Idle Talk Corner. . Retrieved September 16, 2006. [19] Royle, Gordon. "Minimum Sudoku" (http:/ / www. csse. uwa. edu. au/ ~gordon/ sudokumin. php). . Retrieved September 16, 2006. [20] Paul K. Newton and Stephen A. DeSalvo. The Shannon entropy of Sudoku matrices Proceedings of the Royal Society A. doi: 10.1098/rspa.2009.0522. [21] Timesonline.co.uk (http:/ / www. timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ comment/ letters/ article390381. ece) [22] "G2, home of the discerning Sudoku addict" (http:/ / www. guardian. co. uk/ g2/ story/ 0,,1482817,00. html). The Guardian (London: Guardian Newspapers Limited). 2005-05-13. . Retrieved 2006-09-16. [23] Correction attached to "Inside Japan's Puzzle Palace" (http:/ / www. nytimes. com/ 2007/ 03/ 21/ business/ worldbusiness/ 21sudoku. html?pagewanted=2& _r=1& sq& st=cse"Conway Daily Sun& scp=1" 2004 gould), New York Times, March 21, 2007 [24] "Sudoku the song, by Peter Levy" (http:/ / www. sudoku. org. uk/ news. htm). Sudoku.org.uk. 2006-08-17. . Retrieved 2008-10-05. [25] "Hit Song Has the Numbers" (http:/ / www. news. com. au/ heraldsun/ story/ 0,21985,20152238-28957,00. html). The Herald Sun. 2006-08-17. . Retrieved 2008-10-05. [26] Gamerankings.com (http:/ / www. gamerankings. com/ htmlpages2/ 931667. asp) [27] Gamespot.com (http:/ / www. gamespot. com/ ds/ puzzle/ brainagetrainyourbraininminutesaday/ review. html) [28] IGN.com (http:/ / ds. ign. com/ articles/ 702/ 702057p1. html) [29] Gamespot.com (http:/ / www. gamespot. com/ news/ 6160557. html)
Sudoku
[30] Knox, Malcolm (2008-06-11). "The game's up: jurors playing Sudoku abort trial" (http:/ / www. smh. com. au/ news/ national/ jurors-get-1-million-trial-aborted/ 2008/ 06/ 10/ 1212863636766. html). The Sydney Morning Herald. . Retrieved 2008-06-11. [31] "Sudoku title for Czech accountant" (http:/ / news. bbc. co. uk/ 1/ hi/ world/ europe/ 4797540. stm) (Free). BBC NEWS. 2006-03-11. . Retrieved 2006-09-11. [32] "World Sudoku Championship 2006 Instructions Booklet" (http:/ / news. bbc. co. uk/ 2/ shared/ bsp/ hi/ pdfs/ 10_03_06_sudoku. pdf) (PDF). BBC News. . Retrieved 2010-05-24. [33] "Report on the 8th General Assembly of the World Puzzle Federation" (http:/ / www. worldpuzzle. org/ championships/ 2006/ report. html) (Free). WPF. 2006-10-30. . Retrieved 2006-11-15. [34] "Thomas Snyder wins World Sudoku Championship" (http:/ / wpc. puzzles. com/ press/ index. htm#2007-2). US Puzzle Team. 2007-03-31. . Retrieved 2008-04-18. [35] Harvey, Michael (2008-04-17). "It's a puzzle but sun, sea and beer can't compete with Sudoku for British team" (http:/ / entertainment. timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ arts_and_entertainment/ games_and_puzzles/ article3761511. ece). TimesOnline (London). . Retrieved 2008-04-18. [36] Malvern, Jack (2009-04-27). "Su Doku battle goes a little off the wall" (http:/ / entertainment. timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ arts_and_entertainment/ games_and_puzzles/ sudoku/ article6175809. ece). TimesOnline (London). . Retrieved 2009-04-27. [37] "Pole, 23, repeats as Sudoku world champ" (http:/ / www. philly. com/ philly/ news/ local/ 92606119. html). PhillyInquirer. 2009-05-02. . Retrieved 2009-05-03. [38] "Thomas Snyder, World Sudoku champion" (http:/ / www. philly. com/ philly/ comics_games/ sudoku/ Thomas_Snyder__World_Sudoku_champion. html) (Free). Philadelphia Inquirer. 2007-10-21. . Retrieved 2007-10-21. [39] "Going for 2d, she wins 1st" (http:/ / www. philly. com/ philly/ news/ local/ 65922787. html) (Free). Philadelphia Inquirer. 2009-10-25. . Retrieved 2009-10-27. [40] "Possible cheating probed at Sudoku National Championship" (http:/ / www. philly. com/ inquirer/ local/ 20091027_Possible_cheating_probed_at_Sudoku_tournament. html) (Free). Philadelphia Inquirer. 2009-10-27. . Retrieved 2009-10-27. [41] "3rd-place winner disqualified in sudoku scandal" (http:/ / www. philly. com/ philly/ news/ local/ 20091124_3d-place_winner_disqualified_in_Sudoku_scandal. html) (Free). Philadelphia Inquirer. 2009-11-24. . Retrieved 2009-11-24.
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Further reading
Delahaye, Jean-Paul, "The Science Behind Sudoku" (http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~robins/ The_Science_Behind_SudoKu.pdf), Scientific American magazine, June 2006. Kim, Scott, "The Science of Sudoku" (http://www.scottkim.com/thinkinggames/exploratorium06/ the-science-of-sudoku.html), 2006 Provan, J. Scott, "Sudoku: Strategy Versus Structure", American Mathematical Monthly, October 2009. Published also as a University of North Carolina technical report UNC/STOR/08/04 (http://stat-or.unc.edu/research/ Current Reports/techpdf/TR_08_04.pdf), 2008.
External links
Sudoku (http://www.dmoz.org/Games/Puzzles/Brain_Teasers/Sudoku/) at the Open Directory Project An active listing of Sudoku links 'Father of Sudoku' puzzles next move (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/6745433.stm) (BBC)
Survo Puzzle
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Survo Puzzle
A Survo puzzle is a kind of logic puzzle presented (in April 2006) and studied by Seppo Mustonen.[1] The name of the puzzle is associated with Mustonen's Survo system, which is a general environment for statistical computing and related areas.[2] In a Survo puzzle, the task is to fill an m n table with integers 1, 2, ..., mn so that each of these numbers appears only once and their row and column sums are equal to integers given on the bottom and the right side of the table. Often some of the integers are given readily in the table in order to guarantee uniqueness of the solution and/or for making the task easier.[2] To some extent, Survo puzzles resemble Sudoku and Kakuro puzzles. However, numbers used in the solution are not restricted to 1, 2, ..., 9 and the size of puzzle grid is typically very small. Solving Survo puzzles is also related to making of magic squares.[3] The degree of difficulty in solving Survo puzzles is strongly varying. Easy puzzles, meant for school children, are pure exercises in addition and subtraction, while more demanding ones require also good logic reasoning. The hardest Survo puzzles cannot be solved without computers.[4] Certain properties of the Survo system like editorial computing and the COMB operation, making e.g. restricted integer partitions, support solving of Survo puzzles. Survo puzzles have been published regularly in Finland by Ilta-Sanomat and the scientific magazine of the University of Helsinki from September 2006. Solving of Survo puzzles was one of the three main topics in the national entrance examination of the Finnish universities in computer science (2009).[5]
Example
Here is a simple Survo puzzle with 3 rows and 4 columns:
A 1 2 3 8 3 27 16 10 25 B 6 C D 30 18 30
Numbers 3, 6, and 8 are readily given. The task is to put remaining numbers of 1-12 (34=12) to their places so that the sums are correct. The puzzle has a unique solution found stepwise as follows: The missing numbers are 1,2,4,5,7,9,10,11,12. Usually it is best to start from a row or a column with fewest missing numbers. In this case columns A, B, and C are such. Column A is not favorable since the sum 19 of missing numbers can be presented according to the rules in several ways (e.g. 19 = 7 + 12 = 12 + 7 = 9 + 10 = 10 + 9). In the column B the sum of missing numbers is 10 having only one partition 10 = 1 + 9 since the other alternatives 10 = 2 + 8 = 3 + 7 = 4 + 6 are not accepted due to numbers already present in the table. Number 9 cannot be put in the row 2 since then the sum of this row would exceed the value 18. Therefore the only choice is to start the solution by
Survo Puzzle
372
A 1 2 3 8
B 6 1 9
D 30 18
30
27 16 10 25
Now the column A has only one alternative 27 - 8 = 19 = 7 + 12 = 12 + 7. Number 7 cannot be in the row 1 because the sum of missing numbers in that row would be 30 - 7 - 6 = 17 and this allows no permitted partition. Thus we have
A 1 12 2 3 8 7 B 6 1 9 3 C D 30 18 30
27 16 10 25
implying that the last number in the last row will be 30 - 7 - 9 -3 = 11:
A 1 12 2 3 8 7 B 6 1 9 3 C D 30 18 11 30
27 16 10 25
In the first row the sum of the missing numbers is 30 - 12 - 6 = 12. Its only possible partition is 12 = 2 + 10 and so that number 2 will be in the column C; 10 in this position is too much for the column sum.
A 1 12 2 3 8 7 B 6 1 9 3 C 2 D 10 30 18 11 30
27 16 10 25
The solution is then easily completed as

A 1 12 2 3 8 7 B 6 1 9 C 2 5 3 D 10 30 4 18
11 30
27 16 10 25
Thus basic arithmetics and simple reasoning is enough for solving easy Survo puzzles like this one.
Survo Puzzle
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Properties of Survo puzzles

The rules of Survo puzzles are simpler than those of Sudoku. The grid is always rectangular or square and typically much smaller than in Sudoku and Kakuro. [6] The solving strategies are varying depending on the difficulty of the puzzle. following 2 3 case (degree of difficulty 0)
3 6 9 7 5 9 12 [6]
In their simplest form, as in the
Survo puzzles are suitable exercises in addition and subtraction. [6] The open 3 4 Survo puzzle (degree of difficulty 150)
24 15 39 21 10 18 29
where none of the numbers are readily given, is much harder. Also it has only one solution. The problem can be simplified by giving some of the numbers readily, for example, as
7 1 11 21 10 18 29 5 8 24 15 39
which makes the task almost trivial (degree of difficulty 0). [6]
Assessing degree of difficulty

Measuring the degree of difficulty is based on the number of 'mutations' needed by the first solver program made by Mustonen in April 2006. This program works by using a partially randomized algorithm. [7] The program starts by inserting the missing numbers randomly in the table and tries then to get the computed sums of rows and columns as close to the true ones as possible by exchanging elements in the table systematically. This trial leads either to a correct solution or (as in most cases) to dead end where the discrepancy between computed and true sums cannot be diminished systematically. In the latter case a 'mutation' is made by exchanging two or more numbers randomly. Thereafter the systematic procedure plus mutation is repeated until a true solution is found. In most cases, the mean number of mutations works as a crude measure for the level of difficulty of solving a Survo puzzle. This measure (MD) is computed as the mean number of mutations when the puzzle is solved 1000 times by starting from a randomized table. The distribution of the number of mutations comes close to a geometric distribution. These numeric values are often converted to a 5-star scale as follows: [8] MD
Survo Puzzle
374
0 - 30 31 - 150 151 - 600
* ** ***
601 - 1500 **** 1500 *****
The degree of difficulty given as an MD value is rather inaccurate and it may be even misleading when the solution is found by clever deductions or by creative guesswork. This measure works better when it is required that the solver also proves that the solution is unique.
Open Survo puzzles

A Survo puzzle is called open, if merely marginal sums are given. Two open m n puzzles are considered essentially different if one of them cannot converted to another by interchanging rows and columns or by transposing when m = n. In these puzzles the row and column sums are distinct. The number of essentially different and uniquely solvable m n Survo puzzles is denoted by S(m,n). [7] Reijo Sund was the first to pay attention to enumeration of open Survo puzzles. He calculated S(3,3)=38 by studying all 9! = 362880 possible 3 3 tables by the standard combinatorial and data handling program modules of Survo. Thereafter Mustonen found S(3,4)=583 by starting from all possible partitions of marginal sums and by using the first solver program. Petteri Kaski computed S(4,4)=5327 by converting the task into an exact cover problem. Mustonen made in Summer 2007 a new solver program which confirms the previous results. The following S(m,n) values have been determined by this new program: [9]
m/n 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 2 1 18 62 278 1146 3 18 38 583 4 62 583 5 278 6 1146 7 8 9 10
5706 28707 154587 843476
5337 55815 617658
5327 257773
5337 257773 55815
5706 617658 28707
9 154587 10 843476
Already computation of S(5,5) seems to be a very hard task on the basis of present knowledge.
Swapping method
The swapping method for solution of Survo puzzles has been created by combining the idea of the original solver program to the observation that the products of the marginal sums crudely indicate the positions of the correct numbers in the final solution. [10] The procedure is started by filling the original table by numbers 1,2,...,mn according to sizes of these products and by computing row and column sums according to this initial setup. Depending on how these sums deviate from the true sums, it is tried to improve the solution by swapping two numbers at a time. When using the swapping method the nature of solving Survo puzzles becomes somewhat similar to that of Chess problems. By this method it is hardly possible to verify the uniqueness of the solution.
Survo Puzzle For example, a rather demanding 4 4 puzzle (MD=2050)

51 36 32 17 51 42 26 17
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is solved by 5 swaps. The initial setup is

Sum OK error 16 15 10 14 12 13 11 7 5 9 6 2 8 4 3 1 49 39 33 15 51 36 32 17 -2 3 1 -2
Sum 50 43 27 16 OK 51 42 26 17 error -1 1 1 -1
and the solution is found by swaps (7,9) (10,12) (10,11) (15,16) (1,2). In the Survo system, a sucro /SP_SWAP takes care of bookkeeping needed in the swapping method.
Quick games
Solving of a hard Survo puzzle can take several hours. Solving Survo puzzles as quick games offers another kind of challenges. [4] The most demanding form of a quick game is available in the net as a Java applet. [11] In this quick game, open 5 5 puzzles are solved by selecting (or guessing) the numbers by mouse clicks. A wrong choice evokes a melodic musical interval. Its range and direction indicate the quality and the amount of the error. The target is to attain as high score as possible. The score grows by correct choices and it is decreased by wrong ones and by the time used for finding the final solution.
References
[1] Aitola, Kerttu (2006): "Survo on tll" ("Survo is here"). Yliopisto 54(12): 4445. [2] Mustonen, Seppo (2007): "Survo Crossings" (http:/ / www. csc. fi/ english/ csc/ publications/ cscnews/ back_issues/ cscnews1_2007). CSCnews 1/2007: 3032. [3] Vehkalahti, Kimmo (2007): "Some comments on magic squares and Survo puzzles" (http:/ / www. helsinki. fi/ ~kvehkala/ Kimmo_Vehkalahti_Windsor. pdf). The 16th International Workshop on Matrices and Statistics, University of Windsor, Canada, June 13, 2007. [4] Mustonen, Seppo (2007): "On Survo cross sum puzzles" (http:/ / mtl. uta. fi/ tilastopaivat2007/ abstracts/ Mustonen. pdf). In J. Niemel, S. Puntanen, and E. P. Liski (eds.) Abstracts of the Annual Conference of Finnish Statisticians 2007, "Multivariate Methods", pp. 2326. Dept. of Mathematics, Statistics and Philosophy, University of Tampere. ISBN 978-951-44-6957-2. [5] "Tietojenksittelytieteen yhteisvalinta 22.5.2009, Tehtv 3: Survo-ristikko" (http:/ / www. tkt-yhteisvalinta. fi/ valintakoe2009/ tkt09_Tehtava3. pdf). ("National entrance examination in computer science, May 22nd 2009, Exercise 3: Survo Puzzle"). [6] Mustonen, Seppo (2006): "Survo-ristikot" (http:/ / solmu. math. helsinki. fi/ 2006/ 3/ ) ("Survo puzzles"). Solmu 3/2006: 2223. [7] Mustonen, Seppo (2006-06-02): On certain cross sum puzzles (http:/ / www. survo. fi/ papers/ puzzles. pdf). Retrieved on 2009-08-30. [8] Mustonen, Seppo (2006-09-26): Survo-ristikon vaikeuden arviointi (http:/ / www. survo. fi/ ristikot/ vaikeusarvio. html) (Evaluating the degree of difficulty of a Survo Puzzle). Retrieved on 2009-08-30. [9] Mustonen, Seppo (2007-10-30): Enumeration of uniquely solvable open Survo puzzles (http:/ / www. survo. fi/ papers/ enum_survo_puzzles. pdf). Retrieved on 2009-08-30. [10] Mustonen, Seppo (2007-07-09): On the swapping method (http:/ / www. survo. fi/ puzzles/ swapm. html). Retrieved on 2009-08-30.
Survo Puzzle
[11] Survo Puzzle (5x5 quick game) as a Java applet (http:/ / www. survo. fi/ java/ quick5x5. html). Retrieved on 2009-08-30.
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External links
Survo Puzzles (http://www.survo.fi/puzzles/): Problems and solutions
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Paper folding
Flexagon
In geometry, flexagons are flat models, usually constructed by folding strips of paper, that can be flexed or folded in certain ways to reveal faces besides the two that were originally on the back and front. Flexagons are usually square or rectangular (tetraflexagons) or hexagonal (hexaflexagons). A prefix can be added to the name to indicate the number of faces that the model can display, including the two faces (back and front) that are visible before flexing. For example, a hexaflexagon with a total of six faces is called a hexahexaflexagon. In hexaflexagon theory (that is, concerning flexagons with six sides), flexagons are usually defined in terms of pats.[1][2] Two flexagons are equivalent if one can be transformed to the other by a series of pinches and rotations. Flexagon equivalence is an equivalence relation.[1]
History
Discovery and introduction
The discovery of the first flexagon, a trihexaflexagon, is credited to the British student Arthur H. Stone who was studying at Princeton University in the USA in 1939, allegedly while he was playing with the strips he had cut off his foolscap paper to convert it to letter size. Stone's colleagues Bryant Tuckerman, Richard P. Feynman and John W. Tukey became interested in the idea and formed the Princeton Flexagon Committee. Tuckerman worked out a topological method, called the Tuckerman traverse, for revealing all the faces of a flexagon.[3] Flexagons were introduced to the general public by the recreational mathematician Martin Gardner, writing in 1956 in his inaugural "Mathematical Games" column for Scientific American magazine.[4]
Attempted commercial development

In 1955, Russell Rogers and Leonard D'Andrea of Homestead Park, Pennsylvania applied for, and in 1959 were granted, U.S. Patent #2,883,195 for the hexahexaflexagon, under the title "Changeable Amusement Devices and the Like." The patent imagined possible applications of the device "as a toy, as an advertising display device, or as an educational geometric device."[5] A few such novelties were produced by the Herbick & Held Printing Company, the Pittsburgh printing firm where Rogers worked. But the device, marketed as the "Hexmo", failed to catch on commercially.
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Varieties
Tetraflexagons
Tritetraflexagon The tritetraflexagon is the simplest tetraflexagon (flexagon with square sides). The "tri" in the name means it has three faces, two of which are visible at any given time if the flexagon is pressed flat. It is folded from a strip of six squares of paper like this: To fold this shape into a tritetraflexagon, first crease each line between two squares. Then fold the mountain fold away from you and the valley fold towards you, and add a small piece of tape like this
This figure has two faces visible, built of squares marked with "A"s and "B"s. The face of "C"s is hidden inside the flexagon. To reveal it, fold the flexagon flat and then unfold it, like this
The construction of the tritetraflexagon is similar to the mechanism used in the traditional Jacob's Ladder children's toy, in Rubik's Magic and in the magic wallet trick or the Himber wallet. Cyclic hexa-tetraflexagon A more complicated cyclic hexatetraflexagon doesn't require any gluing. To make it, take a square piece of paper and fold it twice vertically and horizontally to measure it into a 4 by 4 grid. Cut a square hole in the middle by removing 2 by 2 cell area. Make sure all edges are straight. Fold the sides to the middle. [6] Cyclic hexatetraflexagon doesn't have "dead ends" but you can keep folding it until you reach the starting position. If your colour the sides as you go, you can see the states more clearly.
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Hexaflexagons
Hexaflexagons come in great variety, distinguished by the number of faces that can be achieved by flexing the assembled figure. Trihexaflexagon A hexaflexagon with three faces. While this is the simplest of the hexaflexagons to make and to manage, it is a very satisfying place to begin. It is made from a single strip of paper, divided into ten equilateral triangles. Patterns are available at The Flexagon Portal [7] . It is possible to automatically section and correctly place photographs (or drawings) of your own selection onto Trihexaflexagons using the simple program Foto-TriHexaFlexagon [8]. Hexahexaflexagon This hexaflexagon has six faces.
Make a mountain fold between the first 2 and the first 3. Continue folding in a spiral fashion, for a total of nine folds. You now have a straight strip with ten triangles on each side. There are two places where 3's are next to each other; fold in both these places so as to hide the 3's, forming a hexagon with a triangular tab sticking out. Lift one end of the hexagon around the other so that the 3's near the ends are touching each other. Fold the tab over to cover the blank triangle on the other side, and glue it to the blank triangle. One side of the hexagon should be all 1's, one side should be all 2's, and all the 3's should hidden. Photos 1-6 below show the construction of a hexaflexagon made out of cardboard triangles on a backing made from a strip of cloth. It has been decorated in six colors; orange, blue, and red in figure 1 correspond to 1, 2, and 3 in the diagram above. The opposite side, figure 2, is decorated with purple, gray, and yellow. Note the different patterns used for the colors on the two sides. Figure 3 shows the first fold, and figure 4 the result of the first nine folds, which form a spiral. Figures 5-6 show the final folding of the spiral to make a hexagon; in 5, two red faces have been hidden by a valley fold, and in 6, two red faces on the bottom side have been hidden by a mountain fold. After figure 6, the final loose triangle is folded over and attached to the other end of the original strip so that one side is all blue, and the other all orange.
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Photos 7 and 8 show the process of everting the hexaflexagon to show the formerly hidden red triangles. By further manipulations, all six colors can be exposed. Faces 1, 2, and 3 are easier to find while faces 4, 5, and 6 are more difficult to find. An easy way to expose all six faces is using the Tuckerman traverse. It's named after Bryant Tuckerman, one of the first to investigate the properties of hexaflexagons. The Tuckerman traverse involves the repeated flexing by pinching one corner and flex from exactly the same corner every time. If the corner refuses to open, move to an adjacent corner and keep flexing. This procedure brings you to a 12-face cycle. During this procedure, however, 1, 2, and 3 show up three times as frequently as 4, 5, and 6. The cycle proceeds as follows: 1-3-6-1-3-2-4-3-2-1-5-2 And then back to 1 again. Each color/face can also be exposed in more than one way. In figure 6, for example, each blue triangle has at the center its corner decorated with a wedge, but it is also possible, for example, to make the ones decorated with Y's come to the center. There are 18 such possible configurations for triangles with different colors, and they can be seen by flexing the hexahexaflexagon in all possible ways in theory, but only 15 can be flexed by the ordinary hexahexaflexagon. The 3 extra configurations are impossible due to the arrangement of the 4, 5, and 6 tiles at the back flap. (The 60-degree angles in the rhombi formed by the adjacent 4, 5, or 6 tiles will only appear on the sides and never will appear at the center because it would require one to cut the strip, which is topologically forbidden.) The one shown is not the only hexahexaflexagon. Others can be constructed from different shaped nets of eighteen equilateral triangles. One hexahexaflexagon, constructed from an irregular paper strip, is almost identical to the one shown above, except that all 18 configurations can be flexed on this version.
Flexagon Other hexaflexagons While the most commonly seen hexaflexagons have either three or six faces, variations exist with four, five, and seven faces. Nets for these can be found at the flexagon.net [9] website.
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Higher order flexagons

Right octaflexagon and right dodecaflexagon In these more recently discovered flexagons, each square or equilateral triangular face of a conventional flexagon is further divided into two right triangles, permitting additional flexing modes ([10]). The division of the square faces of tetraflexagons into right isosceles triangles yields the octaflexagons ([11]), and the division of the triangular faces of the hexaflexagons into 30-60-90 right triangles yields the dodecaflexagons ([12]). Pentaflexagon and right decaflexagon In its flat state, the pentaflexagon looks much like the Chrysler logo: a regular pentagon divided from the center into five isosceles triangles, with angles 72-54-54. Because of its fivefold symmetry, the pentaflexagon cannot be folded in half. However, a complex series of flexes results in its transformation from displaying sides 1 and 2 on the front and back, to displaying its previously hidden sides 3 and 4. [13] By further dividing the 72-54-54 triangles of the pentaflexagon into 36-54-90 right triangles produces one variation of the 10-sided decaflexagon ([14]). Generalized isosceles n-flexagon The pentaflexagon (described above) is one of an infinite sequence of flexagons based on dividing a regular n-gon into n isosceles triangles. There is the heptaflexagon ([15]), the isosceles octaflexagon ([16]), enneaflexagon ([17]), and on and on... Nonplanar pentaflexagon and nonplanar heptaflexagon Harold V. McIntosh also describes "nonplanar" (i.e., they can't be flexed so they lie flat) flexagons; ones folded from pentagons called pentaflexagons [18], and from heptagons called heptaflexagons [19]. These should be distinguished from the "ordinary" penta- and heptaflexagons described above, which are made out of isosceles triangles, and can be made to lie flat.
Bibliography
Mitchell, David (2000). The Magic of Flexagons - Folding curiosities to cut out and make. Tarquin. ISBN1899618287. Pook, Les (2009). Serious Fun with Flexagons, A Compendium and Guide. Springer. ISBN9048125022. Pook, Les, Flexagons Inside Out, Cambridge University Press (2006), ISBN 0-521-81970-9 [20] Martin Gardner has written an excellent introduction to hexaflexagons in one of his Mathematical Games column in Scientific American. It also appears in: The "Scientific American" Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions (Simon & Schuster, 1959). Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions: The First "Scientific American" Book of Puzzles and Games (University of Chicago Press, 1988; ISBN 0226282546) The Colossal Book of Mathematics (W.W. Norton & co., 2001; ISBN 0393020231) Hexaflexagons, Probability Paradoxes, and the Tower of Hanoi: Martin Gardner's First Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Games (Cambridge University Press, 2008; ISBN 0521735254)
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References
[1] Oakley, C. O.; Wisner, R. J. (March 1957), "Flexagons", The American Mathematical Monthly (Mathematical Association of America) 64 (3): 143154, JSTOR2310544 [2] Anderson, Thomas; McLean, T. Bruce; Pajoohesh, Homeira; Smith, Chasen (January 2010), "The combinatorics of all regular flexagons" (http:/ / www. sciencedirect. com/ science/ article/ B6WDY-4W5VD4F-1/ 2/ e1d94639a2f71f509b049f8ab6480cb7), European Journal of Combinatorics 31 (1): 7280, ISSN0195-6698, [3] Gardner, Martin (1988). Hexaflexagons and Other Mathematical Diversions: The First Scientific American Book of Puzzles and Games. University of Chicago Press. ISBN0226282546. [4] Jrgen Kller. "Flexagons" (http:/ / www. mathematische-basteleien. de/ flexagons. htm). . Retrieved 23 September 2009. [5] RE Rogers et al. (April 21, 1959). "Patent 2,883,195: Changeable Amusement Devices And The Like" (http:/ / www. freepatentsonline. com/ 2883195. pdf). . Retrieved January 13, 2011. [6] Graphical instructions (http:/ / www. mathematische-basteleien. de/ tetraflexagons. htm#Cyclic Hexatetraflexagon) [7] http:/ / www. flexagon. net/ [8] http:/ / britton. disted. camosun. bc. ca/ fotothf/ fotothf. htm [9] http:/ / www. flexagon. net [10] http:/ / www. eighthsquare. com/ 12-gon. html [11] http:/ / loki3. com/ flex/ octa. html [12] http:/ / loki3. com/ flex/ dodeca. html [13] http:/ / loki3. com/ flex/ penta. html [14] http:/ / loki3. com/ flex/ deca. html [15] http:/ / loki3. com/ flex/ hepta. html [16] [17] [18] [19] [20] http:/ / loki3. com/ flex/ octa. html#iso http:/ / loki3. com/ flex/ ennea. html#iso http:/ / delta. cs. cinvestav. mx/ ~mcintosh/ comun/ pentags/ pentags. html http:/ / delta. cs. cinvestav. mx/ ~mcintosh/ comun/ heptagon/ heptagon. html http:/ / www. cambridge. org/ catalogue/ catalogue. asp?isbn=0521819709
External links
Flexagons: My Flexagon Experiences (http://delta.cs.cinvestav.mx/~mcintosh/comun/fxgonw/fxgon.html) by Harold V. McIntosh contains valuable historical information and theory; the author's site has several flexagon related papers listed in (http://delta.cs.cinvestav.mx/~mcintosh/oldweb/pflexagon.html) and even boasts some flexagon videos in (http://delta.cs.cinvestav.mx/~mcintosh/videos/hexaflexagonos/videosflexa.html). The Flexagon Portal (http://www.flexagon.net/) Robin Moseley's site has patterns for a large variety of flexagons. Flexagons (http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/flexagons.htm) is a good introduction, including a large number of links. Flexagons (http://loki3.com/flex/) Scott Sherman's site, with a bewildering array of flexagons of different shapes. Tetraflexagons: MathWorld's page on tetraflexagons (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Tetraflexagon.html), including three nets Folding User Interfaces (http://droppingmadscience.blogspot.com/2007/02/nalu.html) - A mobile phone design concept based on a tetraflexagon; Folding the design gives access to different user interfaces. Flexifier (http://lab.satyr.nl/flex) - a simple online tetraflexagon generator Instructions for making cyclic hexa-tetraflexagon from just one piece of paper. (http://www.metacafe.com/ watch/1007181/the_best_of_paper_toy_just_one_piece_of_paper_no_glue_6_face/) Hexaflexagons: Flexagons (http://theory.lcs.mit.edu/~edemaine/flexagons/Conrad-Hartline-1962/flexagon.html) 1962 paper by Antony S. Conrad and Daniel K. Hartline (RIAS) MathWorld entry on Hexaflexagons (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Hexaflexagon.html)
Flexagon Hexaflexagon Toolkit (http://hexaflexagon.sourceforge.net) software for printing flexagons from your own pictures Hexaflexagons (http://www.coe.ufrj.br/~acmq/hexaflexagons/) a catalog compiled by Antonio Carlos M. de Queiroz (c.1973). Includes a program named HexaFind that finds all the possible Tuckerman traverses for given orders of hexaflexagons. Crochet hexaflexagon cushion (http://www.woollythoughts.com/foldingcushions.html)
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Map folding
In combinatorial mathematics the map folding problem is the question of how many ways there are to fold a rectangular map along its creases. A related problem called the stamp folding problem is how many ways there are to fold a strip of stamps.[1] For example, there are six ways to fold a strip of three different stamps:
And there are eight ways to fold a 22 map along its creases:
The problem is related to a problem in the mathematics of origami of whether a square with a crease pattern can be folded to a flat figure. Some simple extensions to the problem of folding a map are NP-complete.[2]
References
[1] Weisstein, Eric W., " Map Folding (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ MapFolding. html)" from MathWorld. [2] Esther M. Arkin, Michael A. Bender, Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Joseph S. B. Mitchell, Saurabh Sethia, Steven S. Skiena (September 2004). "When Can You Fold a Map?" (http:/ / erikdemaine. org/ papers/ MapFolding/ paper. pdf). Computational Geometry: Theory and Applications 29 (1): pp. 2346. .
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The art of origami or paper folding has received a considerable amount of mathematical study. Fields of interest include a given paper model's flat-foldability (whether the model can be flattened without damaging it) and the use of paper folds to solve mathematical equations.
History
In 1893 T. Sundara Rao published "Geometric Exercises in Paper Folding" which used paper folding to demonstrate proofs of geometrical constructions.[1] This work was inspired by the use of origami in the kindergarten system. This book had an approximate trisection of angles and implied construction of a cube root was impossible. In 1936 Margharita P. Beloch showed that use of the 'Beloch fold', later used in the sixth of the HuzitaHatori axioms, allowed the general cubic to be solved using origami.[2] In 1949 R C Yeates' book "Geometric Methods" described three allowed constructions corresponding to the first, second, and fifth of the HuzitaHatori axioms.[3][4] The axioms were discovered by Jacques Justin in 1989.[5] but overlooked till the first six were rediscovered by Humiaki Huzita in 1991. The 1st International Meeting of Origami Science and Technology (now International Conference on Origami in Science, Math, and Education) was held in 1989 in Ferrara, Italy.
Pure origami
Flat folding
The construction of origami models is sometimes shown as crease patterns. The major question about such crease patterns is whether a given crease pattern can be folded to a flat model, and if so, how to fold them; this is an NP-complete problem.[6] Related problems when the creases are orthogonal are called map folding problems. There are four mathematical rules for producing flat-foldable origami crease patterns:[7] 1. crease patterns are two colorable 2. Maekawa's theorem: at any vertex the number of valley and mountain folds always differ by two in either direction 3. Kawasaki's theorem: at any vertex, the sum of all the odd angles adds up to 180 degrees, as do the even. 4. a sheet can never penetrate a fold. Paper exhibits zero Gaussian curvature at all points on its surface, and only folds naturally along lines of zero curvature. Curved surfaces which can't be flattened can be produced using a non-folded crease in the paper, as is easily done with wet paper or a fingernail. Assigning a crease pattern mountain and valley folds in order to produce a flat model has been proven by Marshall Bern and Barry Hayes to be NP complete.[8] Further references and technical results are discussed in Part II of Geometric Folding Algorithms.[9]
Mountain-valley counting.
Two-colorability.
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HuzitaHatori axioms
Some classical construction problems of geometry namely trisecting an arbitrary angle, or doubling the cube are proven to be unsolvable using compass and straightedge, but can be solved using only a few paper folds.[10] Paper fold strips can be constructed to solve equations up to degree 4. The HuzitaHatori axioms are an important contribution to this field of study. These describe what can be constructed using a sequence of creases with at most two point or line alignments at once. Complete methods for solving all equations up to degree 4 by applying methods satisfying these axioms are discussed in detail in Geometric Origami.[11]
Angles around a vertex.
Constructions
As a result of origami study through the application of geometric principles, methods such as Haga's theorem have allowed paperfolders to accurately fold the side of a square into thirds, fifths, sevenths, and ninths. Other theorems and methods have allowed paperfolders to get other shapes from a square, such as equilateral triangles, pentagons, hexagons, and special rectangles such as the golden rectangle and the silver rectangle. Methods for folding most regular polygons up to and including the regular 19-gon have been developed.[11]
Haga's theorems
The side of a square can be divided at an arbitrary rational fraction in a variety of ways. Haga's theorems say that a particular set of constructions can be used for such divisions.[12] Surprisingly few folds are necessary to generate large odd fractions. For instance 15 can be generated with three folds; first halve a side, then use Haga's theorem twice to produce first 23 and then 15. The accompanying diagram shows Haga's first theorem:
The function changing the length AP to QC is self inverse. Let x be AP then a number of other lengths are also rational functions of x. For example:
BQ is always a rational if AP is.
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Haga's first theorem

AP BQ QC AR PQ
2 3 3 5
3 2 5 3
3 2 5 3
8 9
6 6 15 15
18 25
13
12
13
Doubling the cube

The classical problem of doubling the cube can be solved by first creasing a square of paper into three equal strips as shown in the diagram. Then the bottom edge is positioned so the corner point P is on the top edge and the crease mark on the edge meets the other crease mark Q. The length PB will then be the cube root of 2 times the length of AP.[13] The edge with the crease mark is considered a marked straightedge, something which is not allowed in compass and straightedge constructions. Using a marked straightedge in this way is called a neusis construction in geometry.
Doubling the cube: PB/PA = cube root of 2
Trisecting an angle
Angle trisection is another of the classical problems that cannot be solved using a compass and unmarked ruler but can be solved using origami. The angle CAB is trisected by making folds PP' and QQ' parallel to the base with QQ' halfway in between. Then point P is folded over to lie on line AC and at the same time point A is made to lie on line QQ' at A'. The angle A'AB is one third of the original angle CAB. This is because PAQ, A'AQ and A'AR are three identical triangles. Aligning the two points on the two lines is another neusis construction as in the solution to doubling the cube.[14]
Related problems
Trisecting the angle CAB
The problem of rigid origami, treating the folds as hinges joining two flat, rigid surfaces, such as sheet metal, has great practical importance. For example, the Miura map fold is a rigid fold that has been used to deploy large solar panel arrays for space satellites. The napkin folding problem is the problem of whether a square or rectangle of paper can be folded so the perimeter of the flat figure is greater than that of the original square.
Mathematics of paper folding Curved origami also poses a (very different) set of mathematical challenges.[15] Curved origami allows the paper to form developable surfaces that are not flat. Wet-folding origami allows an even greater range of shapes. The maximum number of times an incompressible material can be folded has been derived. With each fold a certain amount of paper is lost to potential folding. The loss function for folding paper in half in a single direction was given to be , where L is the minimum length of the paper (or other material), t is the material's thickness, and n is the number of folds possible. The distances L and t must be expressed in the same units, such as inches. This function was derived by Britney Gallivan in 2001 (then only a high school student) who then folded a sheet of paper in half 12 times, contrary to the popular belief that paper of any size could be folded at most eight times. She also derived the equation for folding in alternate directions.[16] The fold-and-cut problem asks what shapes can be obtained by folding a piece of paper flat, and making a single straight complete cut. The solution, known as the Fold and Cut Theorem, states that any shape with straight sides can be obtained.
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Notes
[1] T. Sundara Rao (1893). Geometric Exercises in Paper Folding (http:/ / name. umdl. umich. edu/ ACV5060. 0001. 001). Addison. . [2] Thomas C. Hull (April 2011). "Solving Cubics With Creases: The Work of Beloch and Lill" (http:/ / mars. wne. edu/ ~thull/ papers/ amer. math. monthly. 118. 04. 307-hull. pdf). American Mathematical Monthly: 307315. doi:10.4169/amer.math.monthly.118.04.307. . [3] George Edward Martin (1997). Geometric constructions. Springer. p.145. ISBN978-0387982762. [4] Robert Carl Yeates (1949). Geometric Tools. Louisiana State University. [5] Justin, Jacques, "Resolution par le pliage de l'equation du troisieme degre et applications geometriques", reprinted in Proceedings of the First International Meeting of Origami Science and Technology, H. Huzita ed. (1989), pp. 251261. [6] Thomas C. Hull (2002). "The Combinatorics of Flat Folds: a Survey" (http:/ / kahuna. merrimack. edu/ ~thull/ papers/ flatsurvey. pdf). The Proceedings of the Third International Meeting of Origami Science, Mathematics, and Education. AK Peters. ISBN9781568811819. . [7] "Robert Lang folds way-new origami" (http:/ / www. ted. com/ index. php/ talks/ robert_lang_folds_way_new_origami. html). . [8] The Complexity of Flat Origami (http:/ / citeseer. ist. psu. edu/ bern96complexity. html) [9] Demaine, Erik; O'Rourke, Joseph (July 2007). Geometric Folding Algorithms: Linkages, Origami, Polyhedra (http:/ / www. gfalop. org). Cambridge University Press. ISBN978-0-521-85757-4. [10] Tom Hull. "Origami and Geometric Constructions" (http:/ / mars. wnec. edu/ ~thull/ omfiles/ geoconst. html). . [11] Geretschlger, Robert (2008). Geometric Origami (http:/ / www. arbelos. co. uk/ GeometricOrigami. html). UK: Arbelos. ISBN978-0-9555477-1-3. . [12] Koshiro. "How to Divide the Side of Square Paper" (http:/ / origami. gr. jp/ Archives/ People/ CAGE_/ divide/ 02-e. html). Japan Origami Academic Society. . [13] Peter Messer (1986). "Problem 1054". Crux Mathematicorum 12 (10): pp. 284285.. [14] Michael J Winckler; Kathrin D Wold; Hans Georg Bock (2011). "Hands-On Geometry with Origami". Origami 5. CRC Press. p.225. ISBN9781568817149. [15] Siggraph: "Curved Origami" (http:/ / www. siggraph. org/ s2008/ attendees/ design/ 22. php) [16] Weisstein, Eric W., " Folding (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Folding. html)" from MathWorld.
Further reading
Robert J. Lang (2003). Origami Design Secrets: Mathematical Methods for an Ancient Art. A K Peters. ISBN1568811942. Haga, Kazuo (2008). Fonacier, Josefina C; Isoda, Masami. eds. Origamics: Mathematical Explorations Through Paper Folding. University of Tsukuba, Japan: World Scientific Publishing. ISBN978-9812834904
External links
Dr. Tom Hull. "Origami Mathematics Page" (http://mars.wnec.edu/~th297133/origamimath.html) Paper Folding Geometry (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/PaperFolding/index.shtml) at cut-the-knot Dividing a Segment into Equal Parts by Paper Folding (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/pythagoras/PaperFolding/ SegmentDivision.shtml) at cut-the-knot
Mathematics of paper folding Britney Gallivan has solved the Paper Folding Problem (http://pomonahistorical.org/12times.htm)
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Origami
Origami ( , from ori meaning "folding", and kami meaning "paper"; kami changes to gami due to rendaku) is the traditional Japanese art of paper folding, which started in the 17th century AD at the latest and was popularized outside of Japan in the mid-1900s. It has since then evolved into a modern art form. The goal of this art is to transform a flat sheet of material into a finished sculpture through folding and sculpting techniques, and as such the use of cuts or glue are not considered to be origami. Paper cutting and gluing is usually considered kirigami. The number of basic origami folds is small, but they can be combined in a variety of ways to make intricate designs. The best known origami model is probably the Japanese paper crane. In general, these designs begin with a square sheet of paper whose sides may be different colors or prints. Traditional Japanese origami, which has been practiced since the Edo era (16031867), has often been less strict about these conventions, sometimes cutting the paper or using nonsquare shapes to start with. The principles of origami are also being used in stents, packaging and other engineering structures.[1]
The folding of an Origami crane
Origami cranes
History
There is much speculation about the origin of Origami. While Japan seems to have had the most extensive tradition, there is evidence of an independent tradition of paperfolding in China, as well as in Germany, Italy and Spain among other places. However, because of the problems associated with preserving origami, there is very little direct evidence of its age or origins, aside from references in published material. In China, traditional funerals include burning folded paper, most often Swan by Akira Yoshizawa, the father of modern representations of gold nuggets (yuanbao). It is not known when this origami techniques. practice started, but it seems to have become popular during the Sung Dynasty (9051125 CE).[2] The paper folding has typically been of objects like dishes, hats or boats rather than animals or flowers.[3]
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The earliest evidence of paperfolding in Europe is a picture of a small paper boat in Tractatus de sphaera mundi from 1490. There is also evidence of a cut and folded paper box from 1440.[4] It is probable paperfolding in the west originated with the Moors much earlier,[5] it is not known if it was independently discovered or knowledge of origami came along the silk route. In Japan, the earliest unambiguous reference to a paper model is in a short poem by Ihara Saikaku in 1680 which describes paper butterflies in a dream.[6] Origami butterflies were used during the celebration of Shinto weddings to represent the bride and groom, so paperfolding had already become a significant aspect of Japanese ceremony by the Heian period (7941185) of Japanese history, enough that the reference in this poem would be recognized. Samurai warriors would exchange gifts adorned with noshi, a sort of good luck token made of folded strips of paper.
In the early 1900s, Akira Yoshizawa, Kosho Uchiyama, and others began creating and recording original origami works. Akira Yoshizawa in particular was responsible for a number of innovations, such as wet-folding and the Yoshizawa-Randlett diagramming system, and his work inspired a renaissance of the art form.[7] During the 1980s a number of folders started systematically studying the mathematical properties of folded forms, which led to a steady increase in the complexity of origami models, which continued well into the 1990s, after which some designers started returning to simpler forms.[8]
Japanese school children dedicate their contribution of Thousand origami cranes at the Sadako Sasaki memorial in Hiroshima.
Techniques and materials

Techniques
Many origami books begin with a description of basic origami techniques which are used to construct the models. These include simple diagrams of basic folds like valley and mountain folds, pleats, reverse folds, squash folds, and sinks. There are also standard named bases which are used in a wide variety of models, for instance the bird base is an intermediate stage in the construction of the flapping bird.[9]
Origami paper
Almost any laminar material can be used for folding; the only requirement is that it should hold a crease. Origami paper, often referred to as "kami" (Japanese for paper), is sold in prepackaged squares of various sizes ranging from 2.5cm to 25cm or more. It is commonly colored on one side and white on the other; however, dual coloured and patterned versions exist and can be used effectively for color-changed models. Origami paper weighs slightly less than copy paper, making it suitable for a wider range of models.
crane and papers of the same size used to fold it
Normal copy paper with weights of 7090 g/m2 can be used for simple folds, such as the crane and waterbomb. Heavier weight papers of (1924&nb 100 g/m2 (approx. 25lb) or more can be wet-folded. This technique allows for a more rounded sculpting of the model, which becomes rigid and sturdy when it is dry.
Origami Foil-backed paper, just as its name implies, is a sheet of thin foil glued to a sheet of thin paper. Related to this is tissue foil, which is made by gluing a thin piece of tissue paper to kitchen aluminium foil. A second piece of tissue can be glued onto the reverse side to produce a tissue/foil/tissue sandwich. Foil-backed paper is available commercially, but not tissue foil; it must be handmade. Both types of foil materials are suitable for complex models. Washi ( ) is the traditional origami paper used in Japan. Washi is generally tougher than ordinary paper made from wood pulp, and is used in many traditional arts. Washi is commonly made using fibres from the bark of the gampi tree, the mitsumata shrub (Edgeworthia papyrifera), or the paper mulberry but also can be made using bamboo, hemp, rice, and wheat. Artisan papers such as unryu, lokta, hanji, gampi, kozo, saa, and abaca have long fibres and are often extremely strong. As these papers are floppy to start with, they are often backcoated or resized with methylcellulose or wheat paste before folding. Also, these papers are extremely thin and compressible, allowing for thin, narrowed limbs as in the case of insect models. Paper money from various countries is also popular to create origami with; this is known variously as Dollar Origami, Orikane, and Money Origami.
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Tools
It is common to fold using a flat surface but some folders like doing it in the air with no tools especially when displaying the folding. Many folders believe no tool should be used when folding. However a couple of tools can help especially with the more complex models. For instance a bone folder allows sharp creases to be made in the paper easily, paper clips can act as extra pairs of fingers, and tweezers can be used to make small folds. When making complex models from origami crease patterns, it can help to use a ruler and ballpoint embosser to score the creases. Completed models can be sprayed so they keep their shape better, and of course a spray is needed when wet folding.
Types of origami
Action origami
Origami not only covers still-life, there are also moving objects; Origami can move in clever ways. Action origami includes origami that flies, requires inflation to complete, or, when complete, uses the kinetic energy of a person's hands, applied at a certain region on the model, to move another flap or limb. Some argue that, strictly speaking, only the latter is really "recognized" as action origami. Action origami, first appearing with the traditional Japanese flapping bird, is quite common. One example is Robert Lang's instrumentalists; when the figures' heads are pulled away from their bodies, their hands will move, resembling the playing of music.
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Modular origami
Modular origami consists of putting a number of similar pieces together to form a complete model. Normally the individual pieces are simple but the final assembly may be tricky. Many of the modular origami models are decorative balls like kusudama, the technique differs though in that kusudama allows the pieces to be put together using thread or glue. Chinese paper folding includes a style called 3D origami where large numbers of pieces are put together to make elaborate models. Sometimes paper money is used for the modules. This style originated from some Chinese refugees while they were detained in America and is also called Golden Venture folding from the ship they came on.
A stellated icosahedron made from custom papers
Wet-folding
Wet-folding is an origami technique for producing models with gentle curves rather than geometric straight folds and flat surfaces. The paper is dampened so it can be moulded easily, the final model keeps its shape when it dries. It can be used, for instance, to produce very natural looking animal models. Size, an adhesive that is crisp and hard when dry, but dissolves in water when wet and becoming soft and flexible, is often applied to the paper either at the pulp stage while the paper is being formed, or on the surface of a ready sheet of paper. The latter method is called external sizing and most commonly uses Methylcellulose, or MC, paste, or various plant starches.
Pureland origami
Pureland origami is origami with the restriction that only one fold may be done at a time, more complex folds like reverse folds are not allowed, and all folds have straightforward locations. It was developed by John Smith in the 1970s to help inexperienced folders or those with limited motor skills. Some designers also like the challenge of creating good models within the very strict constraints.
Origami Tessellations
This branch of origami is one that has grown in popularity recently. Tessellation refers to a collection of figures fill a plane with no gaps or overlaps. In origami tessellations, pleats are used to connect molecules such as twist folds together in a repeating fashion. During the 1960s, Shuzo Fujimoto was the first to explore twist fold tessellations in any systematic way, coming up with dozens of patterns and establishing the genre in the origami mainstream. Around the same time period, Ron Resch patented some tessellation patterns as part of his explorations into kinetic sculpture and developable surfaces, although his work was not known by the origami community until the 1980s. Chris Palmer is an artist who has extensively explored tessellations after seeing the Zilij patterns in the Alhambra, and has found ways to create detailed origami tessellations out of silk. Robert Lang and Alex Bateman are two designers who use computer programs to create origami tessellations. The first American book on origami tessellations was just published by Eric Gjerde and the field has been expanding rapidly. There are numerous origami tessellation artists including Chris Palmer (U.S.), Eric Gjerde (U.S.), Polly Verity (Scotland), Joel Cooper (U.S.), Christine Edison (U.S.), Ray Schamp (U.S.), Roberto Gretter (Italy), Goran Konjevod (U.S.),and Christiane Bettens (Switzerland) that are showing works that are both geometric and representational.
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Kirigami
Kirigami is a Japanese term for paper cutting. Cutting was often used in traditional Japanese origami, but modern innovations in technique have made the use of cuts unnecessary. Most origami designers no longer consider models with cuts to be origami, instead using the term Kirigami to describe them. This change in attitude occurred during the 1960s and 70s, so early origami books often use cuts, but for the most part they have disappeared from the modern origami repertoire; most modern books don't even mention cutting.[10]
Mathematics and technical origami

Mathematics and practical applications
The practice and study of origami encapsulates several subjects of mathematical interest. For instance, the problem of flat-foldability (whether a crease pattern can be folded into a 2-dimensional model) has been a topic of considerable mathematical study. A number of technological advances have come from insights obtained through paper folding. For example, techniques have been developed for the deployment of car airbags and stent implants from a folded position.[12] The problem of rigid origami ("if we replaced the paper with sheet metal and had hinges in place of the crease lines, could we still fold the model?") has great practical importance. For example, the Miura map fold is a rigid fold that has been used to deploy large solar panel arrays for space satellites.
Spring Into Action, designed by Jeff Beynon, made [11] from a single rectangular piece of paper.
Origami can be used to construct various geometrical designs not possible with Compass and straightedge constructions. For instance paper folding may be used for angle trisection and doubling the cube. There are plans for an origami airplane to be launched from space. A prototype passed a durability test in a wind tunnel on March 2008, and Japan's space agency adopted it for feasibility studies.
Technical origami
Technical origami, also known as origami sekkei ( ), is a field of origami that has developed almost hand-in-hand with the field of mathematical origami. In the early days of origami, development of new designs was largely a mix of trial-and-error, luck and serendipity. With advances in origami mathematics however, the basic structure of a new origami model can be theoretically plotted out on paper before any actual folding even occurs. This method of origami design was developed by Robert Lang, Meguro Toshiyuki and others, and allows for the creation of extremely complex multi-limbed models such as many-legged centipedes, human figures with a full complement of fingers and toes, and the like.
Hercules Beetle by Robert Lang.
The main starting point for such technical designs is the crease pattern (often abbreviated as CP), which is essentially the layout of the creases required to form the final model. Although not intended as a substitute for diagrams, folding from crease patterns is starting to gain in popularity, partly because of the challenge of being able to 'crack' the
Origami pattern, and also partly because the crease pattern is often the only resource available to fold a given model, should the designer choose not to produce diagrams. Still, there are many cases in which designers wish to sequence the steps of their models but lack the means to design clear diagrams. Such origamists occasionally resort to the Sequenced Crease Pattern (abbreviated as SCP) which is a set of crease patterns showing the creases up to each respective fold. The SCP eliminates the need for diagramming programs or artistic ability while maintaining the step-by-step process for other folders to see. Another name for the Sequenced Crease Pattern is the Progressive Crease Pattern (PCP). Paradoxically enough, when origami designers come up with a crease pattern for a new design, the majority of the smaller creases are relatively unimportant and added only towards the completion of the crease pattern. What is more important is the allocation of regions of the paper and how these are mapped to the structure of the object being designed. For a specific class of origami bases known as 'uniaxial bases', the pattern of allocations is referred to as the 'circle-packing'. Using optimization algorithms, a circle-packing figure can be computed for any uniaxial base of arbitrary complexity. Once this figure is computed, the creases which are then used to obtain the base structure can be added. This is not a unique mathematical process, hence it is possible for two designs to have the same circle-packing, and yet different crease pattern structures. As a circle encloses the minimum amount of area for a given perimeter, circle packing allows for maximum efficiency in terms of paper usage. However, other polygonal shapes can be used to solve the packing problem as well. The use of polygonal shapes other than circles is often motivated by the desire to find easily locatable creases (such as multiples of 22.5 degrees) and hence an easier folding sequence as well. One popular offshoot of the circle packing method is box-pleating, where squares are used instead of circles. As a result, the crease pattern that arises from this method contains only 45 and 90 degree angles, which makes for easier folding.
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Origami-related computer programs

Doodle [13]: used to diagram all the steps and figures involved in the creation of a figure. Treemaker [14]: useful in designing a figure. OriPa [15]: a program for drawing up crease patterns. Allows one to see what a crease pattern looks like when folded.
Ethics
Copyright in origami designs and the use of models has become an increasingly important issue as the internet has made the sale and distribution of pirated designs very easy.[16] It is considered good ethics to always credit the original artist and the folder when displaying origami models. All commercial rights to designs and models are typically reserved by origami artists. Normally a person who folds a model using a legally obtained design can publicly display the model unless such rights are specifically reserved, however folding a design for money or commercial use of a photo for instance would require consent.[17]
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Gallery
These pictures show examples of various types of origami.
Dollar bill elephant, an example of money-bill origami
Kawasaki rose using the twist fold devised by Toshikazu Kawasaki. The calyx is made separately.
Kawasaki cube, an example of an iso-area model
A wet-folded bull
A challenging miniature version of a paper crane
Two examples of modular origami
An example of origami bonsai
Smart Waterbomb using circular paper and curved folds
References
[1] Merali, Zeeya (June 17, 2011), "Origami Engineer Flexes to Create Stronger, More Agile Materials" (http:/ / www. sciencemag. org/ gca?sendit. y=-79& gca=sci;332/ 6036/ 1376& sendit=Get all checked abstract(s)), Science 332: 13761377, [2] Laing, Ellen Johnston (2004). Up In Flames. Stanford University Press. ISBN9780804734554. [3] Temko, Florence (1986). Paper Pandas and Jumping Frogs (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=wYYeEeYH98cC& pg=PA123#v=onepage& q& f=false). p.123. ISBN0-8351-1770-7. . [4] Donna Serena da Riva. "Paper Folding in 15th century Europe" (http:/ / www. loggiaserena. com/ Resume/ Documentation/ PaperFoldingDoc. pdf). . [5] "David Lister on Islamic Arab and Moorish Folding?" (http:/ / www. britishorigami. info/ academic/ lister/ islamic. php). Britishorigami.info. . Retrieved September 12, 2010. [6] Hatori Koshiro. "History of Origami" (http:/ / origami. ousaan. com/ library/ historye. html). K's Origami. . Retrieved January 1, 2010. [7] Margalit Fox (April 2, 2005). "Akira Yoshizawa, 94, Modern Origami Master" (http:/ / query. nytimes. com/ gst/ fullpage. html?res=9F07E4DC113FF931A35757C0A9639C8B63). New York Times. . [8] Lang, Robert J. "Origami Design Secrets" Dover Publications, 2003 [9] Rick Beech (2009). The Practical Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Origami. Lorenz Books. ISBN9780754819820. [10] Lang, Robert J. (2003). Origami Design Secrets. A K Peters. ISBN1-56881-194-2. [11] The World of Geometric Toy (http:/ / www1. ttcn. ne. jp/ ~a-nishi/ ), Origami Spring (http:/ / www1. ttcn. ne. jp/ ~a-nishi/ spring/ z_spring. html), August, 2007. [12] Cheong Chew and Hiromasa Suziki, Geometrical Properties of Paper Spring, repoted in Mamoru Mitsuishi, Kanji Ueda, Fumihiko Kimura, Manufacturing Systems and Technologies for the New Frontier (2008), p. 159. [13] http:/ / doodle. sourceforge. net [14] http:/ / www. langorigami. com/ science/ treemaker/ treemaker5. php4 [15] http:/ / mitani. cs. tsukuba. ac. jp/ pukiwiki-oripa/ index. php?ORIPA%3B%20Origami%20Pattern%20Editor [16] Robinson, Nick (2008). Origami Kit for Dummies. Wiley. p.3638. ISBN978-047075857-1. [17] "Origami Copyright Analysis+FAQ" (http:/ / origamiusa. org/ files/ OrigamiUSA Copyright Analysis+ FAQ. pdf). OrigamiUSA. 2008. p.9. .
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Further reading
Robert J. Lang. The Complete Book of Origami: Step-by-Step Instructions in Over 1000 Diagrams. Dover Publications, Mineola, NY. Copyright 1988 by Robert J. Lang. ISBN 0-486-25837-8 (pbk.) Pages 130 are an excellent introduction to basic origami moves and notations. Each of the first 13 models is designed to allow the reader to practice one skill several times. Many models are folded from non-square paper. Kunihiko Kasahara. Origami Omnibus: Paper Folding for Everybody. Japan Publications, inc. Tokyo. Copyright 1988 by Kunihiko Kasahara. ISBN 4-8170-9001-4 A book for a more advanced origamian; this book presents many more complicated ideas and theories, as well as related topics in geometry and culture, along with model diagrams. Kunihiko Kasahara and Toshie Takahama. Origami for the Connoisseur. Japan Publications, inc. Tokyo. Copyright 1987 by Kunihiko Kasahara and Toshie Takahama. ISBN 0-87040-670-1 Satoshi Kamiya. Works by Satoshi Kamiya, 19952003. Origami House, Tokyo. Copyright 2005 by Satoshi Kamiya. An extremely complex book for the elite origamian, most models take 100+ steps to complete. Includes his famous Divine Dragon Bahamut and Ancient Dragons. Instructions are in Japanese and English. Issei Yoshino. Issei Super Complex Origami. Origami House, Tokyo. Contains many complex models, notably his Samurai Helmet, Horse, and multimodular Triceratops skeleton. Instructions are in Japanese. One Thousand Paper Cranes: The Story of Sadako and the Children's Peace Statue by Takayuki Ishii, ISBN 0-440-22843-3 Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes by Eleanor Coerr, ISBN 0-698-11802-2 Extreme Origami, Kunihiko Kasahara, 2001, ISBN 0-8069-8853-3 Ariomar Ferreira da Silva. Brincando com Origami Arquitetnico: 16 diagrams. Global Editora, So Paulo, Brazil. Copyright 1991 by Ariomar Ferreira da Silva and Lencio de O. Carvalho. ISBN 85-260-0273-2 Masterworks of Paper Folding by Michael LaFosse Papercopia: Origami Designs by David Shall, 2008 ISBN 978-0-9796487-0-0. Contains diagrams for 24 original models by the author including Claw Hammer, Daffodil, Candlestick. Nick Robinson. Origami For Dummies. John Wiley, Copyright 2008 by Nick Robinson. ISBN 0470758570. An excellent book for beginners, covering many aspects of origami overlooked by other books. Nick Robinson. Encyclopedia of Origami. Quarto, Copyright 2004 by Nick Robinson. ISBN 1-84448-025-9. An book full of stimulating designs. Linda Wright. Toilet Paper Origami: Delight Your Guests with Fancy Folds and Simple Surface Embellishments. Copyright 2008 by Lindaloo Enterprises, Santa Barbara, CA. ISBN 9780980092318.
External links
Free Origami Instruction Database ! (https://sites.google.com/site/origamisite/design-instructions), a collection of links to free origami instructions, pictures and videos. OrigamiTube.com Watch, Fold, Show Off! (http://www.origamitube.com) Collection of origami instructional and origami related videos. Origami Nut (http://www.origaminut.com/) Original instructional videos of origami folding with diagrams and varying difficulty levels. Origami.com (http://www.origami.com/diagram.html), collection of diagrams, suitable for beginners. GiladOrigami.com (http://www.giladorigami.com/Gallery_default.html), contains a large gallery.
Origami Paper Circle: Origami Out of Hand (http://www.papercircle.org/exhibits/archives/category/ 1-origami-out-of-hand) Exhibition by Origami artists Tomoko Fuse, Robert J. Lang, and David and Assia Brill of Great Britain. The Fold (http://thepaperfold.gofreeserve.com), a large collection of diagrams. WikiHow on How to Make Origami Origami.org.uk (http://www.origami.org.uk), 3D animated origami diagrams of peace crane and flapping bird. Origami Surprise ! (http://www.britishorigami.info/fun/surprise.php), a brand new type of origami folding instructions. Between the Folds (http://www.greenfusefilms.com/index.html) Documentary film featuring 15 international origami practitioners Interview with Robert Lang at Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota, March, 2011 (http://www. ias.umn.edu/media/BatofMinerva/RobertLang.php)
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Regular paperfolding sequence

In mathematics the regular paperfolding sequence, also known as the dragon curve sequence, is an infinite automatic sequence of 0s and 1s defined as the limit of the following process: 1 110 1101100 110110011100100 At each stage an alternating sequence of 1s and 0s is inserted between the terms of the previous sequence. The sequence takes its name from the fact that it represents the sequence of left and right folds along a strip of paper that is folded repeatedly in half in the same direction. If each fold is then opened out to create right angled corner, the resulting shape approaches the dragon curve fractal.[1]
Starting at n = 1, the first few terms of the regular paperfolding sequence are: 1, 1, 0, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1, 0, 0, 1, ... (sequence A014577 in OEIS)
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Properties
The value of any given term tn in the regular paperfolding sequence can be found recursively as follows. If n = m2k where m is odd then
Thus t12 = t3 = 0 but t13 = 1. The paperfolding word 1101100111001001..., which is created by concatenating the terms of the regular paperfolding sequence, is a fixed point of the morphism or string substitution rules 11 1101 01 1001 10 1100 00 1000 as follows: 11 1101 11011001 1101100111001001 11011001110010011101100011001001 ... It can be seen from the morphism rules that the paperfolding word contains at most three consecutive 0s and at most three consecutive 1s. The paperfolding sequence also satisfies the symmetry relation:
which shows that the paperfolding word can be constructed as the limit of another iterated process as follows: 1 110 110 1 100 1101100 1 1100100 110110011100100 1 110110001100100 In each iteration of this process, a 1 is placed at the end of the previous iteration's string, then this string is repeated in reverse order, replacing 0 by 1 and vice versa.
Generating function
The generating function of the paperfolding sequence is given by
From the construction of the paperfolding sequence it can be seen that G satisfies the functional relation
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Paperfolding constant
Substituting x = into the generating function gives a real number between 0 and 1 whose binary expansion is the paperfolding word
This number is known as the paperfolding constant[2] and has the value (sequence A143347 in OEIS)
References
[1] Weisstein, Eric W., " Dragon Curve (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ DragonCurve. html)" from MathWorld. [2] Weisstein, Eric W., " Paper Folding Constant (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ PaperFoldingConstant. html)" from MathWorld.
Jean-Paul Allouche and Jeffrey Shallit Automatic Sequences Cambridge University Press 2003
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Polyforms
Domino
In mathematics, a domino is a polyomino of order 2, that is, a polygon in the plane made of two equal-sized squares connected edge-to-edge.[1] When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there is only one free domino. Since it has reflection symmetry, it is also the only one-sided domino (with reflections considered distinct). When rotations are also considered distinct, there are two fixed dominoes: The second one can be created by rotating the one above by 90.[2][3] In a wider sense, the term domino is often understood to simply mean a tile of any shape.[4]
The single free domino
References
[1] Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN0-691-02444-8. [2] Weisstein, Eric W. "Domino" (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Domino. html). From MathWorld A Wolfram Web Resource. . Retrieved 2009-12-05. [3] Redelmeier, D. Hugh (1981). "Counting polyominoes: yet another attack". Discrete Mathematics 36: 191203. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(81)90237-5. [4] Berger, Robert (1966). "The undecidability of the Domino Problem". Memoirs Am. Math. Soc. 66.
Domino tiling
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Domino tiling
A domino tiling of a region in the Euclidean plane is a tessellation of the region by dominos, shapes formed by the union of two unit squares meeting edge-to-edge. Equivalently, it is a matching in the grid graph formed by placing a vertex at the center of each square of the region and connecting two vertices when they correspond to adjacent squares.
Height functions
For some classes of tilings on a regular grid in two dimensions, it is possible to define a height function associating an integer to the nodes of the grid. For instance, draw a chessboard, fix a node with height 0, then for any node there is a path from the height of each node height of the previous node the path from to to it. On this path define
Domino tiling of a square
(i.e. corners of the squares) to be the plus one if the square on the right of is black, and minus one else.
More details can be found in Kenyon & Okounkov (2005).
Thurston's height condition

William Thurston (1990) describes a test for determining whether a simply-connected region, formed as the union of unit squares in the plane, has a domino tiling. He forms an undirected graph that has as its vertices the points (x,y,z) in the three-dimensional integer lattice, where each such point is connected to four neighbors: if x+y is even, then (x,y,z) is connected to (x+1,y,z+1), (x-1,y,z+1), (x,y+1,z-1), and (x,y-1,z-1), while if x+y is odd, then (x,y,z) is connected to (x+1,y,z-1), (x-1,y,z-1), (x,y+1,z+1), and (x,y-1,z+1). The boundary of the region, viewed as a sequence of integer points in the (x,y) plane, lifts uniquely (once a starting height is chosen) to a path in this three-dimensional graph. A necessary condition for this region to be tileable is that this path must close up to form a simple closed curve in three dimensions, however, this condition is not sufficient. Using more careful analysis of the boundary path, Thurston gave a criterion for tileability of a region that was sufficient as well as necessary.
Domino tiling
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Counting tilings of regions

The number of ways to cover a Kasteleyn (1961), is given by -byrectangle with dominoes, calculated independently by Temperley & Fisher (1961) and
The sequence of values generated by this formula for squares with m = n = 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, ... is 1, 2, 36, 6728, 12988816, 258584046368, 53060477521960000, ... (sequence A004003 in OEIS). These numbers can be found by writing them as the Pfaffian of an mn by mn antisymmetric matrix whose eigenvalues can be found explicitly. This technique may be applied in many mathematics-related subjects, for example, in the classical, 2-dimensional computation of the dimer-dimer correlator function in statistical mechanics.
Domino tiling of an 88 square using the minimum number of long-edge-to-long-edge pairs (1 pair in the center).
The number of tilings of a region is very sensitive to boundary conditions, and can change dramatically with apparently insignificant changes in the shape of the region. This is illustrated by the number of tilings of an Aztec diamond of order n, where the number of tilings is 2(n+1)n/2. If this is replaced by the "augmented Aztec diamond" of order n with 3 long rows in the middle rather than 2, the number of tilings drops to the much smaller number D(n,n), a Delannoy number, which has only exponential rather than super-exponential growth in n. For the "reduced Aztec diamond" of order n with only one long middle row, there is only one tiling.
An Aztec diamond of order 4, with 1024 domino tilings
References
Height Functions"
[1]
Bodini, Olivier; Latapy, Matthieu (2003), "Generalized Tilings with , Morfismos 7 (1): 4768, ISSN1870-6525.
Kasteleyn, P. W. (1961), "The statistics of dimers on a lattice. I. The number of dimer arrangements on a quadratic lattice", Physica 27 (12): 12091225, doi:10.1016/0031-8914(61)90063-5. Kenyon, Richard (2000), "The planar dimer model with boundary: a survey", Directions in mathematical quasicrystals, CRM Monogr. Ser., 13, Providence, R.I.: American Mathematical Society, pp.307328, MR1798998 Kenyon, Richard; Okounkov, Andrei (2005), "What is a dimer?" [2], Notices of the American Mathematical Society 52 (3): 342343, ISSN0002-9920. Propp, James (2005), "Lambda-determinants and domino-tilings", Advances in Applied Mathematics 34 (4): 871879, arXiv:math.CO/0406301, doi:10.1016/j.aam.2004.06.005. Sellers, James A. (2002), "Domino tilings and products of Fibonacci and Pell numbers" [3], Journal of Integer Sequences 5 (Article 02.1.2). Thurston, W. P. (1990), "Conway's tiling groups", American Mathematical Monthly (Mathematical Association of America) 97 (8): 757773, doi:10.2307/2324578, JSTOR2324578. Wells, David (1997), The Penguin Dictionary of Curious and Interesting Numbers (revised ed.), London: Penguin, p.182, ISBN0-14-026149-4.
Domino tiling
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References
[1] http:/ / www-rp. lip6. fr/ %7Elatapy/ Publis/ morfismos03. pdf [2] http:/ / www. ams. org/ notices/ 200503/ what-is. pdf [3] http:/ / www. emis. de/ journals/ JIS/ VOL5/ Sellers/ sellers4. pdf
Fillomino
Fillomino ( ) is a type of logic puzzle published by Nikoli. Other published titles for the puzzle include Allied Occupation. As of 2005, three books consisting entirely of Fillomino puzzles have been published by Nikoli.
Rules
Fillomino is played on a rectangular grid with no standard size; the internal grid lines are often dotted. (When published as Allied Occupation in the World Puzzle Championship, the cells of the grid are circular, but this is purely an aesthetic concern.) Some cells of the grid start containing numbers, referred to as "givens". The goal is to divide the grid into polyominoes (by filling in their boundaries) Moderately difficult sample puzzle 2005 Adam R. Wood, licensed under GFDL such that each given number n in the grid is part of an n-omino and that no two polyominoes of matching size (number of cells) are orthogonally adjacent (share a side). Unlike some of its contemporaries among puzzles, there need not be a one-to-one correspondence between givens and polyominoes in the solution; it is possible for two givens with matching number to belong to the same polyomino in the solution, and for a polyomino to have no given at all.
Solution methods
It is common practice in solving a Fillomino puzzle to add numbers to the empty cells when it is determined what size polyomino each must belong to; these numbers are effectively treated identically to the givens. As well as making it clear where many border segments must be drawn - such as between any two differing numbers, or surrounding a region of matching numbers whose quantity is that number - it also permits the second part of the puzzle's rule to be visualized as simply "the same number cannot appear on both sides of a border", which greatly accelerates solving. A curious side effect of numbering every cell is that when the puzzle is completed, the numbers alone unambiguously define the solution, the actual borders being trivially deducible. This makes communication of a solution without a grid quite feasible; indeed, solutions for Allied Occupation give only the numbers. (Nikoli always publishes solutions to their Fillomino puzzles with both the polyomino borders drawn in and numbers given in every cell.)
Fillomino The typical means of starting a Fillomino puzzle is to draw in the obvious borders between non-matching givens and surrounding all polyominoes completed by the givens alone ('1's, pairs of orthogonally adjacent '2's, and so on). From there, the solver searches for three things, possibly in combination: Potential overloads. Each polyomino in the solution, if it were completely numbered, would contain matching numbers whose quantity is that number. If there is a place in the grid where adding a particular number would result in an orthogonally contiguous region of too many copies of that number, then borders to that cell from those numbers may be drawn in. Often the givens alone provide these, most commonly a pair of diagonally adjacent '2's: placing a '2' in either of the cells that share a side with both givens would result in an overload, so four cell borders may be drawn in (in the shape of a plus sign) separating the '2's. Limited domains. Every number in the grid - whether given or deduced - must ultimately be bordered into a region with that number of cells in it. Often, a number will require other cells to be in its region due to not having any alternative location to expand into. The most obvious case is a number (other than '1') bordered on three sides; the cell sharing the fourth side must belong to the same region, and consequently can bear the same number. The same principle applies to numbers bordered on only two sides but cannot possibly expand into enough cells in only one direction, and so on. Defined cells. In more challenging circumstances, sometimes working with the empty cells is easier than working with numbers. The most obvious case is when a single cell without a number becomes completely surrounded; without any help from other numbers, that cell must be a monomino, and can be marked with '1'. Similarly, two orthogonally adjacent empty cells surrounded together must be a domino, as two monominos cannot share a side. Even cells in regions not completely surrounded may be defined; a common occurrence is for an empty cell as part of a small region mostly bordered by solved polyominoes to have only one legal size of polyomino available to it, with other sizes being too large or would result in matching-size polyominoes sharing a side. This is perhaps best recognized by considering what number can legally be placed in such a cell and determining that only one exists.
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Variants
Fillomino adapts to different geometries; hexagonal grids can be used, with the only change in the rules being replacing all instances of polyomino with polyhex. Another variant was published by Nikoli under the name NIKOJI; letters are used as givens instead of numbers, where the letters and polyominoes have a one-to-one correspondence and only matching letters have matching polyominoes (in size, shape, orientation, and letter position).
External links
Nikoli's English page on Fillomino [1] Printable Fillomino puzzles [2]
References
[1] http:/ / www. nikoli. co. jp/ en/ puzzles/ fillomino/ [2] http:/ / www. mathinenglish. com/ Fillomino. php
Heptomino
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Heptomino
A heptomino (or 7-omino) is a polyomino of order 7, that is, a polygon in the plane made of 7 equal-sized squares connected [1] edge-to-edge. The name of this type of figure is formed with the prefix hept(a)-. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are 108 different free heptominoes. When reflections are considered distinct, there are 196 one-sided heptominoes. When rotations are also considered distinct, there are 760 fixed heptominoes.[2][3]
Symmetry
The figure shows all possible free heptominoes, coloured according to their symmetry groups: 84 heptominoes (coloured grey) have no symmetry. Their symmetry group consists only of the identity mapping.
The 108 free heptominoes
9 heptominoes (coloured red) have an axis of reflection symmetry aligned with the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and the reflection in a line parallel to the sides of the squares.
7 heptominoes (coloured green) have an axis of reflection symmetry at 45 to the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and a diagonal reflection.
Heptomino 4 heptominoes (coloured blue) have point symmetry, also known as rotational symmetry of order 2. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and the 180 rotation.
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3 heptominoes (coloured purple) have two axes of reflection symmetry, both aligned with the gridlines. Their symmetry group has four elements, the identity, two reflections and the 180 rotation. It is the dihedral group of order 2, also known as the Klein four-group. 1 heptomino (coloured orange) has two axes of reflection symmetry, both aligned with the diagonals. Its symmetry group also has four elements. Its symmetry group is also the dihedral group of order 2 with four elements.
If reflections of a heptomino are considered distinct, as they are with one-sided heptominoes, then the first and fourth categories above would each double in size, resulting in an extra 88 heptominoes for a total of 196. If rotations are also considered distinct, then the heptominoes from the first category count eightfold, the ones from the next three categories count fourfold, and the ones from the last two categories count twice. This results in 84 8 + (9+7+4) 4 + (3+1) 2 = 760 fixed heptominoes.
Packing and tiling

Although a complete set of 108 heptominoes has a total of 756 squares, it is not possible to pack them into a rectangle. The proof of this is trivial, since there is one heptomino which has a hole.[4] It is also impossible to pack them into a 757-square rectangle with a one-square hole because 757 is a prime number. All but four heptominoes are capable of tiling the plane.[5]
Heptomino with hole
References
[1] Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN0-691-02444-8. [2] Weisstein, Eric W. "Heptomino" (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Heptomino. html). From MathWorld A Wolfram Web Resource. . Retrieved 2008-07-22. [3] Redelmeier, D. Hugh (1981). "Counting polyominoes: yet another attack". Discrete Mathematics 36 (2): 191203. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(81)90237-5. [4] Grnbaum, Branko; Shephard, G. C. (1987). Tilings and Patterns. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company. ISBN0-7167-1193-1. [5] Gardner, Martin (August 1965). "Thoughts on the task of communication with intelligent organisms on other worlds". Scientific American 213 (2): 96100.
Hexomino
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Hexomino
A hexomino (or 6-omino) is a polyomino of order 6, that is, a polygon in the plane made of 6 equal-sized squares connected edge-to-edge.[1] The name of this type of figure is formed with the prefix hex(a)-. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are 35 different free hexominoes. When reflections are considered distinct, there are 60 one-sided hexominoes. When rotations are also considered distinct, there are 216 fixed hexominoes.[2][3]
Symmetry
The figure shows all possible free hexominoes, coloured according to their symmetry groups: 20 hexominoes (coloured grey) have no symmetry. Their symmetry group consists only of the identity mapping.
The 35 free hexominoes
6 hexominoes (coloured red) have an axis of mirror symmetry aligned with the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and a reflection in a line parallel to the sides of the squares. 2 hexominoes (coloured green) have an axis of mirror symmetry at 45 to the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and a diagonal reflection. 5 hexominoes (coloured blue) have point symmetry, also known as rotational symmetry of order 2. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and the 180 rotation. 2 hexominoes (coloured purple) have two axes of mirror symmetry, both aligned with the gridlines. Their symmetry group has four elements. It is the dihedral group of order 2, also known as the Klein four-group. If reflections of a hexomino are considered distinct, as they are with one-sided hexominoes, then the first and fourth categories above would each double in size, resulting in an extra 25 hexominoes for a total of 60. If rotations are also considered distinct, then the hexominoes from the first category count eightfold, the ones from the next three categories count fourfold, and the ones from the last category count twice. This results in 20 8 + (6+2+5) 4 + 2 2 = 216 fixed hexominoes.
Packing and tiling

Although a complete set of 35 hexominoes has a total of 210 squares, it is not possible to pack them into a rectangle. (Such an arrangement is possible with the 12 pentominoes which can be packed into any of the rectangles 3 20, 4 15, 5 12 and 6 10.) A simple way to demonstrate that such a packing of hexominoes is not possible is via a parity argument. If the hexominoes are placed on a checkerboard pattern, then 11 of the hexominoes will cover an even number of black squares (either 2 white and 4 black or vice-versa) and 24 of the hexominoes will cover an odd number of black squares (3 white and 3 black). Overall, an even number of black squares will be covered in any arrangement. However, any rectangle of 210 squares will have 105 black squares and 105 white squares.
Hexomino However, there are other simple figures of 210 squares that can be packed with the hexominoes. For example, a 15 15 square with a 3 5 rectangle removed from the centre has 210 squares. With checkerboard colouring, it has 106 white and 104 black squares (or vice versa), so parity does not prevent a packing, and a packing is indeed possible.[4] Also, it is possible for two sets of pieces to fit a rectangle of size 420. Each of the 35 hexominoes is capable of tiling the plane.
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Polyhedral nets for the cube

A polyhedral net for the cube is necessarily a hexomino, with 11 hexominoes actually being nets. They appear on the right, again coloured according to their symmetry groups.
References
[1] Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN0-691-02444-8. All 11 unfoldings of the cube
[2] Weisstein, Eric W. "Hexomino" (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Hexomino. html). From MathWorld A Wolfram Web Resource. . Retrieved 2008-07-22. [3] Redelmeier, D. Hugh (1981). "Counting polyominoes: yet another attack". Discrete Mathematics 36: 191203. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(81)90237-5. [4] Mathematische Basteleien: Hexominos (http:/ / www. mathematische-basteleien. de/ hexominos. htm) (English)
External links
Page by Jrgen Kller on hexominoes, including symmetry, packing and other aspects (http://www. mathematische-basteleien.de/hexominos.htm) Polyomino page (http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/polyomino.html) of David Eppstein's Geometry Junkyard (http://www.ics.uci.edu/~eppstein/junkyard/) Eleven animations showing the patterns of the cube (http://perso.wanadoo.fr/therese.eveilleau/pages/ truc_mat/textes/cube_patrons.htm) (French) Polypolygon tilings (http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/symmetry/polypoly.htm), Steven Dutch.
LITS
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LITS
LITS, formerly known as Nuruomino ( ), is a binary determination puzzle published by Nikoli.
Rules
LITS is played on a rectangular grid, typically 1010; the grid is divided into polyominoes, none of which have fewer than four cells. The goal is to shade in a tetromino within each pre-printed polyomino in such a way that no two matching tetrominoes are orthogonally adjacent (with rotations and reflections counting as matching), and that the shaded cells form a valid nurikabe: they are all orthogonally contiguous (form a single polyomino) and contain no 22 square tetrominoes as subsets.
Moderately difficult LITS puzzle (solution)
History
The puzzle was first printed in Puzzle Communication Nikoli #106; the original title is a combination of 'nuru' (Japanese: "to paint") and 'omino' (polyomino). In issue #112, the title was changed to the present one, which represents the four (of five) tetrominoes used in the puzzle: the L-shape, the straight, the T-shape, and the skew (square tetrominoes may never appear in the puzzle as they are a direct violation of the rule).
External links
Nikoli's English page on LITS [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. nikoli. co. jp/ en/ puzzles/ lits/
Nonomino
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Nonomino
A nonomino (enneomino or 9-omino) is a polyomino of order 9, that is, a polygon in the plane made of 9 equal-sized squares connected edge-to-edge.[1] The name of this type of figure is formed with the prefix non(a)-. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are 1,285 different free nonominoes. When reflections are considered distinct, there are 2,500 one-sided nonominoes. When rotations are also considered distinct, there are 9,910 fixed nonominoes.[2]
Symmetry
The 1,285 free nonominoes can be classified according to their symmetry groups:[2] 1,196 nonominoes have no symmetry. Their symmetry group consists only of the identity mapping. 38 nonominoes have an axis of reflection symmetry aligned with the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and the reflection in a line parallel to the sides of the squares.
26 nonominoes have an axis of reflection symmetry at 45 to the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and a diagonal reflection.
Nonomino
410
19 nonominoes have point symmetry, also known as rotational symmetry of order 2. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and the 180 rotation.
4 nonominoes have two axes of reflection symmetry, both aligned with the gridlines. Their symmetry group has four elements, the identity, two reflections and the 180 rotation. It is the dihedral group of order 2, also known as the Klein four-group.
2 nonominoes have four axes of reflection symmetry, aligned with the gridlines and the diagonals, and rotational symmetry of order 4. Their symmetry group, the dihedral group of order 4, has eight elements.
Nonomino Unlike octominoes, there are no nonominoes with rotational symmetry of order 4 or with two axes of reflection symmetry aligned with the diagonals. If reflections of a nonomino are considered distinct, as they are with one-sided nonominoes, then the first and fourth categories above double in size, resulting in an extra 1,215 nonominoes for a total of 2,500. If rotations are also considered distinct, then the nonominoes from the first category count eightfold, the ones from the next three categories count fourfold, the ones from the fifth category count twice, and the ones from the last category count only once. This results in 1,196 8 + (38+26+19) 4 + 4 2 + 2 = 9,910 fixed nonominoes.
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Packing and tiling

37 nonominoes have a hole.[3][4] This makes it trivial to prove that the complete set of nonominoes cannot be packed into a rectangle, and that not all nonominoes can be tiled. However, it has been proven that 1,050 free nonominoes, or all but 235, do tile the plane.[5] One nonomino has a two-square hole (second rightmost in the top row). It is the smallest polyomino with a two-square hole.
A nonomino or Jigsaw Sudoku puzzle, as seen in the Sunday Telegraph
References
[1] Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN0-691-02444-8. [2] Redelmeier, D. Hugh (1981). "Counting polyominoes: yet another attack". Discrete Mathematics 36: 191203. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(81)90237-5. [3] Weisstein, Eric W. "Polyomino" (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Polyomino. html). From MathWorld A Wolfram Web Resource. . Retrieved 2009-12-05. [4] Sloane's A001419 : Number of n-celled polyominoes with holes (http:/ / oeis. org/ A001419). The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. [5] Rawsthorne, Daniel A. (1988). "Tiling complexity of small n-ominoes (n<10)". Discrete Mathematics 70: 7175. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(88)90081-7.
Octomino
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Octomino
An octomino (or 8-omino) is a polyomino of order 8, that is, a polygon in the plane made of 8 equal-sized squares connected [1] edge-to-edge. The name of this type of figure is formed with the prefix oct(a)-. When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are 369 different free octominoes. When reflections are considered distinct, there are 704 one-sided octominoes. When rotations are also considered distinct, there are 2,725 fixed octominoes.[2][3]
Symmetry
The figure shows all possible free octominoes, coloured according to their symmetry groups:
The 369 free octominoes
316 octominoes (coloured grey) have no symmetry. Their symmetry group consists only of the identity mapping. 23 octominoes (coloured red) have an axis of reflection symmetry aligned with the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and the reflection in a line parallel to the sides of the squares.
5 octominoes (coloured green) have an axis of reflection symmetry at 45 to the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and a diagonal reflection.
18 octominoes (coloured blue) have point symmetry, also known as rotational symmetry of order 2. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and the 180 rotation.
Octomino
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1 octomino (coloured yellow) has rotational symmetry of order 4. Its symmetry group has four elements, the identity and the 90, 180 and 270 rotations.
4 octominoes (coloured purple) have two axes of reflection symmetry, both aligned with the gridlines. Their symmetry group has four elements, the identity, two reflections and the 180 rotation. It is the dihedral group of order 2, also known as the Klein four-group. 1 octomino (coloured orange) has two axes of reflection symmetry, both aligned with the diagonals. Its symmetry group is also the dihedral group of order 2 with four elements. 1 octomino (coloured blue-green) has four axes of reflection symmetry, aligned with the gridlines and the diagonals, and rotational symmetry of order 4. Its symmetry group, the dihedral group of order 4, has eight elements.
The set of octominoes is the lowest polyomino set in which all eight possible symmetries are realized. The next higher set with this property is the dodecomino (12-omino) set.[3] If reflections of an octomino are considered distinct, as they are with one-sided octominoes, then the first, fourth and fifth categories above double in size, resulting in an extra 335 octominoes for a total of 704. If rotations are also considered distinct, then the octominoes from the first category count eightfold, the ones from the next three categories count fourfold, the ones from categories five to seven count twice, and the last octomino counts only once. This results in 316 8 + (23+5+18) 4 + (1+4+1) 2 + 1 = 2,725 fixed octominoes.
Packing and tiling

6 octominoes have a hole. This makes it trivial to prove that the complete set of octominoes cannot be packed into a rectangle, and that not all octominoes can be tiled. However, it has been proven that 343 free octominoes, or all but 26, do tile the plane.[4]
Octomino
414
References
[1] Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN0-691-02444-8. [2] Weisstein, Eric W. "Octomino" (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Octomino. html). From MathWorld A Wolfram Web Resource. . Retrieved 2008-07-22. [3] Redelmeier, D. Hugh (1981). "Counting polyominoes: yet another attack". Discrete Mathematics 36 (2): 191203. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(81)90237-5. [4] Gardner, Martin (August 1975). "More about tiling the plane: the possibilities of polyominoes, polyiamonds and polyhexes". Scientific American 233 (2): 112115.
Pentomino
A pentomino is a polyomino composed of five (Ancient Greek / pnte) congruent squares, connected along their edges (which sometimes is said to be an orthogonal connection). There are 12 different free pentominoes, often named after the letters of the Latin alphabet that they vaguely resemble. Ordinarily, the pentomino obtained by reflection or rotation of a pentomino does not count as a different pentomino. The F, L, N, P, Y, and Z pentominoes are chiral in two dimensions; adding their reflections (F', J, N', Q, Y', S) brings the number of one-sided pentominoes to 18. The others, lettered I, T, U, V, W, and X, are equivalent to some rotation of their mirror images. This matters in some video games, where mirror image moves are not allowed, such as Tetris-clones and Rampart. Each of the twelve pentominoes can be tiled to fill the plane. In addition, each chiral pentomino can be tiled without using its reflection.
John Horton Conway proposed an alternate labeling scheme. He uses O instead of I, Q instead of L, R instead of F, and S instead of N. The resemblance to the letters is a bit more strained (most notably that the "O," a straight line, bears no resemblance to an actual letter O), but this scheme has the advantage that it uses 12 consecutive letters of the alphabet. This scheme is used in connection with Conway's Game of Life, so it talks about the R-pentomino instead of the F-pentomino.
Comparison of pentomino labeling schemes. The first naming convention is the one used in this article. The second method is Conway's.
Pentomino
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Symmetry
Considering rotations of multiples of 90 degrees only, there are the following symmetry categories: L, N, P, F and Y can be oriented in 8 ways: 4 by rotation, and 4 more for the mirror image. Their symmetry group consists only of the identity mapping. T, and U can be oriented in 4 ways by rotation. They have an axis of reflection symmetry aligned with the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and the reflection in a line parallel to the sides of the squares. V and W also can be oriented in 4 ways by rotation. They have an axis of reflection symmetry at 45 to the gridlines. Their symmetry group has two elements, the identity and a diagonal reflection. Z can be oriented in 4 ways: 2 by rotation, and 2 more for the mirror image. It has point symmetry, also known as rotational symmetry of order 2. Its symmetry group has two elements, the identity and the 180 rotation. I can be oriented in 2 ways by rotation. It has two axes of reflection symmetry, both aligned with the gridlines. Its symmetry group has four elements, the identity, two reflections and the 180 rotation. It is the dihedral group of order 2, also known as the Klein four-group. X can be oriented in only one way. It has four axes of reflection symmetry, aligned with the gridlines and the diagonals, and rotational symmetry of order 4. Its symmetry group, the dihedral group of order 4, has eight elements. If reflections of a pentomino are considered distinct, as they are with one-sided pentominoes, then the first and fourth categories above double in size, resulting in an extra 6 pentominoes for a total of 18. If rotations are also considered distinct, then the pentominoes from the first category count eightfold, the ones from the next three categories (T, U, V, W, Z) count fourfold, I counts twice, and X counts only once. This results in 58 + 54 + 2 + 1 = 63 fixed pentominoes. For example, the eight possible orientations of the L, F, N, P, and Y pentominoes are as follows:
For 2D figures in general there are two more categories: Being orientable in 2 ways by a rotation of 90, with two axes of reflection symmetry, both aligned with the diagonals. This type of symmetry requires at least a heptomino. Being orientable in 2 ways, which are each other's mirror images, for example a swastika. This type of symmetry requires at least an octomino.
Pentomino
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Tiling rectangles
A standard pentomino puzzle is to tile a rectangular box with the pentominoes, i.e. cover it without overlap and without gaps. Each of the 12 pentominoes has an area of 5 unit squares, so the box must have an area of 60 units. Possible sizes are 610, 512, 415 and 320. The avid puzzler can probably solve these problems by hand within a few hours. A more challenging task, typically requiring a computer search, is to count the total number of solutions in each case. The 610 case was first solved in 1960 by Colin Brian and Jenifer Haselgrove.[1] There are exactly 2339 solutions, excluding trivial variations obtained by rotation and reflection of the whole rectangle, but including rotation and reflection of a subset of pentominoes (which sometimes provides an additional solution in a simple way). The 512 box has 1010 solutions, the 415 box has 368 solutions, and the 320 box has just 2 solutions (one is shown in the figure, and the other one can be obtained from the solution shown by rotating, as a whole, the block consisting of the L, N, F, T, W, Y, and Z pentominoes). A somewhat easier (more symmetrical) puzzle, the 88 rectangle with a 22 hole in the center, was solved by Dana Scott as far back as 1958.[2] There are 65 solutions. Scott's algorithm was one of the first applications of a backtracking computer program. Variations of this puzzle allow the four holes to be placed in any position. One of the external links uses this rule. Most such patterns are solvable, with the exceptions of placing each pair of holes near two corners of the board in such a way that both corners could only be fitted by a P-pentomino, or forcing a T-pentomino or U-pentomino in a corner such that another hole is created.
Efficient algorithms have been described to solve such problems, for instance by Donald Knuth.[3] Running on modern hardware, these pentomino puzzles can now be solved in mere seconds.
Pentomino
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Filling boxes
A pentacube is a polycube of five cubes. Twelve of the 29 pentacubes correspond to the twelve pentominoes extruded to a depth of one square. A pentacube puzzle or 3D pentomino puzzle, amounts to filling a 3-dimensional box with these 1-layer pentacubes, i.e. cover it without overlap and without gaps. Each of the 12 pentacubes consists of 5 unit cubes, and are like 2D pentominoes but with unit thickness. Clearly the box must have a volume of 60 units. Possible sizes are 2310, 256 and 345. Following are several solutions.
Alternatively one could also consider combinations of five cubes which are themselves 3D, i.e., are not part of one layer of cubes. However, in addition to the 12 extruded pentominoes, 6 sets of chiral pairs and 5 pieces make total 29 pieces, resulting 145 cubes, which will not make a 3D box.
Board game
There are board games of skill based entirely on pentominoes, called pentominoes. One of the games is played on an 88 grid by two or three players. Players take turns in placing pentominoes on the board so that they do not overlap with existing tiles and no tile is used more than once. The objective is to be the last player to place a tile on the board. The two-player version has been weakly solved in 1996 by Hilarie Orman. It was proved to be a first-player win by examining around 22 billion board positions [4] Pentominoes, and similar shapes, are also the basis of a number of other tiling games, patterns and puzzles. For example, a French board game called Blokus is played with 4 opposing color sets of polyominoes. In Blokus, each color begins with every pentomino (12), as well as every tetromino (5), every triomino (2), every domino (1) , and every monomino (1). Like the game Pentominoes, the goal is to use all of your tiles, and a bonus is given if the monomino is played on the very last move. The player with the fewest blocks remaining wins. The Cathedral game is also based on polyominoes (see [5] for the packed layout.) Parker Brothers released a multi-player pentomino board game called Universe in 1966. Its theme is based on an outtake from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey in which the astronaut (seen playing chess in the final version) is playing a two-player pentomino game against a computer. The front of the board game box features scenes from the
Pentomino movie as well as a caption describing it as the "game of the future". The game comes with 4 sets of pentominoes (in red, yellow, blue, and white). The board has two playable areas: a base 10x10 area for two players with an additional 25 squares (two more rows of 10 and one offset row of 5) on each side for more than two players. The second manufacturer of a Pentomino based game is Lonpos. Lonpos has a number of games that uses the same Pentominoes, but on different game planes. The so-called 101 game has a 5 x 11 plane. By changing the shape of the plane, thousands of puzzles can be played (although only a relatively small selection of these puzzles are available in print).
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Literature
Pentominoes were featured in a prominent subplot of Arthur C. Clarke's novel Imperial Earth, published in 1975. They were also featured in Blue Balliett's Chasing Vermeer, which was published in 2003 and illustrated by Brett Helquist, as well as its sequels, The Wright 3 and The Calder Game. Arthur Clarke also wrote an essay in which he described the game and how he got hooked on it. It was first published as 'Could you solve Pentominoes?' in the Sunday Telegraph Magazine, September 14, 1975. It is reprinted in Clarke's Ascent to Orbit: A Scientific Autobiography, New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1984.
Video games
Lojix on the ZX Spectrum is clearly derived from pentomino, though it uses a non-standard set of 20 blocks and a 10*10 box. Released in late 1983, the game was marketed via the announcement of a cash prize for the first person to solve the puzzle. Tetris was inspired by pentomino puzzles, although it uses four-block tetrominoes. Some Tetris clones and variants, like the games of Plan 9 from Bell Labs, and Magical Tetris Challenge, do use pentominoes. Daedalian Opus uses pentomino puzzles throughout the game. Yohoho! Puzzle Pirates carpentry minigame is based on pentomino puzzles. Chime uses pentominoes for its pieces. Twinflix a free game for iPhone and iPad uses pentomino as well for its gameplay.
Notes
[1] C. B. Haselgrove; Jenifer Haselgrove (October 1960). "A Computer Program for Pentominoes". Eureka 23: 1618. [2] Dana S. Scott (1958). "Programming a combinatorial puzzle". Technical Report No. 1, Department of Electrical Engineering, Princeton University. [3] Donald E. Knuth. "Dancing links" (http:/ / www-cs-faculty. stanford. edu/ ~knuth/ papers/ dancing-color. ps. gz) (Postscript, 1.6 megabytes). Includes a summary of Scott's and Fletcher's articles. [4] Hilarie K. Orman. Pentominoes: A First Player Win (http:/ / www. msri. org/ publications/ books/ Book29/ files/ orman. pdf) (Pdf). [5] FAQ (http:/ / www. cathedral-game. co. nz/ hints. htm)
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References
Chasing Vermeer (http://www.scholastic.com/chasingvermeer), with information about the book Chasing Vermeer and a click-and-drag pentomino board.
External links
Pentomino configurations and solutions (http://isomerdesign.com/Pentomino) An exhaustive listing of solutions to many of the classic problems showing how each solution relates to the others. Pentamino (http://pentamino.com/) New, very interesting Pentomino variation. In fact, with all the new features, it's practically a completely new game. Pentomino app (http://apps.facebook.com/pentomino/) The Pentomino game for one player as facebook application. Try it and find more solutions than your facebook friends. Pentomino app (http://pentomino-puzzles.com/) Pentomino based puzzle games. Drag, rotate and flip pentomino tiles to put together pictures or solve numbers puzzle and more. Pentomino solver (http://github.com/mlepage/pentomino-solver) Program (with C++ source code) to compute the 16146 solutions (provided) for covering the checkerboard with 12 pentominoes and a tetromino. Polycube solver (http://github.com/mlepage/polycube-solver) Program (with Lua source code) to fill boxes with polycubes using Algorithm X. Intriguing rpentomino flash puzzle (http://rpentomino.com) Puzzle related to the intriguing IP 205.186.183.229. BANJEN Pentamino (http://banjen.com/Pentamino.aspx) Freeware pentamino based puzzle. Program for the board game pentomino (http://www.matf.bg.ac.rs/~janicic/pg.zip) For two players.
Polyabolo
In recreational mathematics, a polyabolo (also known as a polytan) is a polyform with an isosceles right triangle as the base form.[1] The name is a back formation from 'diabolo' although the shape formed by joining two triangles at just one vertex is not a proper polyabolo. On a false analogy as if di- in diabolo means twice, polyaboloes with from 1 to 10 triangles are called respectively monoboloes, diaboloes, triaboloes, tetraboloes, pentaboloes, hexaboloes, heptaboloes, octaboloes, enneaboloes, and decaboloes. There are two ways in which a square in a polyabolo can consist of two isosceles right triangles, but polyaboloes are considered equivalent if they have the same boundaries. The number of nonequivalent polyaboloes composed of 1, 2, 3, triangles is 1, 3, 4, 14, 30, 107, 318, 1116, 3743, (sequence A006074 in OEIS). Polyaboloes that are confined strictly to the plane and cannot be turned over may be termed one-sided. The number of one-sided polyaboloes composed of 1, 2, 3, triangles is 1, 4, 6, 22, 56, 198, 624, 2182, 7448, (sequence A151519 in OEIS).
Polyabolo As for a polyomino, a polyabolo that can be neither turned over nor rotated may be termed fixed. A polyabolo with no symmetries (rotation or reflection) corresponds to 8 distinct fixed polyaboloes. A non-simply connected polyabolo is one that has one or more holes in it. The smallest value of n for which an n-abolo is non-simply connected is 7.
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Tiling rectangles with copies of a single polyabolo

In 1968, David A. Klarner defined the order of a polyomino. Similarly, the order of a polyabolo P can be defined as the minimum number of congruent copies of P that can be assembled (allowing translation, rotation, and reflection) to form a rectangle. A polyabolo has order 1 if and only if it is itself a rectangle. Polyaboloes of order 2 are also easily recognisable. Solomon W. Golomb found polyaboloes, including a triabolo, of order 8.[2] Michael Reid found a heptabolo of order 6.[3] Higher orders are possible.
Tiling rectangles with polyaboloes.
References
[1] Gardner, Martin (June 1967). "The polyhex and the polyabolo, polygonal jigsaw puzzle pieces". Scientific American 216 (6): 124132. [2] Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton University Press. p.101. ISBN0-691-02444-8. [3] Goodman, Jacob E.; O'Rourke, Joseph (2004). Handbook of Discrete and Computational Geometry (2nd ed.). Chapman & Hall/CRC. p.349. ISBN1-58488-301-4.
External links
Weisstein, Eric W., " Polyabolo (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ Polyabolo.html)" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., " Triabolo (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/ Triabolo.html)" from MathWorld.
A polyabolo of order 20.
Polycube
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Polycube
A polycube is a solid figure formed by joining one or more equal cubes face to face. It is a polyform whose base form is a cube. Polycubes are the three-dimensional analogues of the planar polyominoes. The Soma cube and the Bedlam cube are examples of packing problems based on polycubes.
Enumerating polycubes
Like polyominoes, polycubes can be enumerated in two ways, depending on whether chiral pairs of polycubes are counted as one polycube or two. For example, 6 tetracubes have mirror symmetry and one is chiral, giving a count of 7 or 8 tetracubes respectively. Unlike polyominoes, polycubes are usually counted with mirror pairs distinguished, because one cannot turn a polycube over to reflect it as one can a polyomino. In particular, the Soma cube uses both forms of the chiral tetracube.
The seven free tetracubes
A chiral pentacube
Puzzle with a unique solution
Polycube
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n Name of n-polycube
Number of one-sided n-polycubes (reflections counted as distinct) (sequence A000162 in OEIS) 1 1 2 8 29 166 1023 6922
Number of free n-polycubes (reflections counted together) (sequence A038119 in OEIS) 1 1 2 7 23 112 607 3811
1 monocube 2 dicube 3 tricube 4 tetracube 5 pentacube 6 hexacube 7 heptacube 8 octocube
Kevin Gong has enumerated polycubes up to n=16. See the external links for a table of these results.
Properties of pentacubes
Twelve pentacubes are flat and correspond to the pentominoes. Of the remaining 17, five have mirror symmetry, and the other 12 form six chiral pairs. The types of the flats are 5-1-1, 4-2-1, 3-3-1, 3-2-1. The 3-D types are 4-2-2, 3-2-2, 2-2-2. A polycube may have up to 24 orientations in the cubic lattice, or 48 if reflection is allowed. Of the pentacubes, two flats (5-1-1 and the cross) have mirror symmetry in all three axes; these have only three orientations. Ten have one mirror symmetry; these have 12 orientations. Each of the remaining 17 pentacubes has 24 orientations. Two typical puzzles with pentacubes are to fill a 555 box with 25 different pentacubes, and to pack all 29 pentacubes into a 993 box. In the first puzzle, the first piece may be placed in over 2,000 ways. More puzzles may be found at sourceforge.net [1] and by following the links below.
External links
Kevin Gong's enumeration of polycubes [2] Weisstein, Eric W., "Polycube [3]" from MathWorld. Polycubes [4], at The Poly Pages [5] Polycube Symmetries [6] Polycube solver [7] Program (with Lua source code) to fill boxes with polycubes using Algorithm X. play pentacubes online [8] Bedlam Cube Demo Software. [9]
Polycube
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References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] http:/ / puzzler. sourceforge. net/ docs/ pentacubes. html http:/ / kevingong. com/ Polyominoes/ Enumeration. html http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Polycube. html http:/ / recmath. org/ PolyPages/ PolyPages/ index. htm?Polycubes. html http:/ / recmath. org/ PolyPages/ index. htm http:/ / userpages. monmouth. com/ ~colonel/ csym/ index. html http:/ / github. com/ mlepage/ polycube-solver http:/ / www. pentacubes. de/ index. html http:/ / www. cube. operaomnia. info/
Polydrafter
In recreational mathematics, a polydrafter is a polyform with a triangle as the base form. The triangle has angles of 30, 60 and 90, like a set squarehence the name. The polydrafter was invented by Christopher Monckton, whose Eternity Puzzle was composed of 209 hexadrafters. The term polydrafter was coined by Ed Pegg, Jr. The 14 tridrafters all possible clusters of three drafters make an excellent small puzzle that is surprisingly difficult to solve by hand.
External links
Weisstein, Eric W., "Polydrafter [1]" from MathWorld.
References
[1] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Polydrafter. html
Polyform
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Polyform
In recreational mathematics, a polyform is a plane figure constructed by joining together identical basic polygons. The basic polygon is often (but not necessarily) a convex plane-filling polygon, such as a square or a triangle. More specific names have been given to polyforms resulting from specific basic polygons, as detailed in the table below. For example, a square basic polygon results in the well-known polyominoes.
Construction rules
The rules for joining the polygons together may vary, and must therefore be stated for each distinct type of polyform. Generally, however, the following rules apply: 1. Two basic polygons may be joined only along a common edge. 2. No two basic polygons may overlap. 3. A polyform must be connected (that is, all one piece; see connected graph, connected space). Configurations of disconnected basic polygons do not qualify as polyforms. 4. The mirror image of an asymmetric polyform is not considered a distinct polyform (polyforms are "double sided").
Generalizations
Polyforms can also be considered in higher dimensions. In 3-dimensional space, basic polyhedra can be joined along congruent faces. Joining cubes in this way produces the polycubes. One can allow more than one basic polygon. The possibilities are so numerous that the exercise seems pointless, unless extra requirements are brought in. For example, the Penrose tiles define extra rules for joining edges, resulting in interesting polyforms with a kind of pentagonal symmetry. When the base form is a polygon that tiles the plane, rule 1 may be broken. For instance, squares may be joined orthogonally at vertices, as well as at edges, to form polyplets or polykings.[1]
Types and applications

Polyforms are a rich source of problems, puzzles and games. The basic combinatorial problem is counting the number of different polyforms, given the basic polygon and the construction rules, as a function of n, the number of basic polygons in the polyform. Well-known puzzles include the pentomino puzzle and the Soma cube.
Basic polygon (monoform) line segment square Polyform polystick polyomino pentomino puzzle, Lonpos puzzle, Fillomino, Tentai Show, Ripple Effect (puzzle), LITS, Nurikabe, Sudoku Applications
equilateral triangle 30-60-90 triangle right isosceles (45-45-90) triangle regular hexagon cube
polyiamond polydrafter polyabolo Eternity puzzle, Tentai Show
polyhex polycube Soma cube
Polyform
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square (in three dimensions) polyominoid
References
[1] Weisstein, Eric W., " Polyplet (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Polyplet. html)" from MathWorld.
External links
Weisstein, Eric W., " Polyform (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Polyform.html)" from MathWorld. The Poly Pages at RecMath.org (http://www.recmath.org/PolyPages/index.htm), illustrations and information on many kinds of polyforms.
Polyhex
In recreational mathematics, a polyhex is a polyform with a regular hexagon (or 'hex' for short) as the base form. As with polyominoes, polyhexes may be enumerated as free polyhexes (where rotations and reflections count as the same shape), fixed polyhexes (where different orientations count as distinct) and one-sided polyhexes (where mirror images count as distinct but rotations count as identical). They may also be distinguished according to whether they may contain holes. The number of free -hexes for =1,2,3, is 1, 1, 3, 7, 22, 82, 333, 1448, (sequence A000228 in OEIS); the number of free polyhexes with holes is given by A038144; the number of free polyhexes without holes is given by A018190; the number of fixed polyhexes is given by A001207; the number of one-sided polyhexes is given by A006535.
The Monohex: The Dihex: The 3 Trihexes:
The 7 Tetrahexes:
The 22 Pentahexes:
The 82 Hexahexes:
Polyiamond
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Polyiamond
A polyiamond (also polyamond or simply iamond) is a polyform whose base form is an equilateral triangle. The word polyiamond is a back-formation from diamond, because this word is often used to describe the shape of a pair of equilateral triangles placed base to base, and the initial "di-" looked like a Greek prefix meaning "two-".
Counting polyiamonds
The basic combinatorial question is how many different polyiamonds exist with a given number of cells. Like polyominoes, polyiamonds may be free or one-sided. Free polyiamonds are invariant under reflection as well as translation and rotation. One-sided polyiamonds distinguish reflections. The number of free n-iamonds for n = 1, 2, 3, is: 1, 1, 1, 3, 4, 12, 24, 66, 160, (sequence A000577 in OEIS). The number of free polyiamonds with holes is given by A070764; the number of free polyiamonds without holes is given by A070765; the number of fixed polyiamonds is given by A001420; the number of one-sided polyiamonds is given by A006534.
Name Number of forms 1 Forms
Moniamond
Diamond Triamond Tetriamond
1 1 3
Pentiamond
Hexiamond
12
Symmetries
Possible symmetries are mirror symmetry, 2-, 3-, and 6-fold rotational symmetry, and each combined with mirror symmetry. 2-fold rotational symmetry with and without mirror symmetry requires at least 2 and 4 triangles, respectively. 6-fold rotational symmetry with and without mirror symmetry requires at least 6 and 18 triangles, respectively. Asymmetry requires at least 5 triangles. 3-fold rotational symmetry without mirror symmetry requires at least 7 triangles. In the case of only mirror symmetry we can distinguish having the symmetry axis aligned with the grid or rotated 30 (requires at least 4 and 3 triangles, respectively); ditto for 3-fold rotational symmetry, combined with mirror symmetry (requires at least 18 and 1 triangles, respectively).
Polyiamond
427
Asymmetric
Mirror, 0
Mirror, 30
Rotational, 2-Fold
Mirror, 2-Fold
Rotational, 3-Fold
Mirror, 0, 3-fold Mirror, 30, 3-fold Rotational, 6-Fold
Mirror, 6-Fold
Generalizations
Like polyominoes, but unlike polyhexes, polyiamonds have three-dimensional counterparts, formed by aggregating tetrahedra. However, polytetrahedra do not tile 3-space in the way polyiamonds can tile 2-space.
Tessellations
Every polyiamond of order 6 or less tiles the plane. All but one of the heptiamonds tile the plane.[1]
Correspondence with Polyhexes

Every polyiamond corresponds to a polyhex, as illustrated at right. Conversely, every polyhex is also a polyiamond, because each hexagonal cell of a polyhex is the union of six adjacent equilateral triangles.
External links
Weisstein, Eric W., "Polyiamond [2]" from MathWorld. Polyiamonds [3] at The Poly Pages [4]. Polyiamond tilings. VERHEXT [5] a 1960s puzzle game by Heinz Haber based on hexiamonds
Pentiamond with corresponding pentahex superimposed.
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] http:/ / www. mathpuzzle. com/ Tessel. htm http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Polyiamond. html http:/ / www. recmath. org/ PolyPages/ PolyPages/ Polyiamonds. htm http:/ / www. recmath. org/ PolyPages/ index. htm http:/ / home. arcor. de/ mdoege/ verhext/
Polyomino
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Polyomino
A polyomino is a plane geometric figure formed by joining one or more equal squares edge to edge. It is a polyform whose cells are squares. It may be regarded as a finite subset of the regular square tiling with a connected interior. Polyominoes are classified according to how many cells they have:
The 18 one-sided pentominoes, including 6 mirrored pairs
The 35 free hexominoes, colored according to their symmetry.
The 108 free heptominoes.
Polyomino
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The single free domino.
Number of cells 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 monomino domino
Name
tromino or triomino tetromino pentomino or pentamino hexomino heptomino octomino nonomino or enneomino decomino undecomino or hendecomino dodecomino
Polyominoes have been used in popular puzzles since at least 1907, and the enumeration of pentominoes is dated to antiquity.[1] Many results with the pieces of 1 to 6 squares were first published in Fairy Chess Review between the years 1937 to 1957, under the name of "dissection problems." The name polyomino was invented by Solomon W. Golomb in 1953 and it was popularized by Martin Gardner.[2] Related to polyominoes are polyiamonds, formed from equilateral triangles; polyhexes, formed from regular hexagons; and other plane polyforms. Polyominoes have been generalized to higher dimensions by joining cubes to form polycubes, or hypercubes to form polyhypercubes. Like many puzzles in recreational mathematics, polyominoes raise many combinatorial problems. The most basic is enumerating polyominoes of a given size. No formula has been found except for special classes of polyominoes. A number of estimates are known, and there are algorithms for calculating them. Polyominoes with holes are inconvenient for some purposes, such as tiling problems. In some contexts polyominoes with holes are excluded, allowing only simply connected polyominoes.[3]
Polyomino
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Enumeration of polyominoes
Free, one-sided, and fixed polyominoes
There are three common ways of distinguishing polyominoes for enumeration:[4][5] free polyominoes are distinct when none is a rigid transformation (translation, rotation, reflection or glide reflection) of another (pieces that can be picked up and flipped over). one-sided polyominoes are distinct when none is a translation or rotation of another (pieces that cannot be flipped over). fixed polyominoes are distinct when none is a translation of another (pieces that can be neither flipped nor rotated). The following table shows the numbers of polyominoes of various types with n cells.
n name (OEISsequence) free (A000105) 1 1 2 5 12 35 108 369 1,285 free with holes (A001419) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 6 37 free without holes (A000104) 1 1 2 5 12 35 107 363 1,248 one-sided (A000988) 1 1 2 7 18 60 196 704 2,500 fixed (A001168) 1 2 6 19 63 216 760 2,725 9,910
1 monomino 2 domino 3 tromino or triomino 4 tetromino 5 pentomino 6 hexomino 7 heptomino 8 octomino 9 nonomino or enneomino 10 decomino 11 undecomino 12 dodecomino
4,655 17,073 63,600
195 979 4,663
4,460 16,094 58,937
9,189 33,896 126,759
36,446 135,268 505,861
As of 2004, Iwan Jensen has enumerated the fixed polyominoes up to n = 56; the number of fixed polyominoes with 56 cells is approximately 6.9151031.[6] Free polyominoes have been enumerated up to {{{1}}} by Toms Oliveira e Silva.[7]
Symmetries of polyominoes
The dihedral group D4 is the group of symmetries (symmetry group) of a square. This group contains four rotations and four reflections. It is generated by alternating reflections about the x-axis and about a diagonal. One free polyomino corresponds to at most 8 fixed polyominoes, which are its images under the symmetries of D4. However, those images are not necessarily distinct: the more symmetry a free polyomino has, the fewer distinct fixed counterparts it has. Therefore, a free polyomino which is invariant under some or all non-trivial symmetries of D4 may correspond to only 4, 2 or 1 fixed polyominoes. Mathematically, free polyominoes are equivalence classes of fixed polyominoes under the group D4. Polyominoes have the following possible symmetries;[8] the least number of squares needed in a polyomino with that symmetry is given in each case: 8 fixed polyominoes for each free polyomino: no symmetry (4)
Polyomino 4 fixed polyominoes for each free polyomino: mirror symmetry with respect to one of the grid line directions (4) mirror symmetry with respect to a diagonal line (3) 2-fold rotational symmetry: C2 (4) 2 fixed polyominoes for each free polyomino: symmetry with respect to both grid line directions, and hence also 2-fold rotational symmetry: D2 (2) symmetry with respect to both diagonal directions, and hence also 2-fold rotational symmetry: D2 (7) 4-fold rotational symmetry: C4 (8) 1 fixed polyomino for each free polyomino: all symmetry of the square: D4 (1). The following table shows the numbers of polyominoes with n squares, sorted by symmetry groups.
n none (A006749) 0 0 0 1 5 20 84 316 1,196 4,461 16,750 62,878 mirror(90) (A006746) 0 0 0 1 2 6 9 23 38 90 147 341 mirror(45) (A006748) 0 0 1 0 2 2 7 5 26 22 91 79 C2 (A006747) 0 0 0 1 1 5 4 18 19 73 73 278 D2(90) (A056877) 0 1 1 1 1 2 3 4 4 8 10 15 D2(45) (A056878) 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 1 2 3 C4 (A144553) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3 D4 (A142886) 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 2 0 0 3
431
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Algorithms for enumeration of fixed polyominoes

Inductive algorithms Each polyomino of order n+1 can be obtained by adding a square to a polyomino of order n. This leads to algorithms for generating polyominoes inductively. Most simply, given a list of polyominoes of order n, squares may be added next to each polyomino in each possible position, and the resulting polyomino of order n+1 added to the list if not a duplicate of one already found; refinements in ordering the enumeration and marking adjacent squares that should not be considered reduce the number of cases that need to be checked for duplicates.[9] This method may be used to enumerate either free or fixed polyominoes. A more sophisticated method, described by Redelmeier, has been used by many authors as a way of not only counting polyominoes (without requiring that all polyominoes of order n be stored in order to enumerate those of order n+1), but also proving upper bounds on their number. The basic idea is that we begin with a single square, and from there, recursively add squares. Depending on the details, it may count each n-omino n times, once from starting from each of its n squares, or may be arranged to count each once only. The simplest implementation involves adding one square at a time. Beginning with an initial square, number the adjacent squares, clockwise from the top, 1, 2, 3, and 4. Now pick a number between 1 and 4, and add a square at
Polyomino that location. Number the unnumbered adjacent squares, starting with 5. Then, pick a number larger than the previously picked number, and add that square. Continue picking a number larger than the number of the current square, adding that square, and then numbering the new adjacent squares. When n squares have been created, an n-omino has been created. This method ensures that each fixed polyomino is counted exactly n times, once for each starting square. It can be optimized so that it counts each polyomino only once, rather than n times. Starting with the initial square, declare it to be the lower-left square of the polyomino. Simply do not number any square which is on a lower row, or left of the square on the same row. This is the version described by Redelmeier. If one wishes to count free polyominoes instead, then one may check for symmetries after creating each n-omino. However, it is faster[10] to generate symmetric polyominoes separately (by a variation of this method)[11] and so determine the number of free polyominoes by Burnside's lemma. Transfer-matrix method The most modern algorithm for enumerating the fixed polyominoes was discovered by Iwan Jensen.[12] An improvement on Andrew Conway's method,[13] it is exponentially faster than the previous methods (however, its running time is still exponential in n). Both Conway's and Jensen's versions of the transfer-matrix method involve counting the number of polyominoes that have a certain width. Computing the number for all widths gives the total number of polyominoes. The basic idea behind the method is that possible beginning rows are considered, and then to determine the minimum number of squares needed to complete the polyomino of the given width. Combined with the use of generating functions, this technique is able to count many polyominoes at once, thus enabling it to run many times faster than methods that have to generate every polyomino. Although it has excellent running time, the tradeoff is that this algorithm uses exponential amounts of memory (many gigabytes of memory are needed for n above 50), is much harder to program than the other methods, and can't currently be used to count free polyominoes.
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Asymptotic growth of the number of polyominoes

Fixed polyominoes Theoretical arguments and numerical calculations support the estimate
where = 4.0626 and c = 0.3169.[14] However, this result is not proven and the values of and c are only estimates. The known theoretical results are not nearly as specific as this estimate. It has been proven that
exists. In other words, An grows exponentially. The best known lower bound for is 3.980137.[15] The best known upper bound, not improved since the 1970s, is < 4.65.[16] To establish a lower bound, a simple but highly effective method is concatenation of polyominoes. Define the upper-right square to be the rightmost square in the uppermost row of the polyomino. Define the bottom-left square similarly. Then, the upper-right square of any polyomino of size n can be attached to the bottom-left square of any polyomino of size m to produce a unique (n+m)-omino. This proves AnAm An+m. Using this equation, one can show (An)1/n for all n. Refinements of this procedure combined with data for An produce the lower bound given above. The upper bound is attained by generalizing the inductive method of enumerating polyominoes. Instead of adding one square at a time, one adds a cluster of squares at a time. This is often described as adding twigs. By proving that every n-omino is a sequence of twigs, and by proving limits on the combinations of possible twigs, one obtains an
Polyomino upper bound on the number of n-ominoes. For example, in the algorithm outlined above, at each step we must choose a larger number, and at most three new numbers are added (since at most three unnumbered squares are adjacent to any numbered square). This can be used to obtain an upper bound of 6.75. Using 2.8 million twigs, Klarner and Rivest obtained an upper bound of 4.65. Free polyominoes Approximations for the number of fixed polyominoes and free polyominoes are related in a simple way. A free polyomino with no symmetries (rotation or reflection) corresponds to 8 distinct fixed polyominoes, and for large n, most n-ominoes have no symmetries. Therefore, the number of fixed n-ominoes is approximately 8 times the number of free n-ominoes. Moreover, this approximation is exponentially more accurate as n increases.[8]
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Special classes of polyominoes

Exact formulas are known for enumerating polyominoes of special classes, such as the class of convex polyominoes and the class of directed polyominoes. The definition of a convex polyomino is different from the usual definition of convexity. A polyomino is said to be column convex if its intersection with any vertical line is convex (in other words, each column has no holes). Similarly, a polyomino is said to be row convex if its intersection with any horizontal line is convex. A polyomino is said to be convex if it is row and column convex. A polyomino is said to be directed if it contains a square, known as the root, such that every other square can be reached by movements of up or right one square, without leaving the polyomino. Directed polyominoes,[17] column (or row) convex polyominoes,[18] and convex polyominoes[19] have been effectively enumerated by area n, as well as by some other parameters such as perimeter, using generating functions.
Uses of polyominoes
Polyominoes have fostered significant research in mathematics[20] and are a fertile subject for logic puzzles and recreational mathematics.[21] Challenges are often posed for covering (tiling) a prescribed region, or the entire plane, with polyominoes,[22] or folding a polyomino to create other shapes. Gardner proposed several simple games with a set of free pentominoes and a chessboard. Some variants of the Sudoku puzzle use polyomino-shaped regions on the grid. The game Tetris is based on the seven one-sided tetrominoes, and the board game Blokus uses all of the free polyominoes up to pentominoes.
Tiling regions with sets of polyominoes

Puzzles commonly ask for tiling a given region with a given set of polyominoes, such as the 12 pentominoes. Golomb's and Gardner's books have many examples. A typical puzzle is to tile a 610 rectangle with the twelve pentominoes; the 2339 solutions to this were found in 1960.[23] Where multiple copies of the polyominoes in the set are allowed, Golomb defines a hierarchy of different regions that a set may be able to tile, such as rectangles, strips, and the whole plane, and shows that whether polyominoes from a given set can tile the plane is undecidable, by mapping sets of Wang tiles to sets of polyominoes.[24]
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Tiling regions with copies of a single polyomino

Another class of problems asks whether copies of a given polyomino can tile a rectangle, and if so, what rectangles they can tile.[25] These problems have been extensively studied for particular polyominoes,[26] and tables of results for individual polyominoes are available.[27] Klarner and Gbel showed that for any polyomino there is a finite set of prime rectangles it tiles, such that all other rectangles it tiles can be tiled by those prime rectangles.[28][29] Beyond rectangles, Golomb gave his hierarchy for single polyominoes: a polyomino may tile a rectangle, a half strip, a bent strip, an enlarged copy of itself, a quadrant, a strip, a half plane, the whole plane, certain combinations, or none of these. There are certain implications among these, both obvious (for example, if a polyomino tiles the half plane then it tiles the whole plane) and less so (for example, if a polyomino tiles an enlarged copy of itself, then it tiles the quadrant). Polyominoes of orders up to 6 are characterized in this hierarchy (with the status of one hexomino, later found to tile a rectangle, unresolved at that time).[30] In 2001 Cristopher Moore and John Michael Robson showed that the problem of tiling one polyomino with copies of another is NP-complete.[31][32]
Tiling the plane with copies of a single polyomino

Tiling the plane with copies of a single polyomino has also been much discussed. It was noted in 1965 that all polyominoes of orders 1 through 6 tile the plane,[33] and then that all but four heptominoes will do so.[34] It was then established by David Bird that all but 26 octominoes tile the plane.[35] Rawsthorne found that all but 235 polyominoes of order 9 tile,[36] and such results have been extended to higher orders by Rhoads (to order 14)[37] and others. Polyominoes tiling the plane have been classified by the symmetries of their tilings and by the number of aspects (orientations) in which the tiles appear in them.[38][39][40]
Tiling a common figure with various polyominoes

The compatibility problem is to take two or more polyominoes and find a figure that can be tiled with each. Polyomino compatibility has been widely studied since the 1990s. Jorge Luis Mireles and Giovanni Resta have published websites of systematic results,[41][42] and Livio Zucca shows results for some complicated cases like three different pentominoes.[43] The general problem can be hard. The first compatibility figure for the L and X pentominoes was published in 2005 and had 80 tiles of each kind.[44] Many pairs of polyominoes have been proved incompatible by systematic exhaustion. No algorithm is known for deciding whether two arbitrary polyominoes are compatible.
A minimal compatibility figure for the T and W pentominoes.
Etymology
The word polyomino and the names of the various orders of polyomino are all back-formations from the word domino, a common game piece consisting of two squares, with the first letter d- fancifully interpreted as a version of the prefix di- meaning "two." The name domino for the game piece is believed to come from the spotted masquerade garment domino, from Latin dominus.[45] Most of the numerical prefixes are Greek. Polyominoes of order 9 and 11 more often take the Latin prefixes nona(nonomino) and undeca- (undecomino) than the Greek prefixes ennea- (enneomino) and hendeca- (hendecomino).
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Notes
[1] Golomb (Polyominoes, Preface to the First Edition) writes "the observation that there are twelve distinctive patterns (the pentominoes) that can be formed by five connected stones on a Go board is attributed to an ancient master of that game". [2] Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN0-691-02444-8. [3] Grnbaum, Branko; Shephard, G.C. (1987). Tilings and Patterns. New York: W.H. Freeman and Company. ISBN0-7167-1193-1. [4] Redelmeier, D. Hugh (1981). "Counting polyominoes: yet another attack". Discrete Mathematics 36 (2): 191203. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(81)90237-5. [5] Golomb, chapter 6 [6] Iwan Jensen. "Series for lattice animals or polyominoes" (http:/ / www. ms. unimelb. edu. au/ ~iwan/ animals/ Animals_ser. html). . Retrieved 2007-05-06. [7] Toms Oliveira e Silva. "Animal enumerations on the {4,4} Euclidean tiling" (http:/ / www. ieeta. pt/ ~tos/ animals/ a44. html). . Retrieved 2007-05-06. [8] Redelmeier, section 3 [9] Golomb, pp. 7379 [10] Redelmeier, section 4 [11] Redelmeier, section 6 [12] Jensen, Iwan (February 2001). "Enumerations of Lattice Animals and Trees". Journal of Statistical Physics 102 (34): 865881. arXiv:cond-mat/0007239. doi:10.1023/A:1004855020556. [13] Conway, Andrew (1995). "Enumerating 2D percolation series by the finite-lattice method: theory". Journal of Physics. A. Mathematical and General 28 (2): 335349. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/28/2/011. [14] Jensen, Iwan; Guttmann, Anthony J. (2000). "Statistics of lattice animals (polyominoes) and polygons". Journal of Physics. A. Mathematical and General 33 (29): L257L263. doi:10.1088/0305-4470/33/29/102. [15] Barequet, Gill; Moffie, Micha; Rib, Ares; Rote, Gnter (2006). "Counting polyominoes on twisted cylinders". Integers 6: A22. [16] Klarner, D.A.; Rivest, R.L. (1973). "A procedure for improving the upper bound for the number of n-ominoes" (http:/ / historical. ncstrl. org/ litesite-data/ stan/ CS-TR-72-263. pdf) (PDF of technical report version). Canadian Journal of Mathematics 25: 585602. doi:10.4153/CJM-1973-060-4. . Retrieved 2007-05-11. [17] Bousquet-Mlou, Mireille (1998). "New enumerative results on two-dimensional directed animals". Discrete Mathematics 180 (13): 73106. doi:10.1016/S0012-365X(97)00109-X. [18] Delest, M.-P. (1988). "Generating functions for column-convex polyominoes". Journal of Combinatorial Theory. Series A 48 (1): 1231. doi:10.1016/0097-3165(88)90071-4. [19] Bousquet-Mlou, Mireille; Fdou, Jean-Marc (1995). "The generating function of convex polyominoes: The resolution of a q-differential system". Discrete Mathematics 137 (13): 5375. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(93)E0161-V. [20] Mathematical Reviews subject classification 05B50 [21] Golomb, whole book [22] Martin, George E. (1996). Polyominoes: A guide to puzzles and problems in tiling (2nd ed.). Mathematical Association of America. ISBN0-88385-501-1. [23] C.B. Haselgrove; Jenifer Haselgrove (October 1960). "A Computer Program for Pentominoes". Eureka 23: 1618. [24] Golomb, Solomon W. (1970). "Tiling with Sets of Polyominoes". Journal of Combinatorial Theory 9: 6071. doi:10.1016/S0021-9800(70)80055-2. [25] Golomb, Polyominoes, chapter 8 [26] Reid, Michael. "References for Rectifiable Polyominoes" (http:/ / www. math. ucf. edu/ ~reid/ Polyomino/ rectifiable_bib. html). . Retrieved 2007-05-11. [27] Reid, Michael. "List of known prime rectangles for various polyominoes" (http:/ / www. math. ucf. edu/ ~reid/ Polyomino/ rectifiable_data. html). . Retrieved 2007-05-11. [28] Klarner, D.A.; Gbel, F. (1969). "Packing boxes with congruent figures". Indagationes Mathematicae 31: 465472. [29] Klarner, David A. (February 1973). "A Finite Basis Theorem Revisited" (http:/ / historical. ncstrl. org/ litesite-data/ stan/ CS-TR-73-338. pdf) (PDF). Stanford University Technical Report STAN-CS-73338. . Retrieved 2007-05-12. [30] Golomb, Solomon W. (1966). "Tiling with Polyominoes". Journal of Combinatorial Theory 1 (2): 280296. doi:10.1016/S0021-9800(66)80033-9. [31] Moore, Cristopher; Robson, John Michael (2001). "Hard Tiling Problems with Simple Tiles" (http:/ / www. santafe. edu/ media/ workingpapers/ 00-03-019. pdf). . [32] Petersen, Ivars (September 25, 1999), "Math Trek: Tiling with Polyominoes" (http:/ / www. sciencenews. org/ pages/ sn_arc99/ 9_25_99/ mathland. htm), Science News, . [33] Gardner, Martin (July 1965). "On the relation between mathematics and the ordered patterns of Op art". Scientific American 213 (1): 100104. [34] Gardner, Martin (August 1965). "Thoughts on the task of communication with intelligent organisms on other worlds". Scientific American 213 (2): 96100.
Polyomino
[35] Gardner, Martin (August 1975). "More about tiling the plane: the possibilities of polyominoes, polyiamonds and polyhexes". Scientific American 233 (2): 112115. [36] Rawsthorne, Daniel A. (1988). "Tiling complexity of small n-ominoes (n<10)". Discrete Mathematics 70: 7175. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(88)90081-7. [37] Rhoads, Glenn C. (2003). Planar Tilings and the Search for an Aperiodic Prototile. PhD dissertation, Rutgers University. [38] Grnbaum and Shephard, section 9.4 [39] Rhoads, Glenn C. (2005). "Planar tilings by polyominoes, polyhexes, and polyiamonds". Journal of Computational and Applied Mathematics 174 (2): 329353. doi:10.1016/j.cam.2004.05.002. [40] Keating, K.; Vince, A. (1999). "Isohedral Polyomino Tiling of the Plane". Discrete & Computational Geometry 21 (4): 615630. doi:10.1007/PL00009442. [41] Mireles, J.L., "Poly2ominoes" (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20091027093922/ http:/ / geocities. com/ jorgeluismireles/ polypolyominoes/ ) [42] Resta, G., "Polypolyominoes" (http:/ / www. iread. it/ Poly/ ) [43] Zucca, L., "Remembrance of Software Past" (http:/ / userpages. monmouth. com/ ~colonel/ rosp/ triplep. html) [44] Barbans, Uldis; Cibulis, Andris; Lee, Gilbert; Liu, Andy; Wainwright, Robert (2005). "Polyomino Number Theory (III)". In Cipra, Barry; Demaine, Erik D.; Demaine, Martin L. et al. Tribute to a Mathemagician. Wellesley, MA: A.K. Peters. pp.131136. ISBN978-1-56881-204-5. [45] Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edition, entry domino
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External links
An interactive polyomino-tiling application (http://gfredericks.com/main/sandbox/polyominoes) Karl Dahlke's polyomino finite-rectangle tilings (http://www.eklhad.net/polyomino/) An implementation and description of Jensen's method (http://www-cs-faculty.stanford.edu/~knuth/programs. html#polyominoes) A paper describing modern estimates (PS) (http://www.statslab.cam.ac.uk/~grg/books/hammfest/19-sgw. ps) Weisstein, Eric W., " Polyomino (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Polyomino.html)" from MathWorld. MathPages Notes on enumeration of polyominoes with various symmetries (http://www.mathpages.com/ home/kmath039.htm) List of dissection problems in Fairy Chess Review (http://www.mayhematics.com/d/db.htm) Tetrads (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/Tetrads/) by Karl Scherer, Wolfram Demonstrations Project.
Polyominoid
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Polyominoid
In geometry, a polyominoid (or minoid for short) is a set of equal squares in 3D space, joined edge to edge at 90- or 180-degree angles. The polyominoids include the polyominoes, which are just the planar polyominoids. The surface of a cube is an example of a hexominoid, or 6-cell polyominoid. Polyominoids appear to have been first proposed by Richard A. Epstein.[1] 90-degree connections are called hard; 180-degree connections are called soft. This is because, in manufacturing a model of the The polyominoids for n=1 through n=3 polyominoid, a hard connection would be easier to realize than a soft one.[2] Polyominoids may be classified as hard if every junction includes a 90 connection, soft if every connection is 180, and mixed otherwise, except that the unique monominoid has no connections of either kind, which makes it both hard and soft by default. The soft polyominoids are just the polyominoes. As with other polyforms, two polyominoids that are mirror images may be distinguished. One-sided polyominoids distinguish mirror images; free polyominoids do not. The table below enumerates free and one-sided polyominoids of up to 6 cells.
Free Cells Soft Hard Mixed Total[4] 1 2 3 4 5 6 1 2 5 12 35 see above 1 5 16 89 526 0 2 33 347 4089 1 2 9 54 448 4650 One-sided [3] Total 1 2 11 80 780 8781
Generalization to higher dimensions

In general one can define an n,k-polyominoid as a polyform made by joining k-dimensional hypercubes at 90 or 180 angles in n-dimensional space, where 1kn. Polysticks are 2,1-polyominoids. Polyominoes are 2,2-polyominoids. The polyforms described above are 3,2-polyominoids. Polycubes are 3,3-polyominoids.
Polyominoid
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References
[1] Epstein, Richard A. (1977), The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic (rev. ed.). Academic Press. ISBN 0-12-240761-X. Page 369. [2] The Polyominoids (http:/ / web. archive. org/ web/ 20091027093920/ http:/ / geocities. com/ jorgeluismireles/ polyominoids/ ) (archive of The Polyominoids (http:/ / www. geocities. com/ jorgeluismireles/ polyominoids/ )) [3] Number of polyominoids containing n squares, OEIS A056846 (http:/ / oeis. org/ A056846) [4] Number of free polyominoids with n squares, OEIS A075679 (http:/ / oeis. org/ A075679)
Polystick
In recreational mathematics, a polystick (or polyedge) is a polyform with a line segment (a 'stick') as the basic shape. Polysticks result when identical line segments are joined together end-to-end at 0 or 90 angles. The possible different polysticks, not including rotations and reflections, include: 1 monostick, 2 disticks, 5 tristicks, and 16 tetrasticks.
The following diagram shows the polysticks of sizes 1 through 4, including the 1 monostick (red), 2 disticks (green), 5 tristicks (blue), and 16 tetrasticks (black).
Polystick
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References
Polysticks Puzzles & Solutions, at Polyforms Puzzler [1] Counting polyforms, at the Solitaire Laboratory [2] Sloane's A019988 : Number of ways of embedding a connected graph with n edges in the square lattice [3]. The On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. OEIS Foundation. Covering the Aztec Diamond with One-sided Tetrasticks, Alfred Wassermann, University of Bayreuth, Germany
[4]
Polypolylines [5], at Math Magic [6]
References
[1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] http:/ / puzzler. sourceforge. net/ docs/ polysticks. html http:/ / www. solitairelaboratory. com/ polyenum. html http:/ / oeis. org/ A019988 http:/ / did. mat. uni-bayreuth. de/ wassermann/ tetrastick. pdf http:/ / www2. stetson. edu/ ~efriedma/ mathmagic/ 0806. html http:/ / www2. stetson. edu/ ~efriedma/ mathmagic/
Tetromino
A tetromino is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally.[1][2] This, like dominoes and pentominoes, is a particular type of polyomino. The corresponding polycube, called a tetracube, is a geometric shape composed of four cubes connected orthogonally. A popular use of tetrominos is in the video game Tetris, where they are often called Tetriminos.[3]
The 5 free tetrominoes
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The tetrominos
Free tetrominos
Polyominos are formed by joining unit squares along their edges. A free polyomino is a polyomino considered up to congruence. That is, two free polyominos are the same if there is a combination of translations, rotations, and reflections that turns one into the other. A free tetromino is a free polyomino made from four squares. There are five free tetrominos (see figure).
One-sided tetrominos
One-sided tetrominos are tetrominos that may be translated and rotated but not reflected. They are used by, and are overwhelmingly associated with, the game Tetris. There are seven distinct one-sided tetrominos. Of these seven, three have reflectional symmetry, so it does not matter whether they are considered as free tetrominos or one-sided tetrominos. These tetrominos are: I (also called "stick", "straight",[4] "long", "line"): four blocks in a straight line O (also called "square",[5][6] "package", "block"): four blocks in a 22 square.
The five free tetrominos, top to bottom I, O, Z, T, L, marked with light and dark squares. As there are a total of 11 light squares and 9 dark squares, it is not possible to pack them into a rectangle (such as ones with 45 or 210 squares) as any such rectangle has the same number of light and dark squares.
T: a row of three blocks with one added below the center. The remaining four tetrominos exhibit a phenomenon called chirality. These four come in two sets of two. Each of the members of these sets is the reflection of the other: J (also called "inverted L" or "Gamma"): a row of three blocks with one added below the right side.
L (also called "gun"[5]): a row of three blocks with one added below the left side. S (also called "inverted N", "reverse squiggly", "s-zigzag"): two stacked horizontal dominoes with the top one offset to the right
Z (also called "N", "skew",[7], "snake",[5] "squiggly", "z-zigzag"): two stacked horizontal dominoes with the top one offset to the left. As free tetrominos, J is equivalent to L and S is equivalent to Z. But in two dimensions and without reflections, it is not possible to transform J into L or S into Z.
Tetromino
441
Fixed tetrominos
The fixed tetrominos allow only translation, not rotation or reflection. There are two distinct fixed I-tetrominos, four J, four L, one O, two S, four T, and two Z, for a total of 19 fixed tetrominos.
Tiling the rectangle and filling the box with 2D pieces

Although a complete set of free tetrominos has a total of 20 squares, and a complete set of one-sided tetrominos has 28 squares, it is not possible to pack them into a rectangle, like hexominoes and unlike pentominoes. The proof is that a rectangle covered with a checkerboard pattern will have 10 or 14 each of light and dark squares, while a complete set of free tetrominos (pictured) has 11 light squares and 9 dark squares, and a complete set of one-sided tetrominos has 15 light squares and 13 dark squares. A bag including two of each free tetromino, which has a total area of 40 squares, can fit in 410 and 58 cell rectangles. Likewise, two sets of one-sided tetrominos can be fit to a rectangle in more than one way. The corresponding tetracubes can also fit in 245 and 2210 boxes. 58 rectangle
410 rectangle
245 box layer 1 Z L L L Z Z z L T Z z O t t t O I I I I : : : : : l l o o layer 2 T l o o T l z O T t z O i i i i
2210 box layer 1 L L L z z Z Z T O O L I I I I t t t O O : : : layer 2 o o z z Z Z T T T l o o i i i i t l l l
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Etymology
The name "tetromino" is a combination of the prefix tetra- "four" (from Ancient Greek -), and "domino".
Tetracubes
Each of the five free tetrominos has a corresponding tetracube, which is the tetromino extruded by one unit. J and L are the same tetracube, as are S and Z, because one may be rotated around an axis parallel to the tetromino's plane to form the other. Three more tetracubes are possible, all created by placing a unit cube on the bent tricube: Left screw: unit cube placed on top of anticlockwise side. Chiral in 3D. Right screw: unit cube placed on top of clockwise side. Chiral in 3D. Branch: unit cube placed on bend. Not chiral in 3D.
Filling the box with 3D pieces

In 3D, these eight tetracubes (suppose each piece consists of four cubes, L and J are the same, Z and S are the same) can fit in a 442 or 822 box. The following is one of the solutions. D, S and B represent right screw, left screw and branch point, respectively: 442 box layer 1 S S O O T S O O T T L D T B D D : : : : : layer 2 S Z L I Z Z L I Z B L I B B D I
822 box layer 1 : layer 2
D Z Z L O T T T : D L L L O B S S D D Z Z O B T S : I I I I O B B S If chiral pairs (D and S) are considered as identical, the remaining seven pieces can fill a 722 box. (C represents D or S.) layer 1 : layer 2
L L L Z Z B B : L C O O Z Z B C I I I I T B : C C O O T T T
Tetromino
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References
[1] Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN0-691-02444-8. [2] Redelmeier, D. Hugh (1981). "Counting polyominoes: yet another attack". Discrete Mathematics 36: 191203. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(81)90237-5. [3] "How to Play: Glossary" (http:/ / www. tetris. com/ how-to-play-tetris/ glossary. aspx), Tetris Official Web Site, Blue Planet Software. Retrieved 2012-11-6. [4] Weisstein, Eric W. "Straight Polyomino." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ StraightPolyomino. html [5] Demaine, Hohenberger, and Liben-Nowell. Tetris Is Hard, Even to Approximate (http:/ / www. cs. carleton. edu/ faculty/ dlibenno/ papers/ tetris/ tetris-short. pdf). [6] Weisstein, Eric W. "Square Polyomino." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ SquarePolyomino. html [7] Weisstein, Eric W. "Skew Polyomino." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource. http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ SkewPolyomino. html
External links
Vadim Gerasimov, "Tetris: the story."; The story of Tetris (http://vadim.oversigma.com/Tetris.htm) The Father of Tetris (http://www.tetris-today.com/story/original-tetris0.shtml) ( Web Archive copy of the page here (http://web.archive.org/web/20061202094148/http://www.tetris-today.com/story/ original-tetris0.shtml)) Open-source tetrominoes game (http://code.google.com/p/tetrominoes/)
Tromino
A tromino (or triomino) is a polyomino of order 3, that is, a polygon in the plane made of three equal-sized squares connected edge-to-edge.[1] When rotations and reflections are not considered to be distinct shapes, there are only two different free trominoes: "I" and "L" (the "L" shape is also called "V"). Since both free trominoes have reflection symmetry, they are also the only two one-sided trominoes (trominoes with reflections considered distinct). When rotations are also considered distinct, there are six fixed trominoes: two I and four L shapes. They can be obtained by rotating the above forms by 90, 180 and 270.[2][3]
All possible free trominos
References
[1] Golomb, Solomon W. (1994). Polyominoes (2nd ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN0-691-02444-8. [2] Weisstein, Eric W. "Triomino" (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ Triomino. html). From MathWorld A Wolfram Web Resource. . Retrieved 2009-12-05. [3] Redelmeier, D. Hugh (1981). "Counting polyominoes: yet another attack". Discrete Mathematics 36: 191203. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(81)90237-5.
External links
Golomb's inductive proof of a tromino theorem (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Geometry/Tromino. shtml) at cut-the-knot Tromino Puzzle (http://www.cut-the-knot.org/Curriculum/Games/TrominoPuzzle.shtml) at cut-the-knot Interactive Tromino Puzzle (http://www.amherst.edu/~nstarr/puzzle.html) at Amherst College
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Publications
Journal of Recreational Mathematics
Discipline Language Edited by Recreational mathematics English Charles Ashbacher, Lamarr Widmer Publication details Publisher Baywood Publishing Company (United States)
Publication history 1968-present Frequency Quarterly Indexing ISSN 0022-412X [1]
Links Journal homepage [2]
The Journal of Recreational Mathematics is an American journal dedicated to recreational mathematics, started in 1968. It is published quarterly by the Baywood Publishing Company. Harry Nelson was editor for five years and Joseph Madachy was the editor for many years. Charles Ashbacher and Colin Singleton took over as editors when Madachy retired. The current editors are Ashbacher and Lamarr Widmer. The journal contains: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Original articles Book reviews Alphametics And Solutions To Alphametics Problems And Conjectures Solutions To Problems And Conjectures Proposer's And Solver's List For Problems And Conjectures
Indexing
The journal is indexed in: Academic Search Premier Book Review Index International Bibliography of Periodical Literature International Bibliography of Book Reviews Readers' Guide to Periodical Literature The Gale Group
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References
[1] http:/ / www. worldcat. org/ issn/ 0022-412X [2] http:/ / www. baywood. com/ journals/ PreviewJournals. asp?Id=0022-412x
Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays

Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays (Academic Press, 1982) by Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway, and Richard K. Guy is a compendium of information on mathematical games. It was first published in 1982 in two volumes. The first volume introduces combinatorial game theory and its foundation in the surreal numbers; partizan and impartial games; SpragueGrundy theory and misre games. The second volume applies the theorems of the first volume to many games, including nim, sprouts, dots and boxes, Sylver coinage, philosopher's football, fox and geese. A final section on puzzles analyzes the Soma cube, Rubik's Cube, peg solitaire, and Conway's game of life. A republication of the work by A K Peters splits the content into four volumes.
Editions
1st edition, New York: Academic Press, 2 vols., 1982; vol. 1, hardback: ISBN 0-12-091150-7, paperback: ISBN 0-12-091101-9; vol. 2, hardback: ISBN 0-12-091152-3, paperback: ISBN 0-12-091102-7. 2nd edition, Wellesley, Massachusetts: A. K. Peters Ltd., 4 vols., 20012004; vol. 1: ISBN 1-56881-130-6; vol. 2: ISBN 1-56881-142-X; vol. 3: ISBN 1-56881-143-8; vol. 4: ISBN 1-56881-144-6.
Games mentioned in the book

This is a partial list of the games mentioned in the book. Note: Misere games not included Hackenbush Blue-Red Hackenbush Blue-Red-Green Hackenbush (Introduced as Hackenbush Hotchpotch in the book) Childish Hackenbush Ski-Jumps Toads-and-Frogs Cutcake Maundy Cake (2nd Unnamed Cutcake variant by Dean Hickerson) Hotcake Coolcakes
Baked Alaska Eatcake Turn-and_Eatcake Col Snort Nim (Green Hackenbush) Prim Dim
Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays Lasker's Nim Seating Couples Northcott's Game (Poker-Nim) The White Knight Wyt Queens (Wythoff's Game) Kayles Double Kayles Quadruple Kayles Dawson's Chess Dawson's Kayles Treblecross Grundy's Game Mrs. Grundy Domineering No Highway De Bono's L-Game Snakes-and-Ladders (Adders-and-Ladders)
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Jelly Bean Game Dividing Rulers
External links
Descriptions of games from the book [1]
References
[1] http:/ / www. madras. fife. sch. uk/ departments/ maths/ games/ index. html
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Tiling puzzles
Conway puzzle
Conway's puzzle is a packing problem using rectangular blocks, named after its inventor, mathematician John Conway. It calls for packing thirteen 1 2 4 blocks, one 2 2 2 block, one 1 2 2 block, and three 1 1 3 blocks into a 5 5 5 box.[1]
Pieces used in the Conway puzzle, one of each kind.
Solution
The solution of the Conway puzzle is straightforward when one realizes, based on parity considerations, that the three 1 1 3 blocks need to be placed so that precisely one of them appears in each 5 5 1 slice of the cube.[2] This is analogous to similar insight that facilitates the solution of the simpler SlothouberGraatsma puzzle.
External links
The Conway puzzle in Stewart Coffin's "The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections" [3]
A possible placement for the three 113 blocks.
References
[1] "Conway Puzzle" (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ ConwayPuzzle. html). Wolfram MathWorld. . Retrieved 2007-03-14. [2] Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway and Richard K. Guy: winning ways for your mathematical plays, 2nd ed, vol. 4, 2004. [3] http:/ / www. johnrausch. com/ PuzzlingWorld/ chap03f. htm
Dissection puzzle
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Dissection puzzle
A dissection puzzle, also called a transformation puzzle or Richter Puzzle[1], is a tiling puzzle where a solver is given a set of pieces that can be assembled in different ways to produce two or more distinct geometric shapes. The creation of new dissection puzzles is also considered to be a type of dissection puzzle. Puzzles may include various restraints, such as hinged pieces, pieces that can fold, or pieces that can twist. Creators of new dissection puzzles emphasize using a minimum number of pieces, or creating novel situations, such as ensuring that every piece connects to another with a hinge.
History
Dissection puzzles are an early form of geometric puzzle. The earliest known descriptions of dissection puzzles are from the time of Plato (427347BCE) in Ancient Greece, and involve the challenge of turning two equal squares into one larger square using four pieces. Other ancient dissection puzzles were used as graphic depictions of the Pythagorean theorem (see square trisection). A famous ancient Greek dissection puzzle is the Ostomachion, a mathematical treatise attributed to Archimedes; now the two equal squares are turned into one square in fourteen pieces by subdivision of the previous four pieces. In the 10th century, Arabic mathematicians used geometric dissections in their commentaries on Euclid's Elements. In the 18th century, Chinese scholar Tai Chen described an elegant dissection for approximating the value of .
Ostomachion is a dissection puzzle attributed to Archimedes; this image is after Suter and requires a lateral stretch by a factor of two
The puzzles saw a major increase in general popularity in the late 19th century when newspapers and magazines began running dissection puzzles. Puzzle creators Sam Loyd in the United States and Henry Dudeney in the United Kingdom were among the most published. Since then, dissection puzzles have been used for entertainment and maths education, and creation of complex dissection puzzles is considered an exercise of geometric principles by mathematicians and math students.
Dissection puzzle
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Types of dissection puzzle

Some types of dissection puzzle are intended to create a large number of different geometric shapes. Tangram is a popular dissection puzzle of this type. The seven pieces can be configured into one of a few home shapes, such as the large square and rectangle that the pieces are often stored in, to any number of smaller squares, triangles, parallelograms, or esoteric shapes and figures. Some geometric forms are easy to create, while others present an extreme challenge. This variability has ensured the puzzle's popularity.
A Tangram puzzle, with its pieces in the rectangular "storage" configuration.
Other dissections are intended to move between a pair of geometric shapes, such as a triangle to a square, or a square to a five-pointed star. A dissection puzzle of this description is the haberdasher's problem, proposed in 1907 by Henry Dudeney. The puzzle is a dissection of a triangle to a square, in only four pieces. It is one of the simplest regular polygon to square dissections known, and is now a classic example.
The haberdasher's problem, created by Henry Dudeney.
References
[1] Forbrush, William Byron (1914). Manual of Play (http:/ / books. google. com/ books?id=FpoWAAAAIAAJ& pg=PA315& dq="The+ Anchor+ Puzzle"& hl=en& ei=7CO2TKLqLMPflgfU1pnuBQ& sa=X& oi=book_result& ct=result& resnum=3& ved=0CDIQ6AEwAjgK#v=onepage& q="The Anchor Puzzle"& f=false). Jacobs. p.315. . Retrieved 2010-10-13.
Further reading
Coffin, Stewart T. (1990). The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections (http://www.johnrausch.com/ PuzzlingWorld/default.htm). Oxford University Press. ISBN0-19-853207-5. Frederickson, Greg N. (1997). Dissections: Plane and Fancy (http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/gnf/book. html). Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-57197-9. Frederickson, Greg N. (2002). Hinged Dissections: Swinging and Twisting (http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/ gnf/book2.html). Cambridge University Press. ISBN0-521-81192-9. Frederickson, Greg N. (2006). Piano-hinged Dissections: Time to Fold! (http://www.cs.purdue.edu/homes/ gnf/book3.html). A K Peters. ISBN1-568-81299-X. Weisstein, Eric W. (2006). "Haberdasher's Problem" (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HaberdashersProblem. html). MathWorld. Wolfram Web Resources. Retrieved 2006-08-08.
Edge-matching puzzle
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Edge-matching puzzle
An edge-matching puzzle is a type of tiling puzzle involving tiling an area with (typically regular) polygons whose edges are distinguished with colours or patterns, in such a way that the edges of adjacent tiles match. Edge-matching puzzles are known to be NP-complete, and capable of conversion to and from equivalent jigsaw puzzles and polyomino packing puzzle.[1] The first edge-matching puzzles were patented in the U.S. by E. L. Thurston in 1892.[2] Current examples of commercial edge-matching puzzles include the Eternity II puzzle, TetraVex, Dodek Duo, Kadon Enterprises' range of edge-matching puzzles, and the Edge Match Puzzles iPhone app.
References
[1] Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine. "Jigsaw Puzzles, Edge Matching, and Polyomino Packing: Connections and Complexity" (http:/ / theory. lcs. mit. edu/ ~edemaine/ papers/ Jigsaw_GC/ paper. pdf). . Retrieved 2007-08-12. [2] "Rob's puzzle page: Edge Matching" (http:/ / home. comcast. net/ ~stegmann/ pattern. htm#edgematch). . Retrieved 2007-08-12.
External links
Erich's Matching Puzzles Collection (http://www.stetson.edu/~efriedma/rubik/match/index.html) Color- and Edge-Matching Polygons (http://mitglied.lycos.de/polyforms/coloredpolygons/index.html) by Peter Esser Rob's puzzle page (http://home.comcast.net/~stegmann/pattern.htm) by Rob Stegmann
Eternity II puzzle
The Eternity II puzzle, aka E2 or E II, is a puzzle competition which was released on 28 July 2007.[1] The competition ended at noon on the 31st of December 2010. It was published by Christopher Monckton, and is marketed and copyrighted by TOMY UK Ltd. A $2 million prize was offered for the first complete solution.
Puzzle mechanics
The Eternity II puzzle is an edge-matching puzzle which involves placing 256 square puzzle pieces into a 16 by 16 grid, constrained by the requirement to match adjacent edges. It has been designed to be difficult to solve by brute-force computer search. Each puzzle piece has its edges on one side marked with different shape/colour combinations (collectively called "colours" here), each of which must match precisely with its neighbouring side on each adjacent piece when the puzzle is complete. The other side of each piece is blank apart from an identifying number, and is not used in the puzzle. Thus, each piece can be used in only 4 orientations. There are 22 colours, not including the gray edges. Five of those can only be found on border and corner pieces and 17 only on so called inner pieces and the side of the border piece across from the gray colour. This puzzle differs from the first Eternity puzzle in that there is a starter piece which must be placed near the center of the board. (See PDF rulebook on official website.[2]) Two Clue Puzzles were available with the launch of the product, which, if solved, each give a piece position on the main 256-piece puzzle. Clue Puzzle 1 is 6 by 6, with 36 pieces and Clue Puzzle 2 is 12 by 6, with 72 pieces. Two further puzzles were made available in 2008. Clue Puzzle 3 is 6 by 6, with 36 pieces, and Clue Puzzle 4 is 12 by 6, with 72 pieces. The number of possible configurations for the Eternity II puzzle, assuming all the pieces are distinct, and ignoring the fixed pieces with pre-determined positions, is 256! 4256, roughly 1.15 10661. A tighter upper bound to the
Eternity II puzzle possible number of configurations can be achieved by taking into account the fixed piece in the center and the restrictions set on the pieces on the edge: 1 4! 56! 195! 4195, roughly 1.115 10557.
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Solution submissions
After the first scrutiny date on 31 December 2008 it was announced that no complete solution had been found. A prize of $10,000 was awarded to Anna Karlsson from Lund in Sweden for a partial solution with 467 matching edges out of 480.[3] The second scrutiny date was noon GMT on 31 December 2009. A communication from Tomy Webcare stated: "I can now confirm that although we received many excellent entries we have not received any complete entries therefore, Eternity II still remains unsolved and the clock is now ticking to claim the $2m prize. All solutions received this year will be locked away in a vault until the final scrutiny date, 31st December 2010. On that day, all solutions will be opened in date order received and the first person with a complete solution wins $2million." As of 30 January 2011, the official Eternity II site announces that "The final date for the correct solution of the Eternity II puzzle passes without a winner, and the $2m Prize for a correct solution to the Eternity II puzzle goes unclaimed."[4]
Solution
A complete solution is still missing. Therefore it is unproven that the puzzle is solvable at all.
History and puzzle construction

The original Eternity puzzle was a tiling puzzle with a million-pound prize, created by Christopher Monckton. Launched in June 1999, it was solved by an ingenious computer search algorithm designed by Alex Selby and Oliver Riordan, which exploited combinatorial weaknesses of the original puzzle design.[5] The prize money was paid out in full to Selby and Riordan. The Eternity II puzzle was designed by Monckton in 2005, this time in collaboration with Selby and Riordan, who designed a computer program that generated the final Eternity II design.[6] According to the mathematical game enthusiast Brendan Owen, the Eternity II puzzle appears to have been designed to avoid the combinatorial flaws of the previous puzzle, with design parameters which appear to have been chosen to make the puzzle as difficult as possible to solve. In particular, unlike the original Eternity puzzle, there are likely only to be a very small number of possible solutions to the problem.[7] Owen estimates that a brute-force backtracking search might take around 21047 steps to complete. [8] Monckton was quoted by The Times in 2005 as saying: "Our calculations are that if you used the worlds most powerful computer and let it run from now until the projected end of the universe, it might not stumble across one of the solutions."[6] Although it has been demonstrated that the class of edge-matching puzzles, of which Eternity II is a special case, is in general NP-complete,[9] the same can be said of the general class of polygon packing problems, of which the original Eternity puzzle was a special case. Like the original Eternity puzzle, it is easy to find large numbers of ways to place substantial numbers of pieces on the board whose edges all match, making it seem that the puzzle is easy. However, given the low expected number of possible solutions, it is presumably astronomically unlikely that any given partial solution will lead to a complete solution.
Eternity II puzzle
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References
[1] "Description of Eternity II release" (http:/ / www. prnewswire. co. uk/ cgi/ news/ release?id=188486). PR. 2007-02-16. . Retrieved 2007-02-16. [2] Download PDF rule book (http:/ / uk. eternityii. com/ about-eternity2/ download/ ) from official site. [3] http:/ / sydsvenskan. se/ lund/ article407252/ Lundafamilj-bast-i-varlden-pa-svarknackt-pussel. html Link in Swedish [4] "Eternity II" (http:/ / www. eternityii. com/ ) (official website). . Retrieved 2011-01-30. [5] "Description of Selby and Riordan's Eternity I solver method" (http:/ / www. archduke. org/ eternity/ method/ desc. html). Alex Selby (and Oliver Riordan). 2007-06-16. . Retrieved 2007-06-16. [6] Elliott, John (2005-12-04). "1m says this really is the hardest jigsaw" (http:/ / www. timesonline. co. uk/ tol/ news/ uk/ article745506. ece). London: Times Online. . Retrieved 2007-11-09. [7] ""Design" page on Brendan Owen's Eternity II website" (http:/ / eternityii. mrowen. net/ design. html). . Retrieved 2007-11-09. [8] ""Solving" page on Brendan Owen's Eternity II website" (http:/ / eternityii. mrowen. net/ solving. html). . Retrieved 2007-11-09. [9] Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine. "Jigsaw Puzzles, Edge Matching, and Polyomino Packing: Connections and Complexity" (http:/ / theory. lcs. mit. edu/ ~edemaine/ papers/ Jigsaw_GC/ paper. pdf) (PDF). . Retrieved 2007-08-12.
External links
The homepage for Eternity II (http://www.eternityii.com/) Open Source Eternity II Editor/Solver software (http://sourceforge.net/projects/eternityii/) Open Source Eternity II puzzle software (http://sourceforge.net/projects/e2manual/) E2Lab : Free Eternity II Editor/Solver software (http://eternityii.free.fr/) E2Solver : Open Source Eternity II puzzle solver (http://code.google.com/p/e2solver/) Description of Eternity II and discussion of solvers (http://grokcode.com/10/ e2-the-np-complete-kids-game-with-the-2-million-prize/) Description of the Eternity II solver used by Anna Karlsson (http://www.shortestpath.se/eii/eii_details.html)
Eternity puzzle
Eternity is a tiling puzzle created by Christopher Monckton and launched by the Ertl Company in June 1999. Consisting of 209 pieces, it was marketed as being practically unsolveable, with a 1 million prize on offer for whomsoever could solve it within four years. The prize was paid out in October 2000 for a winning solution arrived at by two mathematicians from Cambridge.[1] A second puzzle, Eternity II, was launched in Summer 2007 with a prize of US$2 million.[2]
Puzzle
The puzzle consists of filling a large almost regular dodecagon with 209 irregularly shaped smaller polygon pieces of the same color. All the pieces were made from a combination of equilateral triangles and half-triangles, with each piece having the same total area of 6 of those triangles, and between seven and eleven sides.[1][3]
Retail
The puzzle was launched in June 1999, by Ertl, marketed to amateur puzzle solvers and 500,000 copies were sold worldwide, with the game becoming a craze at one point. Eternity was the best-selling puzzle or game in the UK at its price-point of 35 in its launch month.
Eternity puzzle
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Prize
The puzzle's inventor Christopher Monckton put up half the prize money himself, the other half being put up by underwriters in the London insurance market. According to Eternity's rules, possible solutions to the puzzle would be received by mail on September 21, 2000. If no correct solutions were opened, the mail for the next year would be kept until September 30, 2001, the process being repeated every year until 2003, after which no entries would be accepted. Before marketing the puzzle, Monckton had thought that it would take at least three years before anyone could crack the puzzle.[1] One estimate made at the time stated that the puzzle had 10500 possible attempts at a solution, and it would take longer than the lifetime of the Universe to calculate all of them even if you had a million computers.[4] Once solved, Monckton jokingly claimed that the earlier-than-expected solution had forced him to sell his 67-room house to pay the prize.[1][2] Unprompted, in 2006, he disclosed that the claim had been a PR stunt to boost sales over Christmas, that the house's sale was unrelated, and that he was going to sell it anyway.[2]
Solution
As soon as the puzzle was launched, an online community emerged devoted to solving it, centred on a mailing list [5] on which many ideas and techniques were discussed. It was soon realised that it was trivial to fill the board almost completely, to an "end-game position" where an irregularly-shaped void had to be filled with only a few pieces, at which point the pieces left would be the "wrong shapes" to fill the remaining space. The hope of solving the end-game depended vitally on having pieces that were easy to tile together in a variety of shapes. Computer searches were carried out to find which pieces tiled well or badly, and these data used to alter otherwise-standard backtracking search programs to use the bad pieces first, in the hope of being left with only good pieces in the hard final part of the search. The puzzle was solved on May 15, 2000, before the first deadline, by two Cambridge mathematicians, Alex Selby and Oliver Riordan.[6] Key to their success was the mathematical rigour with which they approached the problem of determining the tileability of individual pieces and of empty regions within the board. These provided measures of the probability that a given piece could help to fill or 'tile' a given region, and the probability that a given region could be tiled by some combination of pieces. In the search for a solution, these probabilities were used to identify which partial tilings, out of a vast number explored by the computer program, were most likely to lead to a solution. A complete solution was obtained within seven months of brute-force search on two domestic PCs.
References
[1] "1m Eternity jackpot scooped" (http:/ / news. bbc. co. uk/ 2/ hi/ entertainment/ 992393. stm), BBC News, 2000-10-26, [2] "Aristocrat admits tale of lost home was stunt to boost puzzle sales" (http:/ / thescotsman. scotsman. com/ scotland/ Aristocrat-admits-tale-of-lost. 3340554. jp). The Scotsman. 2007-01-24. . Retrieved 2007-01-24. [3] http:/ / plus. maths. org/ issue13/ features/ eternity/ index. html [4] Duncan Richer (July 1999), The Eternity Puzzle (http:/ / nrich. maths. org/ public/ viewer. php?obj_id=1354& part=index& refpage=articles. php), NRICH, [5] "Eternity mailing list" (http:/ / tech. groups. yahoo. com/ group/ eternity/ messages). . Retrieved 2011-09-28. [6] "Description of (Eternity solver) method" (http:/ / www. archduke. org/ eternity/ method/ desc. html). Alex Selby (and Oliver Riordan). 2007-06-16. . Retrieved 2007-06-16.
Eternity puzzle
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External links
A detailed article on how the puzzle was solved (http://plus.maths.org/issue13/features/eternity/index.html) Discussion of the Eternity puzzle and related problems (http://mathpuzzle.com/eternity.html) Alex Selby's page on the Eternity puzzle (http://www.archduke.org/eternity/) Wolfram MathWorld article (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Eternity.html)
Ostomachion
Ostomachion, also known as loculus Archimedius (Archimedes' box in Latin) and also as syntomachion, is a mathematical treatise attributed to Archimedes. This work has survived fragmentarily in an Arabic version and in a copy of the original ancient Greek text made in Byzantine times.[1] The word Ostomachion has as its roots in the Greek "",[2] which means "bone-fight", from "" (osteon), "bone"[3] + "" (mache), "fight, battle, combat".[4] Note that the manuscripts refer to the word as "Stomachion", an apparent corruption of the original Greek. Ausonius gives us the correct name "Ostomachion" (quod Graeci ostomachion vocavere). The Ostomachion which he describes was a puzzle similar to tangrams and was played perhaps by several persons with pieces made of bone. It is not known which is older, Archimedes' geometrical investigation of the figure, or the game.
Ostomachion (after Suter; this version requires a lateral stretch by a factor of two to match that in the Archimedes Palimpsest)
Game
The game is a 14-piece dissection puzzle forming a square. One form of play to which classical texts attest is the creation of different objects, animals, plants etc. by rearranging the pieces: an elephant, a tree, a barking dog, a ship, a sword, a tower etc. Another suggestion is that it exercised and developed memory skills in the young. James Gow, in his Short History of Greek Mathematics (1884), footnotes that the purpose was to put the pieces back in their box, and this was also a view expressed by W. W. Rouse Ball in some intermediate editions of Mathematical Essays and Recreations, but edited out from 1939.
Mathematical problem
Ostomachion (after Suter): square reformed with some pieces turned over
In the fragment in Arabic translated by Heinrich Suter it is shown that each of the pieces has an area that is a rational fraction of the total area of the dissected parallelogram. In the Greek version of the treatise, some investigation is made as to the sizes of the angles of the pieces to see which could go together to make a straight line. This might have been preparatory to consideration of the number of ways the pieces might reform some prescribed shape, for example the box in which the pieces were contained, although there is not enough of the Greek text remaining to be sure. If this is the case, then Archimedes anticipated aspects of combinatorics. Combinatorics often involves finding the number of ways a given problem can be solved, subject to
Ostomachion well-defined constraints. For example, the number of ways of reforming a square using the pieces as proposed by Suter is 536 without distinguishing the result up to rotations and reflections of the square, but allowing the pieces to be turned over.[1] One such solution is shown in colour to the right. However, if pieces are not allowed to be turned over, for example, if obverse and reverse can be distinguished or, in the case of Suter's pieces, on account of the sharpness of some angles, the corresponding number is 4. If rotations and reflections are treated as distinct, these numbers rise to 17,152 and 64, respectively. The counts of 4 and 64 may be verified easily as lower bounds by elementary group theory, but were confirmed as exact by Bill Cutler shortly after his determination of the count 536 and by the same computer program. So, there are at least four different answers that we might give just considering Suter's proposal. Clearly, to count, you have to know what counts. When, as here, the number of outcomes is so sensitive to the assumptions made, it helps to state them explicitly. Put another way, combinatorics can help sharpen our awareness of tacit assumptions. If, say, answers like 4 or 64 are unacceptable for some reason, we have to re-examine our presumptions, possibly questioning whether Suter's pieces can be turned over in reforming their square. As emerges below, there is also some objection to Suter's proposal which would render this combinatorial discussion of the Suter board academic. The Greek text of the fragment can also be found in the Bibliotheca Augustana [5] website. This is an English translation, with added disambiguation in brackets, of the text of the fragmentary Arabic manuscript (translated from Heinrich Suter's German translation in: Archimedis opera omnia, vol. 2, p.420 sqq., ed. J. L. Heiberg, Leipzig 1881, as published in the Bibliotheca Augustana [6] website): " We draw a [rectangular] parallelogram ABGD, we bisect BG in E and draw EZ perpendicular to BG [to intersect AD], we draw the diagonals AG, BZ [intersecting AG at L], and ZG, we also bisect BE in H, and draw HT perpendicular to BE [to intersect BZ], then we put the ruler at point H and - looking to point A - we draw HK [to intersect BZ], then bisect AL in M, and draw BM. So the A-E rectangle is divided into seven parts. Now we bisect DG in N, ZG in C, we draw EC and attaching the ruler to the points B and C we draw CO [to intersect DG], furthermore CN. Thus the rectangle ZG is also divided in seven parts, but in another way than the first one. Therefore, the whole square has fourteen parts. We now demonstrate that each of the fourteen parts is in rational relationship to the whole square. Because ZG is the diagonal of the rectangle Z-G, the triangle DZG is half of this rectangle, that means 1/4 of the square. But the triangle GNC is 1/4 of triangle DZG, because, if we extend the line EC, it comes to point D, and that means triangle GDC has half area of the triangle DZG and is equal to the two triangles GNC and DNC taken together; that means triangle GNC is 1/16 of the square. If we presume that line OC is orientated to point B, as we have drawn it before, so the line NC is parallel to BG, which is the side of the square and of the triangle OBG, so we get the proportion BG : NC = GO : NO. But BG is four times NC, and in the same way GO four times NO; therefore is GN three times NO, and triangle GNC = 3 ONC. However, as we have shown, triangle GNC is 1/16 of the square, that means triangle ONC = 1/48 of the square. Furthermore, as triangle GDZ = 1/4 of the square, and therefore GNC = 1/16 of that triangle and NCO = 1/48 of that, it remains for the quadrilateral DOCZ = 1/6 of the squares area. According to the proposition that line NC [extended] intersects [ZE at] point F, and GE is parallel to CF, [and labelling the intersection of AG and CE as Q,] we get the proportion EC : CF = EQ : CQ = GQ : FQ.
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Ostomachion Because EQ = 2 CQ and GQ = 2 FQ, triangle EQG is double to the two triangles GCQ and EFQ. It is clear, that triangle EGZ = 2 times triangle EFG, because ZE = 2 FE. As the triangle EGZ = 1/4 of the square, that means triangle EFG = 1/8 of the square. This triangle is three times as big as each of the two triangles EFQ and GCQ, so each of these two triangles = 1/24 of the square A-G. And the triangle EGQ is double to each of the two triangles EFQ and GCQ, so it is = 1/12 of the square. Furthermore because ZF = EF, triangle ZFG = triangle EFG. If we now take away triangle GCQ (= triangle EFQ), it leaves quadrilateral FQCZ (= triangle EGQ), therefore quadrilateral FQCZ = 1/12 of the square A-G. We have now divided the rectangle Z-G in 7 parts, and go on to divide the other rectangle. Because BZ and EC are two parallel diagonals, and ZF = EF, therefore triangle ZLF = EFQ, and also triangle ZLF = 1/24 of the square A-G. Because BH = HE, triangle BEZ is four times the triangle BHT, because each of them is rectangular. As triangle BEZ = 1/4 of the square ABGD, triangle BHT = 1/16 of that. According to our proposition the line HK [extended[ intersects point A, so we get the proportion AB : HT = BK : KT.
If an Ostomachion were to be imposed
456
Because AB = 2 HT, and BK = 2 KT and BT = 3 KT, triangle BHT is onto a 12-unit square, this diagram shows the area of each piece. three times the triangle KHT. However, because triangle BHT = 1/16 of the whole square, triangle KHT = 1/48 of that. Triangle BKH is double the triangle KHT, so = 1/24 of the square. Further, as BL = 2 ZL, and AL = 2 LF, triangle ABL is twice the triangle ALZ, and ALZ double the triangle ZLF. However, because triangle ZLF = 1/24 of the whole square, triangle ALZ = 1/12 of that, so triangle ABL = 1/6. But triangle ABM = triangle BML, so each of these two triangles = 1/12 of the square. It leaves the pentagon LFEHT = 7/48 of the entire square. We have now also divided the square AE into 7 sections, therefore, the whole figure ABGD in 14 parts. Each of these fourteen parts is in rational relationship to the whole, and that is what we wanted." However, Suter was translating unpointed Arabic, in which, as he concedes, equals and twice are easily confused. At a crucial point in his translation he ignores this in making his figure a square; instead he makes a typographical error, equating, not the sides, but a side and a diagonal, in which case the figure cannot be a rectangle. Suter does know that, for the areal results discussed in the text, it suffices that the figure be a parallelogram. Suter may have been under the impression that the figure had to be a square, so made it one. The dissection lines given by Archimedes' Stomachion from the Archimedes Codex , as agreed by Heiberg and Dijksterhuis, are a subset of those of Suter's square board when the latter is subjected to a lateral stretch by a factor of two. This was recognised by Richard Dixon Oldham, FRS, in a letter to Nature in March, 1926. The letter triggered a wave of interest in the dissection puzzle, with kits for sale and a feature article in The New York Times that August; Popular Science Monthly had related items in its issues for November, 1926 and February, March, May and June, 1927, including Stomachion competitions with cash prizes. As each of the two unit squares is cut diagonally, the pieces can be arranged in a single square of side the square root of two, after the manner deployed by Socrates in Plato's Meno. Thus, the 14 pieces still form a square, even when the dissected board is not a square. Naturally, the count of solutions also changes, but here we now have three possible boxes: the two unit squares side by side; the two unit squares one on top of the other; and this single square of side the square root of two. The single square can be formed from four congruent right isosceles triangles, but this can also be accomplished with three right isosceles triangles, two congruent and the third double their area, as in Tangram, as well as in a third way where only one right isosceles triangle is formed. (Bill Cutler has made a comprehensive study of the associated counts comparable to those mentioned for the Suter board.) With two exceptions, the pieces can be formed from right triangles with legs in the ratios 1:1, 1:2 and 1:3, with some pieces similar to others, possibly at different scales; this
Ostomachion observation provides a comparatively easy means to determine the proportional areas of the pieces. Suter's translation can now be checked against the fragment of Archimedes' Stomachion in the Archimedes Codex, as was presumably not open to Suter himself when he made the translation. Heiberg, followed by Dijksterhius, seem to have thought that the two texts, the Greek discussing angles, the Arabic areas, were so different there was no relation between the two, so may have felt there was nothing to check. But, in Suter's square, the diagonals cross at right angles, whence the nature the angles examined in the first proposition of Archimedes' Stomachion, whether acute or obtuse, is immediate, making it puzzling why Archimedes would prove this as a proposition. Instead, the first proposition, if it is seen to relate to the underlying figure of the dissected Stomachion board, sets up two squares side by side, in which setting the nature of the angles is more sensitive, but still tractable. The two squares separately suggest two frames of an iterative process. If this process is continued, rational approximations of the square root of two are obtained; these are the side-diameter numbers familiar to the Greeks. At each step of the process, the nature of the angles switches back and forth, highlighting the significance of the first proposition. Whether or not this has any bearing on Archimedes' Stomachion is another matter, but it does provide a geometrical means to handle recurrence relations if you do not have algebraic notation, such as subscripts, and the geometry is fully within Archimedes' capabilities. The same technique readily produces the bounds for the square root of three that Archimedes assumes without comment in Measurement of a Circle; if it were applied to the dissection of a square proposed by Suter, analogous bounds for the square root of five are obtained. The geometry can be worked independently of knowledge of Pell's equation or of the properties of convergents of a continued fraction, but to similar effect. The dissection of the two squares side by side can also be seen as a layered composite or collage of instances of the diagrams for Elements II.9, 10. Viewed numerically, these propositions provide the link between the legs of right triangles in the unit square grid and those of right triangles in the overlaid diagonal square grid where the right triangles share their hypotenuse, although Euclid proves them in terms of geometrical lines. Thus, pairs of successive side numbers in the overlaid grid are associated with pairs of successive diameter numbers in the unit square grid, as remarked by Proclus, rather than side and diameter numbers being paired. The ratios within these pairs are then rational approximations for the tangent of /8, in agreement with the iterative process of the previous paragraph, which is, in effect, an angle bisection algorithm. This reminds us that a natural setting for the side-diameter numbers is a nest of regular octagons. The analogue for the square root of three is not an angle bisection algorithm, but it does produce rational approximations to the tangent of /12, with the regular dodecagon as a setting. Instead of simply approximating the square roots in each case, we can approximate the corresponding regular polygons. But, again, whether this was actually Archimedes' agenda is another matter. Irrespective of the parallelogram adopted for the Stomachion board, the presence of several centroids of triangles on the board as further points of it might seem another Archimedean theme, not least as they facilitate the computation of the relative areas of the pieces. Most obviously, Q is the centroid of the right triangle GZE, so the pieces in that triangle are either one sixth or one third of it. But similarly K is the centroid of right triangle EAB, so triangle HKB has area one sixth of it. In Equilibrium of Planes, Archimedes makes use of the concurrence of the three medians of a triangle in the centroid, but does not prove it. As it happens, for both K and Q, we see two medians intersecting in them, but the pairings are not the same, although the triangles GZE and EAB are translations of one another.
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Notes
[1] Darling, David (2004). The universal book of mathematics: from Abracadabra to Zeno's paradoxes. John Wiley and Sons, p. 188. ISBN 0471270474 [2] (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0057:entry=o)stoma/ xion), Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library [3] (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0057:entry=o)ste/ on), Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library [4] (http:/ / www. perseus. tufts. edu/ hopper/ text?doc=Perseus:text:1999. 04. 0057:entry=ma/ xh), Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon, on Perseus Digital Library [5] http:/ / www. fh-augsburg. de/ ~harsch/ graeca/ Chronologia/ S_ante03/ Archimedes/ arc_ost0. html [6] http:/ / www. fh-augsburg. de/ ~harsch/ graeca/ Chronologia/ S_ante03/ Archimedes/ arc_ost2. html
Selected bibliography
J. L. Heiberg, Archimedis opera omnia, vol. 2, S. 420 ff., Leipzig: Teubner 1881 Reviel Netz & William Noel, The Archimedes Codex (Weidenfeld & Nicholson, 2007) J. Vterlein, Roma ludens (Heuremata - Studien zu Literatur, Sprachen und Kultur der Antike, Bd. 5), Amsterdam: Verlag B. R. Grner bv 1976
External links
Heinrich Suter, Loculus (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/u/umhistmath/) James Gow, Short History (http://quod.lib.umich.edu/u/umhistmath/) W. W. R. Ball, Recreations and Essays (http://www.archive.org/details/mathematicalrecr00ballrich/) Ostomachion, a Graeco-Roman puzzle (http://www.archimedes-lab.org/latin.html#archimede) Professor Chris Rorres (http://www.mcs.drexel.edu/~crorres/Archimedes/Stomachion/intro.html) Kolata, Gina. "In Archimedes' Puzzle, a New Eureka Moment." The New York Times. December 14, 2003 (http:// query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9D00E6DD133CF937A25751C1A9659C8B63) A tour of Archimedes' Stomachion (http://math.ucsd.edu/~fan/stomach/), by Fan Chung and Ronald Graham. Ostomachion and others tangram (http://pecesjocdetangr.sourceforge.net/applet/appletpeces.html) Play with 38 Tangram games online: more that 7,300 shapes proposed by the program.
Packing problem
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Packing problem
Packing problems are a class of optimization problems in mathematics which involve attempting to pack objects together (often inside a container), as densely as possible. Many of these problems can be related to real life packaging, storage and transportation issues. Each packing problem has a dual covering problem, which asks how many of the same objects are required to completely cover every region of the container, where objects are allowed to overlap. In a packing problem, you are given: 'containers' (usually a single two- or three-dimensional convex region, or an infinite space) 'goods' (usually a single type of shape), some or all of which must be packed into this container Usually the packing must be without overlaps between goods and other goods or the container walls. The aim is to find the configuration with the maximal density. In some variants the overlapping (of goods with each other and/or with the boundary of the container) is allowed but should be minimized.
Packing infinite space

Many of these problems, when the container size is increased in all directions, become equivalent to the problem of packing objects as densely as possible in infinite Euclidean space. This problem is relevant to a number of scientific disciplines, and has received significant attention. The Kepler conjecture postulated an optimal solution for packing spheres hundreds of years before it was proven correct by Thomas Callister Hales. Many other shapes have received attention, including ellipsoids,[1] Platonic and Archimedean solids[2] including tetrahedra,[3][4] and unequal-sphere dimers.[5]
Hexagonal packing of circles

These problems are mathematically distinct from the ideas in the circle packing theorem. The related circle packing problem deals with packing circles, possibly of different sizes, on a surface, for instance the plane or a sphere. The counterparts of a circle in other dimensions can never be packed with complete efficiency in dimensions larger than one (in a one dimensional universe, the circle analogue is just two points). That is, there will always be unused space if you are only packing circles. The most efficient way of packing circles, hexagonal packing, produces approximately 91% efficiency.[6]
Sphere packings in higher dimensions
The hexagonal packing of circles on a 2-dimensional Euclidean plane.
In three dimensions, the face-centered cubic lattice offers the best lattice packing of spheres, and is believed to be the optimal of all packings. The 8-dimensional E8 lattice and 24-dimensional Leech lattice are also believed to be optimal.
Packing problem
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Packings of Platonic solids in three dimensions

Cubes can easily be arranged to fill three-dimensional space completely, the most natural packing being the cubic honeycomb. No other Platonic solid can tile space on its own, but some preliminary results are known. Tetrahedra can achieve a packing of at least 85%. One of the best packings of regular dodecahedra is based on the aforementioned face-centered cubic (FCC) lattice. Tetrahedra and octahedra together can fill all of space in an arrangement known as the tetrahedral-octahedral honeycomb.
Solid icosahedra Maximum known packing density Lowest upper bound for lattice packing density 0.836315 [2] 0.836357 [7] [7]
dodecahedra 0.904002[2] octahedra 0.947003 [2]
(5+sqrt(5))/8=0.904508 18/19 = 0.947368 [8]
Packing in 3-dimensional containers

Spheres into a Euclidean ball
The problem of finding the smallest ball such that disjoint open unit balls may be packed inside it has a simple and complete answer in -dimensional Euclidean space if , and in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space with no restrictions. It is worth describing in detail here, to give a flavor of the general problem. In this case, a configuration of pairwise tangent unit balls is available. Place the centers at the vertices of a regular dimensional simplex with edge 2; this is easily realized starting from an orthonormal basis. A small computation shows that the distance of each vertex from the barycenter is . Moreover, any other point of
the space necessarily has a larger distance from at least one of the vertices. In terms of inclusions of balls, the open unit balls centered at are included in a ball of radius , which is minimal for this configuration. To show that this configuration is optimal, let be the centers of disjoint open unit balls contained in a ball of radius centered at a point . Consider the map from the finite set into taking in the corresponding for each . Since for all , this map is 1-Lipschitz and by the Kirszbraun theorem it extends to a 1-Lipschitz map that is globally defined; in particular, there exists a point such that for all one has , so that also . This shows that there are disjoint unit open balls in a ball of radius if and only if . Notice that in an infinite dimensional Hilbert space this implies that there are infinitely many disjoint open unit balls inside a ball of radius if and only if . For instance, the unit balls centered at , where is an orthonormal basis, are disjoint and included in a ball of radius centered at the origin. Moreover, for . , the maximum number of disjoint open unit balls inside a ball of radius r is
Packing problem
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Spheres in a cuboid
Determine the number of spherical objects of given diameter d can be packed into a cuboid of size a b c.
Packing in 2-dimensional containers

Packing circles
Circles in circle Pack n unit circles into the smallest possible circle. This is closely related to spreading points in a unit circle with the objective of finding the greatest minimal separation, dn, between points. Optimal solutions have been proven for n13, and n=19.
The optimal packing of 10 circles in a circle.
Circles in square Pack n unit circles into the smallest possible square. This is closely related to spreading points in a unit square with the objective of finding the greatest minimal separation, dn, between points.[9] To convert between these two formulations of the problem, the square side for unit circles will be L=2+2/dn. Optimal solutions have been proven for n30.[10]
The optimal packing of 15 circles in a square.
Circles in isosceles right triangle Pack n unit circles into the smallest possible isosceles right triangle. Good estimates are known for n<300.[11]
The optimal packing of 6 circles in a right isosceles triangle.
Packing problem Circles in equilateral triangle Pack n unit circles into the smallest possible equilateral triangle. Optimal solutions are known for n<13, and conjectures are available for n<28.[12]
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Packing squares
The optimal packing of 5 circles in an equilateral triangle.
Squares in square Pack n unit squares into the smallest possible square. Optimal solutions have been proven for n=1-10, 14-16, 23-25, 34-36, 62-64, 79-81, 98-100, and any square integer.[13] The wasted space is asymptotically o(a7/11).[14] Squares in circle Pack n squares in the smallest possible circle. Minimum solutions:
The optimal packing of 10 squares in a square.
Number of squares Circle radius 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 0.707... 1.118... 1.288... 1.414... 1.581... 1.688... 1.802... 1.978... 2.077... 2.121... 2.215... 2.236...
Packing problem
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Packing rectangles
Identical rectangles in a rectangle The problem of packing multiple instances of a single rectangle of size (l,w), allowing for 90 rotation, in a bigger rectangle of size (L,W) has some applications such as loading of boxes on pallets and, specifically, woodpulp stowage. For example, it is possible to pack 147 rectangles of size (137,95) in a rectangle of size (1600,1230).[15] Different rectangles in a rectangle The problem of packing multiple rectangles of varying widths and heights in an enclosing rectangle of minimum area (but with no boundaries on the enclosing rectangle's width or height) has an important application in combining images into a single larger image. A web page that loads a single larger image often renders faster in the browser than the same page loading multiple small images, due to the overhead involved in requesting each image from the web server. An example of a fast algorithm that packs rectangles of varying widths and heights into an enclosing rectangle of minimum area is here [16].
Related fields
In tiling or tessellation problems, there are to be no gaps, nor overlaps. Many of the puzzles of this type involve packing rectangles or polyominoes into a larger rectangle or other square-like shape. There are significant theorems on tiling rectangles (and cuboids) in rectangles (cuboids) with no gaps or overlaps: An a b rectangle can be packed with 1 n strips iff n divides a or n divides b.[17][18] de Bruijn's theorem: A box can be packed with a harmonic brick a a b a b c if the box has dimensions a p a b q a b c r for some natural numbers p, q, r (i.e., the box is a multiple of the brick.)[17] The study of polyomino tilings largely concerns two classes of problems: to tile a rectangle with congruent tiles, and to pack one of each n-omino into a rectangle. A classic puzzle of the second kind is to arrange all twelve pentominoes into rectangles sized 320, 415, 512 or 610.
Packing of irregular objects

Packing of irregular objects is a problem not lending itself well to closed form solutions; however, the applicability to practical environmental science is quite important. For example, irregularly shaped soil particles pack differently as the sizes and shapes vary, leading to important outcomes for plant species to adapt root formations and to allow water movement in the soil.[19]
Notes
[1] Donev, A.; Stillinger, F.; Chaikin, P.; Torquato, S. (2004). "Unusually Dense Crystal Packings of Ellipsoids". Physical Review Letters 92 (25). doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.92.255506. [2] Torquato, S.; Jiao, Y. (Aug 2009). "Dense packings of the Platonic and Archimedean solids". Nature 460 (7257): 876879. Bibcode2009Natur.460..876T. doi:10.1038/nature08239. ISSN0028-0836. PMID19675649. [3] Haji-Akbari, A.; Engel, M.; Keys, A. S.; Zheng, X.; Petschek, R. G.; Palffy-Muhoray, P.; Glotzer, S. C. (2009). "Disordered, quasicrystalline and crystalline phases of densely packed tetrahedra". Nature 462 (7274): 773777. Bibcode2009Natur.462..773H. doi:10.1038/nature08641. PMID20010683. [4] doi: 10.1007/s00454-010-9273-0 This citation will be automatically completed in the next few minutes. You can jump the queue or expand by hand (http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ wiki/ Template:cite_doi/ _. 0910. 1007. 2fs00454-010-9273-0_?preload=Template:Cite_doi/ preload& editintro=Template:Cite_doi/ editintro& action=edit)
Packing problem
[5] Hudson, T. S.; Harrowell, P. (2011). "Structural searches using isopointal sets as generators: Densest packings for binary hard sphere mixtures". Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 23 (19): 194103. doi:10.1088/0953-8984/23/19/194103. [6] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ CirclePacking. html [7] Betke, U. & Henk, M. Densest lattice packings of 3-polytopes. Comput. Geom. 16, 157186 (2000) [8] Minkowski, H. Dichteste gitterformige Lagerung kongruenter Korper. Nachr. Akad. Wiss. Gottingen Math. Phys. KI. II 311355 (1904). [9] Croft, Hallard T.; Falconer, Kenneth J.; Guy, Richard K. (1991). Unsolved Problems in Geometry. New York: Springer-Verlag. pp.108110. ISBN0-387-97506-3. [10] Eckard Specht (20 May 2010). "The best known packings of equal circles in a square" (http:/ / hydra. nat. uni-magdeburg. de/ packing/ csq/ csq. html). . Retrieved 25 May 2010. [11] Specht, Eckard (2011-03-11). "The best known packings of equal circles in an isosceles right triangle" (http:/ / hydra. nat. uni-magdeburg. de/ packing/ crt/ crt. html). . Retrieved 2011-05-01. [12] Melissen, J. (1995). "Packing 16, 17 or 18 circles in an equilateral triangle". Discrete Mathematics 145: 333342. doi:10.1016/0012-365X(95)90139-C. [13] Erich Friedman, "Packing unit squares in squares: a survey and new results" (http:/ / www. combinatorics. org/ Surveys/ ds7. html), The Electronic Journal of Combinatorics DS7 (2005). [14] P. Erds and R. L. Graham, "On packing squares with equal squares" (http:/ / www. math. ucsd. edu/ ~sbutler/ ron/ 75_06_squares. pdf), Journal of Combinatorial Theory, Series A 19 (1975), pp. 119123. [15] E G Birgin, R D Lobato, R Morabito, "An effective recursive partitioning approach for the packing of identical rectangles in a rectangle", Journal of the Operational Research Society, 2010, 61, pp. 306-320. [16] http:/ / www. codeproject. com/ KB/ web-image/ rectanglepacker. aspx [17] Honsberger, Ross (1976). Mathematical Gems II. The Mathematical Association of America. p.67. ISBN0-88385-302-7. [18] Klarner, D.A.; Hautus, M.L.J (1971). "Uniformly coloured stained glass windows". Proceedings of the London Mathematical Society. 3 (23): 613-628. [19] C.Michael Hogan. 2010. Abiotic factor. Encyclopedia of Earth. eds Emily Monosson and C. Cleveland. National Council for Science and the Environment (http:/ / www. eoearth. org/ article/ Abiotic_factor?topic=49461). Washington DC
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References
Weisstein, Eric W., " Klarner's Theorem (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/KlarnersTheorem.html)" from MathWorld. Weisstein, Eric W., " de Bruijn's Theorem (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/deBruijnsTheorem.html)" from MathWorld.
External links
Many puzzle books as well as mathematical journals contain articles on packing problems. Links to various MathWorld articles on packing (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Packing.html) MathWorld notes on packing squares. (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SquarePacking.html) Erich's Packing Center (http://www.stetson.edu/~efriedma/packing.html) www.packomania.com (http://www.packomania.com/) A site with tables, graphs, calculators, references, etc. "Box Packing" (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/BoxPacking/) by Ed Pegg, Jr., the Wolfram Demonstrations Project, 2007. Best known packings of equal circles in a circle, up to 1100 (http://hydra.nat.uni-magdeburg.de/packing/cci/ cci.html#overview) Solving packaging problem in PHP (http://www.phpqa.in/2010/10/solving-packaging-problem-in-php.html)
SlothouberGraatsma puzzle
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SlothouberGraatsma puzzle
The SlothouberGraatsma puzzle is a packing problem that calls for packing six 1 2 2 blocks and three 1 1 1 blocks into a 3 3 3 box. The solution to this puzzle is unique (up to mirror reflections and rotations). The puzzle is essentially the same if the three 1 1 1 blocks are left out, so that the task is to pack six 1 2 2 blocks into a cubic box with volume 27. The SlothouberGraatsma puzzle is regarded as the smallest nontrivial 3D packing problem.
Solution
The solution of the SlothouberGraatsma puzzle is straightforward when one realizes that the three 1 1 1 blocks (or the three holes) need to be placed along a body diagonal of the box, as each of the 3 x 3 layers in the various directions needs to contain such a unit block. This follows from parity considerations, because the larger blocks can only fill an even number of the 9 cells in each 3 x 3 layer.[1]
Variations
The SlothouberGraatsma puzzle is an example of a cube-packing puzzle using convex rectangular blocks. More complex puzzles involving the packing of convex rectangular blocks have been designed. The best known example is the Conway puzzle which asks for the packing of eighteen convex rectangular blocks into a 5 x 5 x 5 box. A harder convex rectangular block packing problem is to pack forty-one 1 x 2 x 4 blocks into a 7 x 7 x 7 box (thereby leaving 15 holes).[1]
Solution of Slothouber-Graatsma puzzle showing the six 1 x 2 x 2 pieces in exploded view.
External links
The Slothouber-Graatsma puzzle in Stewart Coffin's "The Puzzling World of Polyhedral Dissections" [3] Jan Slothouber and William Graatsma: Cubic constructs [2] William Graatsma and Jan Slothouber: Dutch mathematical art [3]
References
[1] Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway and Richard K. Guy: Winning ways for your mathematical plays, 2nd ed, vol. 4, 2004. [2] http:/ / www. designws. com/ pagina/ 1ccceng. htm [3] http:/ / www. genicap. com/ Site/ Components/ SitePageCP/ ShowPage. aspx?ItemID=f4e85ecc-81d0-48f8-b972-d606e9dcd60a& SelectedMenuItemID=b0947550-80c1-4fa7-af5b-e26d883ff532
Squaring the square
466
Squaring the square

Squaring the square is the problem of tiling an integral square using only other integral squares. (An integral square is a square whose sides have integer length.) The name was coined in a humorous analogy with squaring the circle. Squaring the square is an easy task unless additional conditions are set. The most studied restriction is that the squaring be perfect, meaning that the sizes of the smaller squares are all different. A related problem is squaring the plane, which can be done even with the restriction that each natural number occurs exactly once as a size of a square in the tiling.
Perfect squared squares

A "perfect" squared square is a square such that each of the smaller squares has a different size. It is first recorded as being studied by R. L. Brooks, C. A. B. Smith, A. H. Stone and W. T. Tutte at Cambridge University. They transformed the square tiling into an equivalent electrical circuit they called it "Smith diagram" by considering the squares as resistors that connected to their neighbors at their top and bottom edges, and then applied Kirchhoff's circuit laws and circuit decomposition techniques to that circuit.
Smith diagram of a rectangle
The first perfect squared square was found by Roland Sprague in 1939. If we take such a tiling and enlarge it so that the formerly smallest tile now has the size of the square S we started out from, then we see that we obtain from this a tiling of the plane with integral squares, each having a different size. Martin Gardner has published an extensive [1] article written by W. T. Tutte about the early history of squaring the square.
Simple squared squares

A "simple" squared square is one where no subset of the squares forms a rectangle or square, otherwise it is "compound". The smallest simple perfect squared square was discovered by A. J. W. Duijvestijn using a computer search. His tiling uses 21 squares, and has been proved to be minimal. The smallest perfect compound squared square was discovered by T.H. Willcocks in 1946 and has 24 squares; however, it was not until 1982 that Duijvestijn, Pasquale Joseph Federico and P. Leeuw mathematically proved it to be the lowest-order example.[2] The smallest simple squared square forms the logo of the Trinity Mathematical Society.
Lowest-order perfect squared square
Squaring the square
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Mrs. Perkins's quilt

When the constraint of all the squares being different sizes is relaxed, a squared square such that the side lengths of the smaller squares do not have a common divisor larger than 1 is called a "Mrs. Perkins's quilt". In other words, the greatest common divisor of all the smaller side lengths should be 1. The Mrs. Perkins's quilt problem is to find a Mrs. Perkins's quilt with the fewest pieces for a given nn square.
Squaring the plane

In 1975, Solomon Golomb raised the question whether the whole plane can be tiled by squares whose sizes are all natural numbers without repetitions, which he called the heterogeneous tiling conjecture. This problem was later publicized by Martin Gardner in his Scientific American column and appeared in several books, but it defied solution for over 30 years. In Tilings and Patterns, published in 1987, Branko Grnbaum and G. C. Shephard stated that in all perfect integral tilings of the plane known at that time, the sizes of the squares grew exponentially. Recently, James Henle and Frederick Henle proved that this, in fact, can be done. Their proof is constructive and proceeds by "puffing up" an L-shaped region formed by two side-by-side and horizontally flush squares of different sizes to a perfect tiling of a larger rectangular region, then adjoining the square of the smallest size not yet used to get another, larger L-shaped region. The squares added during the puffing up procedure have sizes that have not yet appeared in the construction and the procedure is set up so that the resulting rectangular regions are expanding in all four directions, which leads to a tiling of the whole plane.
Cubing the cube

Cubing the cube is the analogue in three dimensions of squaring the square: that is, given a cube C, the problem of dividing it into finitely many smaller cubes, no two congruent. Unlike the case of squaring the square, a hard but solvable problem, cubing the cube is impossible. This can be shown by a relatively simple argument. Consider a hypothetical cubed cube. The bottom face of this cube is a squared square; lift off the rest of the cube, so you have a square region of the plane covered with a collection of cubes Consider the smallest cube in this collection, with side c (call it S). Since the smallest square of a squared square cannot be on its edge, its neighbours will all tower over it, meaning that there isn't space to put a cube of side larger than c on top of it. Since the construction is a cubed cube, you're not allowed to use a cube of side equal to c; so only smaller cubes may stand upon S. This means that the top face of S must be a squared square, and the argument continues by infinite descent. Thus it is not possible to dissect a cube into finitely many smaller cubes of different sizes. Similarly, it is impossible to hypercube a hypercube, because each cell of the hypercube would need to be a cubed cube, and so on into the higher dimensions.
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Notes
[1] http:/ / www. squaring. net/ history_theory/ brooks_smith_stone_tutte_II. html [2] "Compound Perfect Squares", By A. J. W. Duijvestijn, P. J. Federico, and P. Leeuw, Published in American Mathematical Monthly (http:/ / www. maa. org/ pubs/ monthly. html) Volume 89 (1982) pp 15-32
References
C. J. Bouwkamp and A. J. W. Duijvestijn, Catalogue of Simple Perfect Squared Squares of Orders 21 Through 25, Eindhoven Univ. Technology, Dept. of Math., Report 92-WSK-03, Nov. 1992. C. J. Bouwkamp and A. J. W. Duijvestijn, Album of Simple Perfect Squared Squares of order 26, Eindhoven University of Technology, Faculty of Mathematics and Computing Science, EUT Report 94-WSK-02, December 1994. Brooks, R. L.; Smith, C. A. B.; Stone, A. H.; and Tutte, W. T. The Dissection of Rectangles into Squares, Duke Math. J. 7, 312340, 1940 Martin Gardner, "Squaring the square," in The 2nd Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions. Frederick V. Henle and James M. Henle, "Squaring the plane" (http://maven.smith.edu/~jhenle/stp/stp.pdf), American Mathematical Monthly, 115, January 2008, 312
External links
Perfect squared squares: http://www.squaring.net/ http://www.maa.org/editorial/mathgames/mathgames_12_01_03.html http://www.math.uwaterloo.ca/navigation/ideas/articles/honsberger2/index.shtml http://www.math.niu.edu/~rusin/known-math/98/square_dissect http://www.stat.ualberta.ca/people/schmu/preprints/sq.pdf
Nowhere-neat squared squares: http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz/prosqtre.html Mrs. Perkins's quilt: Mrs. Perkins's Quilt (http://mathworld.wolfram.com/MrsPerkinssQuilt.html) on MathWorld
T puzzle
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T puzzle
The T puzzle is a puzzle the object of which is to assemble four shapes into the form of a letter T. It is one of many examples of a tiling puzzle.
External links
T-Puzzle [1] at MathWorld T-Puzzle solutions [2]
Solution of the T puzzle
Construction
References
[1] http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ T-Puzzle. html [2] http:/ / tpuzzle. info/ index. html
Tangram
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Tangram
The tangram (Chinese: ; pinyin: q qio bn; literally "seven boards of skill") is a dissection puzzle consisting of seven flat shapes, called tans, which are put together to form shapes. The objective of the puzzle is to form a specific shape (given only an outline or silhouette) using all seven pieces, which may not overlap. It was originally invented in China at some unknown point in history, and then carried over to Europe by trading ships in the early 19th century. It became very popular in Europe for a time then, and then again during World War I. It is one of the most popular dissection puzzles in the world.[1][2]
History
Like most modern sets, this wooden tangram is stored in the square configuration.
Reaching the Western world (18151820s)

The tangram had already been around in China for a long time when it was first brought to America by Captain M. Donnaldson, on his ship, Trader, in 1815. When it docked in Canton, the captain was given a pair of Sang-hsia-k'o's Tangram books from 1815.[3] They were then brought with the ship to Philadelphia, where it docked in February 1816. The first Tangram book to be published in America was based on the pair brought by Donnaldson. The puzzle was originally popularized by The Eighth Book Of Tan, a fictitious history of Tangram, which claimed that the game was invented 4,000 years prior by a god named Tan. The book included 700 shapes, some of which are impossible to solve.[4]
A caricature published in France in 1818, when the Tangram craze was at its peak. The caption reads: " 'Take care of yourself, you're not made of steel. The fire has almost gone out and it is winter.' 'It kept me busy all night. Excuse me, I will explain it to you. You play this game, which is said to hail from China. And I tell you that what Paris needs right now is to welcome that which comes from far away.' "
Tangram
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The puzzle eventually reached England, where it became very fashionable indeed.[3] The craze quickly spread to other European countries.[3] This was mostly due to a pair of British Tangram books, The Fashionable Chinese Puzzle, and the accompanying solution book, Key.[5] Soon, tangram sets were being exported in great number from China, made of various materials, from glass, to wood, to tortoise shell.[6] Many of these unusual and exquisite tangram sets made their way to Denmark. Danish interest in tangrams skyrocketed around 1818, when two books on the puzzle were published, to much enthusiasm.[7] The first of these was Mandarinen (About the Cover art from "The 8th Book of Tan", by Sam Loyd, a spoof of the puzzle's history that began the Tangram Craze in the Western World Chinese Game). This was written by a student at Copenhagen University, which was a non-fictional work about the history and popularity of tangrams. The second, Der nye chinesisre Saadespil (The new Chinese Puzzle Game), consisted of 339 puzzles copied from The 8th Book of Tan, as well as one original.[7] One contributing factor in the popularity of the game in Europe was that although the Catholic Church forbade many forms of recreation on the sabbath, they made no objection to puzzle games such as the tangram.[8]
The second craze in Germany and America (18911920s)

Tangrams were first introduced to the German public by industrialist Friedrich Adolf Richter around 1891.[9] The sets were made out of stone or false earthenware,[10] and marketed under the name "The Anchor Puzzle".[9] More internationally, the First World War saw a great resurgence of interest in Tangrams, on the homefront and trenches of both sides. During this time, it occasionally went under the name of "The Sphinx", an alternate title for the "Anchor Puzzle" sets.[11][12]
Paradoxes
A tangram paradox is an apparent dissection fallacy: Two figures composed with the same set of pieces, one of which seems to be a proper subset of the other.[13] One famous paradox is that of the two monks, attributed to Dudeney, which consists of two similar shapes, one with and the other missing a foot.[14] Another is proposed by Sam Loyd in The Eighth Book Of Tan: The seventh and eighth figures represent the mysterious square, built with seven pieces: then with a corner clipped off, and still the same seven pieces employed.[15] Other similar, but possible, apparent paradoxes are in fact fallacious. For example, in the case of the two monks mentioned above, the foot is actually compensated for in the second figure by a subtly larger body.[13]
Loyd's paradox
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Number of configurations
Over 6500 different tangram problems have been compiled from 19th century texts alone, and the current number is ever-growing.[16] The number is infinite, however. Fu Traing Wang and Chuan-Chin Hsiung proved in 1942 that there are only thirteen convex tangram configurations (configurations such that a line segment drawn between any two points on the configuration's edge always pass through the configuration's interior, i.e., configurations with no recesses in the outline).[17][18]
The 13 convex shapes matched with Tangram set
Pieces
Choosing a unit of measurement so that the seven pieces can be assembled to form a square of side one unit and having area one square unit, the seven pieces are: 2 large right triangles (hypotenuse , sides , area ) 1 medium right triangle (hypotenuse , sides , area ) 2 small right triangle (hypotenuse , sides , area ) 1 square (sides , area ) 1 parallelogram (sides of and , area )
Of these seven pieces, the parallelogram is unique in that it has no reflection symmetry but only rotational symmetry, and so its mirror image can only be obtained by flipping it over. Thus, it is the only piece that may need to be flipped when forming certain shapes.
References
[1] Slocum, Jerry (2001). The Tao of Tangram. Barnes & Noble. p.9. ISBN978-1-4351-0156-2. [2] Forbrush, William Byron (1914). Manual of Play (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=FpoWAAAAIAAJ& pg=PA315& dq="The+ Anchor+ Puzzle"#v=onepage& q="The Anchor Puzzle"& f=false). Jacobs. p.315. . Retrieved 10/13/10. [3] Slocum, Jerry (2003). The Tangram Book. Sterling. p.30. ISBN049725504134. [4] Costello, Matthew J. (1996). The Greatest Puzzles of All Time. New York: Dover Publications. ISBN0-486-29225-8. [5] Slocum, Jerry (2003). The Tangram Book. Sterling. p.31. ISBN049725504134. [6] Slocum, Jerry (2003). The Tangram Book. Sterling. p.49. ISBN049725504134. [7] Slocum, Jerry (2003). The Tangram Book. Sterling. pp.99100. ISBN049725504134. [8] Slocum, Jerry (2003). The Tangram Book. Sterling. p.51. ISBN049725504134. [9] http:/ / www. archimedes-lab. org/ tangramagicus/ pagetang1. html [10] Treasury Decisions Under customs and other laws, Volume 25 (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=MeUWAQAAIAAJ& pg=PA1421& lpg=PA1421& dq="The+ Anchor+ Puzzle"#v=onepage& q="The Anchor Puzzle"& f=false). United States Department Of The Treasury. 18901926. p.1421. . Retrieved 9/16/10. [11] Wyatt (26 April 2006). "Tangram The Chinese Puzzle" (http:/ / www. bbc. co. uk/ dna/ h2g2/ alabaster/ A10423595). BBC. . Retrieved 3 October 2010. [12] Braman, Arlette (2002). Kids Around The World Play! (http:/ / books. google. com/ ?id=fNnoxIfJg5UC& printsec=frontcover& dq=Kids+ Around+ The+ World+ Play!& q). John Wiley and Sons. p.10. ISBN9780471409847. . Retrieved 9/5/2010. [13] Tangram Paradox (http:/ / mathworld. wolfram. com/ TangramParadox. html), by Barile, Margherita, From MathWorld A Wolfram Web Resource, created by Eric W. Weisstein. [14] Dudeney, H. (1958). Amusements in Mathematics. New York: Dover Publications. [15] Loyd, Sam (1968). The eighth book of Tan 700 Tangrams by Sam Loyd with an introduction and solutions by Peter Van Note. New York: Dover Publications. p.25. [16] Slocum, Jerry (2001). The Tao of Tangram. Barnes & Noble. p.37. ISBN978-1-4351-0156-2. [17] Fu Traing Wang; Chuan-Chih Hsiung (November 1942). "A Theorem on the Tangram". The American Mathematical Monthly 49 (9): 596599. doi:10.2307/2303340. JSTOR2303340.
Tangram
[18] Read, Ronald C. (1965). Tangrams : 330 Puzzles. New York: Dover Publications. p.53. ISBN0-486-21483-4.
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Further reading
Anno, Mitsumasa. Anno's Math Games (three volumes). New York: Philomel Books, 1987. ISBN 0399211519 (v. 1), ISBN 0698116720 (v. 2), ISBN 039922274X (v. 3). Botermans, Jack, et al. The World of Games: Their Origins and History, How to Play Them, and How to Make Them (translation of Wereld vol spelletjes). New York: Facts on File, 1989. ISBN 0816021848. Dudeney, H. E. Amusements in Mathematics. New York: Dover Publications, 1958. Gardner, Martin. "Mathematical Gameson the Fanciful History and the Creative Challenges of the Puzzle Game of Tangrams", Scientific American Aug. 1974, p.98103. Gardner, Martin. "More on Tangrams", Scientific American Sep. 1974, p.187191. Gardner, Martin. The 2nd Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1961. ISBN 0671245597. Loyd, Sam. Sam Loyd's Book of Tangram Puzzles (The 8th Book of Tan Part I). Mineola, New York: Dover Publications, 1968. Slocum, Jerry, et al. Puzzles of Old and New: How to Make and Solve Them. De Meern, Netherlands: Plenary Publications International (Europe); Amsterdam, Netherlands: ADM International; Seattle: Distributed by University of Washington Press, 1986. ISBN 0295963506. Slocum, Jerry, et al. The Tangram Book: The Story of the Chinese Puzzle with Over 2000 Puzzles to Solve. New York: Sterling Publishing Company, 2003. ISBN 1-4027-0413-5.
External links
"Tangram" (http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/Tangram/) by Enrique Zeleny, Wolfram Demonstrations Project "New Tangram paradoxes" (http://www.archimedes-lab.org/workshoptangram2.html) by Gianni A. Sarcone, Archimedes Laboratory Project Online Tangrams Game (http://pbskids.org/cyberchase/math-games/tanagram-game/) at PBS Kids "Peces Joc de Tangram" (http://pecesjocdetangr.sourceforge.net/applet/appletpeces.html) Another online game (contains popups)
TetraVex
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TetraVex
TetraVex is a puzzle computer game, available for Windows and Linux systems.
Gameplay
TetraVex is an edge-matching puzzle. The player is presented with a grid (by default, 3x3) and nine square tiles, each with a number on each edge. The objective of the game is to place the tiles in the grid in the proper position as fast as possible. Two tiles can only be placed next to each other if the numbers on adjacent faces match.
Tetravex running on Ubuntu
Availability
TetraVex was originally available for Windows in Windows Entertainment Pack 3. It was later re-released as part of the Best of Windows Entertainment Pack. It is also available as an open source game on the GNOME desktop.
Origins
The original version of TetraVex (for the Windows Entertainment Pack 3) was written (and named) by Scott Ferguson who was also the Development Lead and an architect of the first version of Visual Basic.[1] TetraVex was inspired by "the problem of tiling the plane" as described by Donald Knuth on page 382 of Volume 1: Fundamental Algorithms, the first book in his The Art of Computer Programming series. In the TetraVex version for Windows, the Microsoft Blibbet logo is displayed if the player solves a 6 by 6 puzzle. The tiles are also known as McMahon Squares, named for Percy McMahon who explored their possibilities in the 1920s.[2]
Counting the possible number of TetraVex

Since the game is simple in its definition, it is easy to count how many possible TetraVex are for each grid of size . For instance, if , there are possible squares with a number from zero to nine on each edge. Therefore for Proof sketch: For Take a grid of hypothesis of induction, there are on the subgrid, we can choose placed in the position there are possible TetraVex puzzles. possible TetraVex in a grid of size . Proposition: There are
this is true. We can proceed with mathematical induction. . The first rows and the first columns form a grid of and by the
possible TetraVex on that subgrid. Now, for each possible TetraVex squares to be placed in the position , and fixing that square we have of the grid (first row, last squares available to be possibilities for the square on position
column), because only one side is determined. Once this square is chosen, there are
. We can go on until the square on position is fixed. The same is true for the last row: there are possibilities for the square on the first column and last row, and for all the other. This gives us is proven by induction. . Then the proposition
TetraVex It is easy to see that if the edges of the squares are allowed to take possible TetraVex puzzles. possible numbers, then there are
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References
[1] "The Birth of Visual Basic" (http:/ / www. forestmoon. com/ BIRTHofVB/ BIRTHofVB. html). Forestmoon.com. . Retrieved 2010-05-11. [2] "MacMahon squares" (http:/ / www. daviddarling. info/ encyclopedia/ M/ MacMahon_squares. html). Daviddarling.info. 2007-02-01. . Retrieved 2010-07-30.
Three-dimensional edge-matching puzzle

A three-dimensional edge-matching puzzle is a type of edge-matching puzzle or tiling puzzle involving tiling a three-dimensional area with (typically regular) polygonal pieces whose edges are distinguished with colors or patterns, in such a way that the edges of adjacent pieces match. Edge-matching puzzles are known to be NP-complete, and capable of conversion to and from equivalent jigsaw puzzles and polyomino packing puzzle.[1] Three-dimensional edge-matching puzzles are not currently under direct U.S. patent protection, since the 1892 patent by E. L. Thurston has expired.[2] Current examples of commercial three-dimensional edge-matching puzzles include the Dodek Duo, The Enigma, Mental Misery,[3] and Kadon Enterprises' range of three-dimensional edge-matching puzzles[4].
References External links

Erich's 3-D Matching Puzzles (http://www2.stetson.edu/~efriedma/rubik/3match/index.html) Color- and Edge-Matching Polygons (http://mitglied.lycos.de/polyforms/coloredpolygons/index.html) by Peter Esser Rob's puzzle page (http://home.comcast.net/~stegmann/pattern.htm) by Rob Stegmann More about edgematching (http://www.gamepuzzles.com/moredge.htm)
Tiling puzzle
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Tiling puzzle
Tiling puzzles are puzzles involving two-dimensional packing problems in which a number of flat shapes have to be assembled into a larger given shape without overlaps (and often without gaps). Some tiling puzzles ask you to dissect a given shape first and then rearrange the pieces into another shape. Other tiling puzzles ask you to dissect a given shape while fulfilling certain conditions. The two latter types of tiling puzzles are also called dissection puzzles. Tiling puzzles may be made from wood, metal, cardboard, plastic or any other sheet-material. Many tiling puzzles are now available as computer games. Tiling puzzles have a long history. Some of the oldest and most famous are jigsaw puzzles and the Tangram puzzle. Other examples of tiling puzzles include: Conway puzzle Domino tiling, of which the mutilated chessboard problem is one example Eternity puzzle Puzz-3D Squaring the square Tantrix T puzzle Pentominoes
Example of a tiling puzzle that utilizes negative space.
Many three-dimensional mechanical puzzles can be regarded as three-dimensional tiling puzzles.
Article Sources and Contributors
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Recreational mathematics Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481079294 Contributors: -Ril-, 16@r, 213.253.39.xxx, Alberto da Calvairate, Andreas Kaufmann, AxelBoldt, Big Paradox, Blotwell, Brad7777, Btyner, Bubba73, CRGreathouse, Charles Matthews, Colonies Chris, Conversion script, Czj, Darksun, Dhr, Dinnertimeok, Dominus, Dwheeler, Dysprosia, EALacey, Giftlite, GoingBatty, IJeCstaff, Jeronimo, JohnBlackburne, Johnbibby, Jokes Free4Me, Jowa fan, JustAGal, Karlscherer3, Keesiewonder, Kwantus, Leon math, Mdd, Melamed katz, Mendaliv, Msh210, Pleasantville, Pradiptaray, Rocky Mountain Goat, Sa10k, Secfan, Senator2029, Shadowwolf12345, Tarquin, The Anome, TheNeutroniumAlchemist, Tom harrison, TopGun, Topbanana, Tothebarricades.tk, Trifon Triantafillidis, Trovatore, VoiceOfReason, Whatever404, XJamRastafire, 52 anonymous edits Eight queens puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481651709 Contributors: 119, 144.132.70.xxx, 213.217.45.xxx, 213.253.39.xxx, AJim, Abednigo, Alberto Orlandini, Aldinuc, Aldisegni, Alphatango, Amk, Andreas Kaufmann, Andrejj, AndrewWTaylor, Androstachys, Andry.best, Ap, Arvindn, Audriusa, Avmr, AxelBoldt, Aya, Az1568, Bdesham, Beland, Bennose, BishopOcelot, Brhaspati, BrokenSegue, Bryan Derksen, Bubba73, Camembert, Cbensf, Charles Matthews, Chas zzz brown, Chessmasterx, Chinju, Conversion script, Cyrius, DMacks, DVdm, Dalf, Damian Yerrick, Darius Bacon, Darkyojimbo, David Eppstein, David Shay, Debose, Derek Ross, Devwebcl, Diego Moya, Dominus, Dr bab, Drangon, Drleo, Ds13, Dweller, Eclecticology, Ed Avis, Ed Poor, Edbrims, Eric119, Fatmike, Fleminra, Fritzpoll, Furrykef, Germet, Gfis, Giftlite, Gjigandi, Glasser, Gogo Dodo, Grick, Helwr, Herbee, Hugh Aguilar, IanOsgood, Ijakowec, Infophile, InverseHypercube, Ixfd64, JeffBobFrank, John Price, Johnl1479, Johnuniq, Jpvinall, Jvasu 2000, Jwz, KarasuGamma, Kb0000, Kinkalias, Kiril Simeonovski, KissL, KlappCK, Lantonov, Lemonidas, Lightmouse, Lionaneesh, Lipedia, Magnus Manske, Mahadeva, MattGiuca, Metric, Mhym, Michael Hardy, Michael Slone, Mike1242, MiroBrada, Mjb, NJGW, Nerdlord, Nestify, Niceguyedc, Novacatz, O.fasching.logic.at, Obradovic Goran, Ohiostandard, Olathe, Oliphaunt, Ouz Ergin, Pakaran, Panoptical, Pcap, Phil Boswell, PittBill, Plamoni, Plrk, Pmanderson, Protonk, Quale, Quuxplusone, RDBury, Radagast3, Randomeric, Raoniteixeira, Rcawsey, Rdhettinger, RealGrouchy, Rich Farmbrough, Rick Block, Roger Hui, Romanm, Ronybc, SNoonan, Sam Hocevar, Sanzilla, Satori Son, Schwijker, Short Circuit, Shreevatsa, Sietse Snel, SirPyros, Sivasile, SlowJog, Soler97, Sonjaaa, Spasemunki, Special-T, Spinningspark, Spoon!, Stephenb, SunCreator, Sverdrup, TUF-KAT, Tabletop, The Anome, Thomas Linder Puls, Timwi, Toolumpy, Trevor Andersen, Twas Now, Updatehelper, Usien6, Voorlandt, Wapcaplet, WhackTheWiki, WickerGuy, Wikivek, Wvervuurt, XJamRastafire, Ysangkok, ZeeXy, ZeroOne, Zoicon5, Zundark, 275 anonymous edits Knight's tour Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=479878642 Contributors: 10toshiro, 24ip, 3ghef, 71vikrant94, Abhi137, Accelerometer, Adam1729, Alex43223, Alexdow, Amadys, Andreas Kaufmann, Arvindn, Avmr, BHC, Barlw, Bdj, BehnamFarid, Bender235, Bmanwiki, Bryan Derksen, Btyner, Bubba73, Bughunter2, Burn, Camembert, Camilord, CanOfWorms, Cburnett, Charles Matthews, Dave.Dunford, Dcoetzee, Dmitry Brant, Dysprosia, Exitmoose, Fewmenleft, Frietjes, Gdr, Gfis, Giants2008, Giftlite, Gms, GregorB, Headbomb, Herbee, Ihardlythinkso, Ihope127, Ilmari Karonen, Imran, Iohannes Animosus, Ioscius, JPopyack, Jabernal, Jack-A-Roe, Jan.Kamenicek, Jmalki, Jon Awbrey, Joy1963, Jujutacular, Karam.Anthony.K, Keithhalonen, KnightMove, Ktims, Lab-oratory, Lajsikonik, Leon math, Leonxlin, Lkjhgfdsa, Longhair, Lowellian, MSGJ, MSJapan, Magasjukur, Makeemlighter, Maxal, Michael Slone, Michael93555, Mm40, Modest Genius, Monfornot, Mukerjee, Newone, Nonenmac, PV=nRT, Planet-man828, Player 03, Pleasantville, Portalian, R. J. Mathar, Raul654, Revolver, Ricky81682, Rjwilmsi, Romanm, Rorro, Samuel Buca, Sanketh, Seaphoto, Seksen iki yz krk be, Serprex, Shreevatsa, Simonides, Sonjaaa, Spikebrennan, Spinningspark, SunCreator, Sverdrup, Svick, SyG, TaintedMustard, Tarquin, Thumperward, Tocharianne, Typobox, Unyoyega, Vegas949, Versageek, Voorlandt, Vpdesai, Wikiwikiwikipedi4, Zedeyepee, Ziiv, 117 anonymous edits Longest uncrossed knight's path Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=465649663 Contributors: Alex Chernov, Alfi38x, Andreas Kaufmann, Bubba73, Giftlite, Headbomb, Herbee, Life of Riley, Maxal, RobinK, VladimirReshetnikov, 1 anonymous edits Mutilated chessboard problem Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=465896993 Contributors: Andreas Kaufmann, Andydude27, Anthonynow12, Anypodetos, Arthur Rubin, Brighterorange, CSWarren, David Eppstein, Ettrig, Foljiny, Giftlite, Harlequinn, Headbomb, INVERTED, Jowa fan, Paul venter, Pomte, R.e.b., Rotational, SunCreator, The Anome, TheFarix, 3 anonymous edits Wheat and chessboard problem Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477024456 Contributors: (aeropagitica), Andy0101, Andy4789, Andycjp, Aprad046, Army1987, Arpingstone, Averp, Bjrn Felten, Black Yoshi, Blotwell, Btyner, Bubba73, CBM, CarlesMartin, Chamal N, Cienciala, Citicat, Cmglee, Coolsonh, CzarB, DavidWBrooks, Dicklyon, Dr.Szlchedzki, Fayerman, Gbsrd, Giftlite, Gwrede, Harryboyles, Headbomb, Hellknowz, Ihardlythinkso, Ixfd64, JavOs, Jellyboots, Kellhus, Maksa, Mastershinmei, Mattbuck, Megilla, Michael Hardy, Misiekuk, Mskfisher, Mslimix, Oleg Alexandrov, Omeganian, Prius 2, R'n'B, Radagast3, Rtc, Scarian, Shuipzv3, Spitzl, Spud Gun, Steevm, SunCreator, Teles, ThomasSixten, Valdean, Voorlandt, Worloq, 77 anonymous edits Gokigen Naname Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=435168062 Contributors: Adelholzener, BenUrban, DreamGuy, Ganymede23, Headbomb, Lead holder, Life of Riley, PaulShaunBlake, Sprokett, Wnt, 2 anonymous edits Hashiwokakero Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=464409706 Contributors: Art LaPella, Azukimonaka, B. 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Reid, Judge Nutmeg, Koko90, Lenoxus, Lou Crazy, Lyctc, Malcontent, MathMartin, Mattbuck, Michael Hardy, Miguelaaron, Ncmvocalist, Nmnogueira, Noe, Orange Suede Sofa, Paul August, PierreAbbat, Portalian, Qxz, Rich Farmbrough, StephenTitusG, TheFarix, Wikipedian231, 41 anonymous edits Battleship puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=434696759 Contributors: Bartosz, Blotwell, Bubba73, CaNNoNFoDDa, Carolyn81, Craw-daddy, Golbez, Headbomb, Ixfd64, Jni, Jsimlo, Masem, Moshe Rubin, Mr Shark, Nfu-peng, Nihiltres, Ohnoitsjamie, Perey, PuzzleBachelorJA, Quaternion, Remuel, Rich Farmbrough, Rookkey, Sam Blacketer, Steven J. 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Justin The Claw, Kevinosendoh, KewlioMZX, Kouban, LarryGilbert, Lawrencegold, Ledow, Lightmouse, LouisWins, Luk, MER-C, Madlobster, Masem, Matt Fitzpatrick, Mcintosh3102, Metaly, Miilousuede, Mike Selinker, Minghong, Misza13, Miyu, N5iln, Naki, New Age Retro Hippie, Nidorino, Notheruser, OlEnglish, Ott2, Pafcu, Palpalpalpal, Photonsoncouch, Pilotguy, Pocopoco, Ppk01, PuzzleBachelorJA, Pythian Habenero, Quaternion, Queezbo, Qwertyus, Qwfp, Radagast, Ray and jub, ReyBrujo, RheingoldRiver, Rich Farmbrough, Rjwilmsi, Roger McCoy, SeanAhern, SeanMon, SidP, Smjg, Squeakytoy, TBustah, TJ Spyke, Toughpigs, TracerBuIIet, UlrikOldenburg, Vereux0, Volumemy, Vreneki, Waggers, Wikiqe120, Wolf ODonnell, Wrathchild, X201, Xanthoxyl, Xevious, Yas, ZayZayEM, Zeimusu, Zotmeister, Zvika, 189 anonymous edits Nurikabe Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=476992691 Contributors: Alsee, Andrei Iosifovich, Charles Matthews, Darksasami, DrNim2000, DreamGuy, Drostie, Dudedubba, Eksortso, Eliyak, GLmathgrant, GregRobson, Headbomb, Hermel, Hu12, Huttarl, Ixfd64, Jamesdowallen, Jgroenen, Jrg Knappen, Kotengu, Lfgray1949, Matt Crypto, Mibilove, Mrjake, NoriMori, Pitan, Quaternion, Ricbit, Rodarreh, Sgkay, Smjg, Tavilis, Triddle, WillNess, Wipe, Xnn, Ygale, Zotmeister, 26 anonymous edits Shinro Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395127847 Contributors: Amalas, Ephyon, Headbomb, John Rotenstein, Koavf, Life of Riley, Pagrashtak, Scroogey McDucky, Skyrocket, 2 anonymous edits Balance puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=473746803 Contributors: Andrei Iosifovich, AndyNewton, Bongwarrior, Chaotic iak, David Schwein, Dilip rajeev, Dmcq, Fayenatic london, Glane23, Jrouquie, Jwkoliver, Mandarax, Michelcolman, Shantavira, Thorvaldurgunn, Underpants, Viennese Waltz, 20 anonymous edits Bridge and torch problem Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=479249597 Contributors: Andreas Kaufmann, Dhruvbird, Falcon8765, Headbomb, Michael Slone, Mr.Z-man, Oren0, RobCuthbertson, Sadads, Spacepotato, Visor, X!, 14 anonymous edits Bulls and cows Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=476731930 Contributors: 5ko, Azzard, Bkell, Cardamon, CountingPine, Deporter, Dergard, DreamGuy, Fetchcomms, Fossilet, Gsmckinney, Headbomb, Hu12, Jeffrey Mall, Kerrick Staley, LeonardoGolden, Nasnema, Senthil g j, ShelfSkewed, ShoobyD, Singh.ajit1080, Sussexonian, 34 anonymous edits Fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=471329009 Contributors: Alansohn, Blotwell, Brusegadi, Dismas, Douglas Michael Massing, Gandalf61, GregRobson, Ground, Headbomb, Ixfd64, J. Finkelstein, Kayau, Kusma, Ludraman, Prashanthns, Psiphiorg, Rich Farmbrough, Rjwilmsi, Shantavira, Shtove, Spacepotato, Tesseran, ZayZayEM, ZeroOne, 24 anonymous edits Hat puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=454501769 Contributors: (aeropagitica), Abhishekupadhya, Boxplot, Cuttycuttiercuttiest, Doug Bell, Fhenle, Gaius Cornelius, HappyDog, Harryboyles, Headbomb, Igodard, Imaek, JerryFriedman, M G Harish, Mathiastck, Mike Selinker, Nsaa, Petter Strandmark, Pigman, Radiant!, Rotundo, TheMandarin, TheWama, ThomasO1989, Vegaswikian, Xnn, 27 anonymous edits Induction puzzles Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=470206512 Contributors: Andreas Kaufmann, Cholmes75, DAVilla, Ddawn23, Ebehn, Frentz, Groganus, Hyphz, IByte, Jleedev, Lkinkade, Pladask, R000t, SharkD, Wikikam, Woohookitty, 19 anonymous edits Knights and Knaves Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=480754037 Contributors: 14142number, ACAblackpanther, Altenmann, Andylatto, Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The, Argumzio, Arpeggio pixie, BigCow, BruceGrubb, Dudesleeper, Ekaterin, Emurphy42, Ergosteur, Gciriani, GregRobson, Guille2015, Jnelson09, Jobeth01, Jonathan de Boyne Pollard, Kingpin13, Macphisto12, MadMax, Malcolm, McGeddon, Meertn, Mintrick, NClark128, Nard the Bard, Narsil, Noccca, Piano non troppo, Pluma, Rabern, Robma, Rossa1, Secret Squrrel, Seijihyouronka, Shadowjams, Shamblen, SimonP, Snoopyjc, Steven Zhang, SuperHappy, Tamfang, Tarquin, Teiladnam, ThreePointOneFour, Trovatore, Yarilo2, Yumyumpuppies, Zero sharp, Zhernovoi, , 128 anonymous edits Logic puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=479069243 Contributors: Alansohn, Alexander Elvers, Androstachys, Applejuicefool, Arvindn, BD2412, Banpei, Bobo192, Branddobbe, Bryan Derksen, CSTAR, Canon, Crosstimer, Discospinster, DreamGuy, Ekaterin, Faluinix, Geoffw1948, Geri2, Giftlite, Glp, GregRobson, Gurch, Hadal, Headbomb, Indosauros, Iridescent, Jmundo, Jnw222, Jrdioko, KConWiki, 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Kencf0618, Kuguar03, Mad Hlaine Larkin, Mlaffs, Noe, Omegaile, Paidgenius, Pichote, Pilger, Reyk, Roboscreech, Rumping, Search4Lancer, SimonHolzman, TheFarix, Thincat, Tim Thomason (usurped), , 39 anonymous edits Wason selection task Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481089480 Contributors: Alan Peakall, Andy Fugard, Arno Matthias, Axlrosen, Burn, Chalst, Cyrusc, Doggielover2579, EldKatt, False vacuum, Happylobster, Headbomb, JHP, Kzollman, Leadwind, Lendu, Lfh, Life of Riley, Light in Water, Ligulem, Lotje, MartinPoulter, Metaxis, Michael C Price, Michael Hardy, Novacatz, R Lowry, RedWolf, Rich Farmbrough, Richard001, Ripounet, Rocinante9x, Ruakh, Saxonwhittle, Sbassi, Siodine, Slashme, TerriersFan, TheFarix, Themoabird, TitaniumCarbide, ZeroOne, Zhimbo, Zmwilson, , 49 anonymous edits Wine/water mixing problem Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=434151393 Contributors: Androstachys, Giftlite, Headbomb, Oleg Alexandrov, Oren0, Paul venter, R.e.b., RMHED, Rkitko, RobCuthbertson, Rotational, Spacepotato, 5 anonymous edits Zebra Puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=480105686 Contributors: Absemindprof, Agateller, Aglaser, Aleph4, Alexh760, Anateus, Andrejj, Angela, Arjun01, Avicennasis, Blotwell, Bobo192, Bpeps, Brian787, BryanEkers, Canon, CapitalR, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, DIMEDROLL86, DavidWBrooks, Denis Ponomaryov, Dillard421, Dmitry123456, DreamGuy, Eyebeeuk, Fuhghettaboutit, Furrykef, Headbomb, Herr Satz, Hosamsherif, IstvanWolf, Jakerome, Jimp, Karol Langner, Kevin Saff, Kevyn, Lampak, LeonardPiece, Lucielle, Marius.pierrot, Mathiasrex, Mattg82, McGeddon, Mwn3d, Ndfa01, New Thought, Os, Owen, PdDemeter, Pecunia, Petr Matas, Piano non troppo, Poccil, Questman3507, Reinyday, SimonTorn, Sithdrummer, Skier Dude, Some standardized rigour, Starwiz, Susan98765, Template namespace initialisation script, TheFarix, ThomasK, Tresiden, Trockya, Uchiha Periphrasis, Vintei, Zondor, 158 anonymous edits Antimagic square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=422255592 Contributors: Beetstra, Bryan Derksen, Cantons-de-l'Est, Eramesan, Harvey Heinz, Headbomb, Henrygb, Herbee, Mackeriv, Maksim-e, Robinh, 5 anonymous edits Associative magic square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481550272 Contributors: David Eppstein, Headbomb, Knecht03, Simeon, Skapur Bimagic cube Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=454785521 Contributors: Arthur Rubin, Beetstra, CBM, Ceyockey, Dori, Harvey Heinz, Herbee, Mets501, Nojoking, Orthologist, Schneelocke, TexasAndroid, 1 anonymous edits Bimagic square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=457221923 Contributors: 2.7182V, Arthur Rubin, Bryan Derksen, Dori, Filippo Colantuono, Hackwrench, Herbee, Michael Hardy, Nojoking, Robinh, Schneelocke, Simeon, 1 anonymous edits
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Frnicle standard form Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=454770222 Contributors: Beetstra, Dewet, Harvey Heinz, Herbee, Lipedia, NeonMerlin, Nojoking, Robinh, Wenli, Graeco-Latin square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=480497712 Contributors: A3 nm, Bender235, Brhaspati, Charles Matthews, Cutler, Dominus, FiP, GRuban, Giftlite, Herbee, Iohannes Animosus, IskaralPust, Jitse Niesen, Joriki, Kiefer.Wolfowitz, Komap, Marc Venot, Melchoir, Michael Hardy, Mike Rosoft, Munibert, Nic bor, Oleg Alexandrov, Paul August, PaulTanenbaum, Perelaar, Philip Trueman, Qwfp, Simonides, Supertouch, The Anome, Thumperward, Timichal, Zaslav, Zero0000, 16 anonymous edits Heterosquare Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=400457106 Contributors: Alberto da Calvairate, Amit6, Beetstra, Eramesan, Harvey Heinz, Headbomb, Herbee, Plasticup, Robinh Latin square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=480496839 Contributors: .mau., Andydrizen, Andyrew609, Arthena, AvicAWB, Beland, Bongomatic, Boredzo, CBM, Charles Matthews, Correogsk, Cullinane, Czhangrice, Daniel C. 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Mahesh, Tarquin, Texasjrvt, The Inedible Bulk, The Thing That Should Not Be, Thingg, Tkynerd, Toby Bartels, TraxPlayer, Trovatore, Tstormcandy, TylerJarHead, Umapathy, Vanished 6551232, VeeNeel, Venullian, Vrnataraj, Wabul, Wavelength, Wimt, Wj32, Wolowelsky, Wshun, XJamRastafire, Xashaiar, Xtv, Yonderboy, Zaslav, Zhou Yu, Zundark, , , , 487 anonymous edits Magic star Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=387131535 Contributors: Alberto da Calvairate, David Eppstein, Harvey Heinz, Herbee, Jacquerie27, Kieff, Michael Hardy, MrOllie, Neilc, StarrShelby, Wayland, ZeroOne, 8 anonymous edits Magic tesseract Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=470095481 Contributors: Arthur Rubin, Beetstra, Camw, Dori, Fredrik, Harvey Heinz, Herbee, Michael Hardy, Phil Boswell, Rjwilmsi, Rob72, Robinh, Safalra, Schneelocke, Zrs 12, 5 anonymous edits Most-perfect magic square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395126858 Contributors: Aliter, Billlion, CBM, David Eppstein, Dewet, Grutness, Headbomb, Herbee, Marudubshinki, Robinh, Subash Kanda, Template namespace initialisation script, Woohookitty, , , 1 anonymous edits Multimagic cube Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=454786257 Contributors: Arthur Rubin, Beetstra, CBM, Ceyockey, Dori, Harvey Heinz, Herbee, Mets501, Nojoking, Orthologist, Schneelocke, TexasAndroid, 1 anonymous edits Multimagic square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=454868100 Contributors: 2.7182V, Arthur Rubin, Bryan Derksen, Dori, Filippo Colantuono, Hackwrench, Herbee, Michael Hardy, Nojoking, Robinh, Schneelocke, Simeon, 1 anonymous edits Mystic square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=412708356 Contributors: DavidASConsulting, Headbomb, Malcolma, Michael Hardy, NawlinWiki, Pufferfish101, Rich Farmbrough, Wireless Keyboard, Wolowelsky, 10 anonymous edits Nasik magic hypercube Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=456424943 Contributors: Arthur Rubin, CBM, Harvey Heinz, Soap, 2 anonymous edits Panmagic square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=394706454 Contributors: Arthur Rubin, Beetstra, Billymac00, Bryan Derksen, Charles Matthews, Eaefremov, Giftlite, Harvey Heinz, Herbee, Jacob grace, Merovingian, Michael Hardy, Mild Bill Hiccup, MrJones, Oleg Alexandrov, Phyzome, Pinecar, RetiredUser2, Robinh, Smjg, Zaslav, 5 anonymous edits Perfect magic cube Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=476851997 Contributors: Alexsanjoseph, Arthur Rubin, Charles Matthews, Chris the speller, Excirial, Giancarlo Rossi, Harvestman, Harvey Heinz, Headbomb, Kadeike, Mysekurity, Oleg Alexandrov, Safalra, Schneelocke, Thomas4art, Thunderbird2, YGagarin, 14 anonymous edits Prime reciprocal magic square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=445677060 Contributors: CRGreathouse, Cantons-de-l'Est, Chris Denham, Chris the speller, David Eppstein, Drbreznjev, Erik Zachte, Giftlite, Headbomb, Jacquerie27, MathArtSPD, Michael Hardy, Nixdorf, Oleg Alexandrov, PrimeFan, WingZero, 3 anonymous edits Thirty-six officers problem Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=458455256 Contributors: Anthony Appleyard, Blotwell, Charles Matthews, Dicklyon, Giftlite, Headbomb, Jitse Niesen, Marskell, Nic bor, Putonyourcoolface, Reyk, Salix alba, Ttwo, 9 anonymous edits Trimagic square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=454790576 Contributors: 2.7182V, Arthur Rubin, Bryan Derksen, Dori, Filippo Colantuono, Hackwrench, Herbee, Michael Hardy, Nojoking, Robinh, Schneelocke, Simeon, 1 anonymous edits 24 Game Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481272816 Contributors: 24champion, 24legend, 4pq1injbok, Alphageekpa, Altzinn, Andrew2536, AndrewHowse, ArglebargleIV, CBM, CRGreathouse, Chowbok, Cntras, Coolbeans.555, Cristi.lupascu, Davyzhu, Dimo414, Dmitri Yuriev, Epbr123, Errorfinder, Ethanfangchen, Fakeblueeyess, Fluffernutter, Foxhillpalmer, Gfoley4, Giraffedata, Headbomb, Hm29168, Iridescent, Jingshaochen, Jmundo, Johnru, Jovianeye, Jserv, Lloydpick, Mandarax, MarSch, Math24guru, Meegs, Melmojo30, Mysdaao, NPrice,
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Natsirtguy, NawlinWiki, Ohconfucius, Oleg Alexandrov, PV=nRT, Paddy3118, PhilKnight, Plastikspork, Pluma, Portalian, Publicly Visible, Radagast83, Ravensfan5252, Rettetast, Runemoney, Shanes, SiegeLord, TJJFV, Tabletop, Timrem, Versus22, Wisnuops, 109 anonymous edits Black Path Game Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395125733 Contributors: 4pq1injbok, Adrian.rus1, Aranel, Blotwell, Headbomb Cayley's mousetrap Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481719253 Contributors: Cjohnson, GregorB, Headbomb, Km10rt, Matchups, MatrixFrog, Mreyeballinyourhead, Ocaasi, Oleg Alexandrov, Rick0709, RickyCayley, SwearDown, TheObtuseAngleOfDoom Chomp Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=472627878 Contributors: Alivalentine, Amirhoseinaliakbarian, Blotwell, Dan Hoey, Dissident, Docboat, Donarreiskoffer, DoubleBlue, Edemaine, Edgar181, Editfinder, Graham87, Gwalla, Haskellelephant, Headbomb, Helix84, Herbee, Ilmari Karonen, Inky, Japheth the Warlock, Jeff G., Kieff, Kogorman, Localh77, Marcus Brute, Michael Hardy, NSR, Ossiemanners, Piano non troppo, Portalian, Stedwick, Swordsmankirby, Tedernst, Timwi, Tobias Bergemann, Yuokt, 50 anonymous edits Conway's Soldiers Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=460456288 Contributors: Dangling Reference, David Eppstein, Dcoetzee, Denni, Dmitry123456, DragonflySixtyseven, Fibonacci, Gibell, GoingBatty, GregorB, InternetGoomba, Leif902, MarSch, Mets501, Mh, Oleg Alexandrov, Paralax, Rangi42, Rogerd, Smjg, Tggs3141, 39 ,. anonymous edits Dodgem Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=465605680 Contributors: Blotwell, David Eppstein, Headbomb, Mindsama, Timtrent, Tobias Bergemann, 4 anonymous edits Domineering Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=442866283 Contributors: Blotwell, Boffob, CALR, Dan Hoey, David Johnson-Davies, Dmlutz, Headbomb, Ilmari Karonen, Jim.belk, Jonpin, McGeddon, Nameneko, NathanBullock, Nickj, Obey, Paralax, Percy Snoodle, Prodego, Reinyday, SeventyThree, Tobias Bergemann, Val42, Yuokt, 12 anonymous edits Dots and Boxes Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=479361837 Contributors: 129.59.210.xxx, ACW, AdamGomaa, Apple1976, BigFendabaffler, Blotwell, Brz7, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, Casper2k3, Christopher Thomas, Clarphimous, Conversion script, DVdm, Dachannien, Dbenbenn, Deconstructhis, Deltabeignet, DenisHowe, Discospinster, DreamGuy, Elliott Drabek, Fluffernutter, Fugeeo, Gdr, GregorB, HaeB, Hammerquill, HollyAm, Hq3473, Ilanpi, Inventm, Itandy, J.delanoy, JaeDyWolf, Jari boone, Javangelo, Jeltz, Jleedev, Jstonerfan, Kaiwhakahaere, KnightRider, Kusma, Localh77, Localzuk, Lokicoke, Marydave92, Melsaran, Metropolitan90, Mindmatrix, Mintguy, Mirv, MrFish, MrOllie, Myles325a, NawlinWiki, Off2riorob, Oliver Pereira, Ossiemanners, PhS, Pklambrakos, Pluma, Rich Farmbrough, Rjwilmsi, Rumping, Ruud Koot, SGBailey, SaltyBoatr, Sam nead, Savidan, Scote, Serge31416, Slabs, Stratadrake, Sverdrup, The wub, TraxPlayer, Tregoweth, TyYann, UTSRelativity, Varlaam, Vovakkk, WhatamIdoing, Yelocab, Zundark, 170 anonymous edits Grundy's game Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=478280553 Contributors: Headbomb, JocK, N Shar, 2 anonymous edits Hackenbush Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=453675479 Contributors: AaronRosenberg, Blotwell, BurnDownBabylon, DVdm, Dan Hoey, David Sneek, Dreadstar, Dugwiki, Eubulide, Joti, Mike Segal, Quuxplusone, Tobias Bergemann, Yworo, Zeycus, 2 anonymous edits Hexapawn Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=458028555 Contributors: Andreas Kaufmann, Blotwell, Boffob, Bryan Derksen, Dan Hoey, Eequor, Gadfium, Graham87, Hailey C. Shannon, Headbomb, Okkay, Padawane, Quale, RaitisMath, Soltak, Tedernst, Voorlandt, 7 anonymous edits Krypto Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=440332229 Contributors: CPMcE, Datsun Eleven, Draccon136, JamesLee, Maniactive, McGeddon, Mike Selinker, Miss Madeline, NarSakSasLee, Slaad, TJJFV, 7 anonymous edits L game Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=475655387 Contributors: -Ril-, Alan McBeth, Andreas Kaufmann, Beardless, Blotwell, Burn, Carlwev, Cburnett, Chriscf, Colin MacLaurin, Cyp, David Haslam, Elwikipedista, Franois Haffner, Herbee, JIP, Jacobolus, JoshuaNewman, Karlscherer3, Lowellian, MartinHarper, Mysid, OwenX, Portalian, Slike2, Tarquin, Tbsdy lives, Val42, YumOooze, 24 anonymous edits Mathematical game Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=475893606 Contributors: -Ril-, 193.203.83.xxx, 213.253.39.xxx, 4pq1injbok, [email protected], Allenro, Andreas Kaufmann, Anonymous Dissident, Anthonynow12, Arvindn, Astudent, Birkett, Bobo192, Boffob, Bombyx, Calcmathnerd, Calltech, Conversion script, Cretog8, DYLAN LENNON, Devourer09, Dominus, Dukeduke22, Dwheeler, Dysprosia, Ebricca, Eclecticology, Ed g2s, Evanherk, Foljiny, Frotz, Gaius Cornelius, Giftlite, Graham87, Gveret Tered, Herbee, Hyacinth, Imran, Iridescent, Jamie Fox, Jeronimo, Johnuniq, JoshuaZ, Jvhertum, Karlscherer3, Kevyn, Koavf, Korny O'Near, KrizzyB, LarryLACa, Leicha, Leon math, Luqui, MCrawford, MathMartin, Mike Segal, Mindspillage, Msh210, NClement, Newyorkbrad, Nic bor, Olivier, Patzer42, Pfranson, Phil Bordelon, Phys, PilotPrecise, Poddarrishabh, RainbowOfLight, Rocky Mountain Goat, Ruud Koot, SGBailey, Salgueiro, Scriberius, Sho Uemura, Silverfish, Simonfl, Slike2, Tarquin, The Anome, Thedarknight666, Tom harrison, Trovatore, Uncle Dick, Versageek, Wikiteaching, Wrathkind, Zundark, 86 anonymous edits Nim Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=479098898 Contributors: 4pq1injbok, Aaron Brenneman, Ais523, Aksh bist, Alansohn, Alfio, Amindzx, AndrewWTaylor, AxelBoldt, Babcockd, Bbi5291, Big Paradox, BillFlis, Birkett, Bkell, Blotwell, Bubba73, Charles Matthews, Chuck Smith, CiaPan, Cjoa, Conversion script, Courcelles, Dan Hoey, David Johnson, Deiz, Demo, Dh1509, DifferCake, Dirac1933, Dominus, EmilJ, Fatison, Fennec, Fibonacci, Fluffernutter, Franck Dernoncourt, Frecklefoot, Gabbe, GeShane, Giftlite, GrammarHammer 32, GregorB, Hariva, Haskellelephant, Hellknowz, Hirak 99, J.delanoy, Jacek Kendysz, Jivecat, Jmr, JoanneB, JocK, Julesd, Kevin Saff, Koppapa, Kv75, Lab-oratory, Ling Kah Jai, LittleDan, Llama320, Mal7798, Mandarax, Mantion, Maranda22, Mark T, Marumari, Metaprimer, Michael Hardy, Microprocessor Man, Mike R, Mike.lifeguard, Mishastassen, Mloyola, Mongreilf, Nnh, No malrs, Okkay, Oleg Alexandrov, Olivier, Oxguy3, Pearle, Phys, Poccil, Pt, Pufferfish101, Quantumobserver, RedWolf, Rgdboer, Ronald Ping Man Chan, Roussos, RyanCross, SGBailey, Samuelsen, Saxifrage, Scarboni888, Sigma 7, Simonides, Smjg, Soltak, Sookie 02, StalkR, Stevegallery, Stuart Morrow, Sawomir Biay, Tahamizaidi, TakuyaMurata, Teej16, Template namespace initialisation script, The Anome, The Thing That Should Not Be, Tobias Bergemann, Toby D, Troublekit, Tyleroar, Uris, Veronika H., Wahlboght, Waldir, Wikiain, Yamla, Yeanold Viskersenn, Yiuyuho, YumOooze, Yworo, ZeroOne, 182 , anonymous edits Phutball Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=461084663 Contributors: 209.218.246.xxx, Blotwell, CALR, Chinju, Conversion script, Dataphile, David Eppstein, Davipo, Ed g2s, Emurphy42, Fritzlein, Gdr, Headbomb, Herbee, Indraroop, Lakkasuo, Larry_Sanger, Martin S Taylor, Phil Bordelon, SGBailey, Sam Francis, SebastianHelm, Tobias Bergemann, Trovatore, Val42, Wik, 21 anonymous edits Pirate game Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=473886284 Contributors: Age Happens, Alan De Smet, Alex3917, Am088, Andreas Kaufmann, C-randles, Cerejota, Cptnoremac, Dartbanks, Drpaule, EdC, Ehheh, Furrykef, Gciriani, Geeman, HJ Mitchell, Headbomb, Henrygb, HumbleSloth, IanGrey531, JNW, Jarble, Jd2718, Kzollman, Lenoxus, Liquidblake, LukeSurl, MartinEvensen, MattGiuca, McGeddon, Messy Thinking, Michael Slone, Mlewan, Moondoll, Moopiefoof, MrOllie, Munksgaard, Nice44449, Oxymoron01, Petter Strandmark, Preposterous, Protonk, Rcwchang, Rituraj.shukla, Roborrob, SC979, Smmurphy, Smyth, Stellmach, Tktktk, Vishahu, VladGenie, Zro, 50 anonymous edits Sim Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=461293546 Contributors: Bender2k14, Dan Hoey, Dbenbenn, Dominus, Groganus, Headbomb, Ikanreed, JRHorse, JocK, Jokes Free4Me, Jugander, KeithTyler, Lantonov, Lawilkin, Lukefan3, Lupin, Mateo SA, MrOllie, Oleg Alexandrov, PamD, Ptrillian, Rich Farmbrough, Serge31416, Sk8rboi1720, 25 anonymous edits Sprouts Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477295711 Contributors: Ambrose H. Field, Amcfreely, Andre Engels, Anythingapplied, Birkett, Blotwell, Buzco, Conversion script, Dan Hoey, Doomed Rasher, DropZone, Dysprosia, Eduardoporcher, Elborn, Fuliza, Gdr, Graham87, Hadal, Headbomb, Henrygb, Janet Davis, Julian Birdbath, LC, Localh77, Michael Hardy, Mindmatrix, Ntsimp, Oerjan, Onomou, OrgasGirl, Portalian, Spondoolicks, Trovatore, Vikreykja, Whpq, Xavier Combelle, 43 anonymous edits Subtract a square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=461055238 Contributors: Apoc2400, AvicAWB, CBM, Headbomb, JocK, LukeSurl, RDBury, Thumperward, 3 anonymous edits Sylver coinage Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=422446614 Contributors: 4pq1injbok, Blotwell, Charles Matthews, Gdr, Giftlite, Gracefool, Headbomb, HorsePunchKid, JocK, Lawrence King, Michael Hardy, Mindspillage, Sicherman, 3 anonymous edits Wythoff's game Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=447512704 Contributors: CRGreathouse, David Eppstein, Elmer Clark, Giftlite, Hariva, Headbomb, JRSpriggs, JocK, MatheMezzaMorphis163, Nazgand, Quuxplusone, Set theorist, 3 anonymous edits Cross-figure Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=445222218 Contributors: Ceejatec, D6, DragonflySixtyseven, DreamGuy, Igorpak, Jon Rob, MrRadioGuy, NeilN, Samw, Simeon, 19 , anonymous edits Feynman Long Division Puzzles Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=479564928 Contributors: CFB, Eliyak, Headbomb, KeithLofstrom, MikeRumex, Oriolpercio, Rjwilmsi, Synthmon, 19 anonymous edits Four fours Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481043301 Contributors: Albmont, Andreas Kaufmann, ArglebargleIV, BenRG, Betacommand, Bjh21, Caiaffa, Chandler, Correogsk, David Eppstein, Dibha, Dr.K., Dwheeler, Fedyakov, Ffransoo, GTBacchus, Gtgith, Hamburger Time, HorsePunchKid, Jenny199927, Joseph Myers, Josh Parris, Justin W Smith, Komaxx, Lampica, Lanthanum-138, Leodirac, Leon math, Lupinoid, MFH, Michael Hardy, Minesweeper, Neilc, Nellis, NerdyScienceDude, Neurolysis, Portalian, Possumman, Pustefix, Reaper Eternal, Reedy, Rogerup, RuudVisser, SGBailey, Sixequalszero, StevenJohnston, Susan118, The Thing That Should Not Be, Thincat, Waldir, Wayne Goode, Zahlentheorie, , 104
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anonymous edits Mathematical puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=466043039 Contributors: Adamuu, Alansohn, Andreas Kaufmann, Caiaffa, Cretog8, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, GB fan, Gibell, Giftlite, Headbomb, Jeffwidderich, JocK, Leon math, Lotje, Malcohol, Mike Selinker, Mild Bill Hiccup, Mooncow, Mormegil, Nic bor, OlEnglish, PTSE, Rjstott, Rocky Mountain Goat, SpeedyGonsales, The Anome, Tony1, Uri-Levy, 36 anonymous edits Monty Hall problem Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481585539 Contributors: 100110100, 2over0, 4, 790, Aadn, Aarchiba, Abe Lincoln, Abscissa, Abtract, Adcharney, Addihockey10, Aka042, Alan Au, Alansohn, Alarob, Alex.tan, [email protected], Algocu, Alias777, AlphaPhoenixDown, Amakuha, Andrevan, Andrew Maiman, Andrewferrier, Anirvan, Antaeus Feldspar, Anville, Ardonik, ArielGold, Arpingstone, Arvindn, Ashesnz, AxelBoldt, AySz88, Azumanga1, Badinglance, BananaFiend, Beanyk, Beard0, Becksguy, Beeblebrox, Belinrahs, Ben Ben, Ben Tillman, 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Connolley, Wisq, Wmarkham, Yabanc, Yahia.barie, Yamaguchi , Yworo, Zain Ebrahim111, Zamphuor, Zashaw, Zenlax, Zoniedude, Zumbo, Zzyzx11, , 1125 anonymous edits Verbal arithmetic Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=478543408 Contributors: [email protected], Andrejj, Bkell, Blotwell, Bookandcoffee, Bryan Derksen, David Eppstein, Ddon, Dirac1933, Ekojnoekoj, Everyoneandeveryone, Feitclub, Frecklefoot, Gandalf61, Gdr, Guidod, Hannes Eder, Headbomb, Icairns, JamesMayfield, JocK, Jorge Stolfi, Karlscherer3, Kingdom Of Rap, Michael Hardy, Michael Snow, Mindspillage, Okmexy, Quiddity, Qutezuce, Rbisawa, Rdhettinger, Rich Farmbrough, Rossami, Sinaler, Smallman12q, Sted, Thaurisil, Tzhu, Willem1, 29 , anonymous edits Bedlam cube Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477945796 Contributors: Adam Mihalyi, Alone Coder, Alphachimp, Andy Dingley, Bigweeboy, Carlossuarez46, Chairman S., Ciphers, Dogah, Feudonym, Fgts, Frxstrem, Gamerswave, Giftlite, GregorB, Hedgehog69, JocK, Kevinkuttler, Oleg Alexandrov, Overlord007, Pag2006, PaweMM, ReyBrujo, Spitfire, Stevage, T24G, The Anome, Thumperward, Wednesday Next, 31 anonymous edits Combination puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477190841 Contributors: Anticipation of a New Lover's Arrival, The, Artman40, Carados, Cuckooman4, Driscoll42, Esradekan, Ffiti, GDallimore, Gjb999, Headbomb, Hellbus, Hunter209, Ilmari Karonen, Jwz, Kallikanzarid, KathrynLybarger, Kevinmon, Left64Vegeta, Materialscientist, Matfald, Mild Bill Hiccup, Neobenedict, Nigtv, Noeatingallowed, Officer781, Oli Filth, Osndok, RattleMan, Rayner101, Sfan00 IMG, SharkD, Somebody500, Spinningspark, Sumsum2010, Tabletop, Tetracube, Tgwizman, The Anome, Thumperward, Vanessaezekowitz, Woohookitty, Zundark, 46 anonymous edits Fifteen puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=479863498 Contributors: 15puzzle, 7rmb7, AaronzAccount, AbsolutDan, [email protected], Andrejj, Angus Lepper, AnonMoos, Anupamkundu3, Arvindn, Bdebes, Blotwell, Bobypt, Booyabazooka, Brian Joseph Morgan, BuddyJesus, Causa sui, Charles Matthews, Chinju, Chris Mounce, Cmapm, Conversion script, Cottingham, Cybercobra, Dataphile, David Shay, Deemon, Dominus, DreamGuy, Duoduoduo, Dysprosia, Ed Poor, Fleminra, Fvw, GTBacchus, Giftlite, Good Olfactory, Headbomb, Here, HisSpaceResearch, Ihsanyounes90, Inkling, JLeander, JackSchmidt, JenFanOtto, Jitse Niesen, Jlherren, Johnuniq, Jokes Free4Me, Jonkerz, Keith111, KelvSYC, Kuru, LastStageToDeadwood, Leon7, Lumidek, Lustiger seth, Malcohol, Marasmusine, MathMartin, Megapixie, Mellum, Micha L. 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Takeda, Pitan, Zotmeister, 1 anonymous edits Nonomino Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=459722950 Contributors: Andreas Kaufmann, Anypodetos, Hyju, Nonenmac, RDBury, Rjwilmsi, Secretlondon, XJamRastafire, 1 anonymous edits Octomino Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=467509007 Contributors: Aeioun, Anypodetos, CBM, GrahamHardy, INVERTED, Mwalimu59, Nonenmac, RDBury, Rjwilmsi, Shadzar, 1 anonymous edits Pentomino Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=480594480 Contributors: 0, 10.58, AIEA, Access Denied, Alan Peakall, Anypodetos, Arvindn, Aussienick, Axd, BananaFiend, Benhoyt, Beno1000, Blotwell, BlowingTopHat, Bobo192, Branlon, Burn, Can't sleep, clown will eat me, CanOfWorms, CanisRufus, Charvest, Computerjoe, Conrad v.Wedemeyer, Cool3, CrazyChemGuy, Cyde, Cyp, DARTH SIDIOUS 2, Damian Yerrick, Daveswagon, David Haslam, Dbenbenn, Deskana, Donarreiskoffer, Doug Bell, Drbreznjev, Drilnoth, Dycedarg, EamonnPKeane, Elipongo, Esger, FF2010, Fibonacci, Figaro, Free Bear, Gadfium, Ghewgill, Giftlite, Gilliam, Glimmer721, GraemeL, Grafen, HappyCamper, Hayamana, Headbomb, Headcase88, Herbee, Heron, Hoverfish, INVERTED, IRP, Icey, IckleWoody, Instruktorek, Isnow, J.delanoy, JMyrleFuller, Jazzy910, Jeff G., Jennavecia, Jim1138, Jlittlet, JohnnyMrNinja, Joseph Myers, Karen Johnson, Keycard, Kusma, Kwantus, LeSenechal, LuckyWizard, Lunaibis, MER-C, Marco Guzman, Jr, Maurice Carbonaro, Maury Markowitz, Mav, Mikkim64, Mobius 7, MrOllie, Mwalimu59, Nivix, Nonenmac, Nzwaneveld, Onigame, P0lyglut, PGSONIC, Patrick, Philip Trueman, Phoenix-forgotten, Pitan, Quadell, RepublicanJacobite, Robbe, RockMFR, Rorybowman, Rswolin, Runeuser, Ruud Koot, Ryulong, Sannse, Sbi, Seaphoto, Sjorford, Some jerk on the Internet, SpeedyGonsales, Stomme, Studerby, Superjustinbros., TJRC, TheRanger, Thecheesykid, Tillbury, Tokle, Tomruen, Treisijs, Troy 07, Trusilver, Vader119, Waldstein1981, We1234567890z, WilLaan, WoollyMind, XJamRastafire, Yms, Yuokt, ZX81, Zaslav, Zidonuke, 209 anonymous edits Polyabolo Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=450441361 Contributors: -Ril-, David Eppstein, Headbomb, Herbee, INVERTED, Jonnabuz, Joseph Myers, Karlscherer3, Kinewma, Lunch, Sicherman, Thecheesykid, 6 anonymous edits Polycube Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=469363807 Contributors: A2Kafir, AIEA, AndrewKepert, Anypodetos, Blotwell, CanadianLinuxUser, Ciphers, Davidhorman, Gandalf61, Headbomb, Herbee, Herbythyme, INVERTED, JocK, Joseph Myers, Jtir, Karlscherer3, Kevingong, Mckaysalisbury, MioUzaki, Nagy, Oleg Alexandrov, Pinethicket, Random User 937494, SJP, Sicherman, Timc, Vishnava, WVhybrid, Wilfree0303, 9 anonymous edits Polydrafter Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=378013292 Contributors: David Eppstein, Herbee, INVERTED, Jonnabuz, Joseph Myers, Pleasantville, Quuxplusone, Warofdreams, 5 anonymous edits Polyform Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=478570504 Contributors: -Ril-, Aaron Kauppi, AnAj, AndrewKepert, DePiep, Dominus, Fryed-peach, GB fan, Gadfium, Gdr, Herbee, INVERTED, Joseph Myers, Karlscherer3, Nonenmac, Nowhither, Nzwaneveld, Quuxplusone, Rantash68, Reyk, Squids and Chips, Tedernst, Thecheesykid, Timc, Zzuuzz, 14 anonymous edits Polyhex Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=450268486 Contributors: -Ril-, Albmont, Anthony Appleyard, David Eppstein, Gadfium, Herbee, INVERTED, Joseph Myers, Karlscherer3, Kieff, Kjkolb, Lurlock, McSush, Norm, Oleg Alexandrov, Sesqui, 1 anonymous edits Polyiamond Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=472076644 Contributors: -Ril-, Alan Peakall, Anthony Appleyard, CBM, Charles Matthews, Fjbfour, Fredrik, Gadfium, Headbomb, Herbee, Hoverfish, INVERTED, Inductiveload, Joseph Myers, Karlscherer3, Lurlock, Minesweeper, Nekura, Patrick, Paul D. Anderson, Quuxplusone, RDBury, Seberle, Sicherman, Turm, 5 anonymous edits Polyomino Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=481462907 Contributors: -Ril-, AIEA, Aaron Kauppi, Aeioun, Alan Peakall, Anthony Appleyard, Anypodetos, Arancaytar, Arvindn, Basawala, BeIsKr, BernardH, Bojan Basic, CRGreathouse, CanisRufus, Charles Matthews, Charm, Charvest, Daggerbox, David Eppstein, David Haslam, Davidhorman, Derek Ross, EamonnPKeane, Emurphy42, Ericminikel, Ettrig, Father Goose, Fredericksgary, Furrykef, GPJ, Gadfium, Giftlite, GrahamHardy, HappyCamper, Headbomb, Herbee, Hyacinth, INVERTED, Jason Quinn, Joseph Myers, Juliancolton, Jwz, Jrg Knappen, Karlscherer3, Kwantus, LarryLACa, Lipedia, Lunch, Lurlock, MSGJ, Mav, Maxal, Michael Hardy, Mikez302, Moberg, Montrealais, Mwalimu59, Nekura, Nonenmac, Oxnard27, Patrick, Pitan, Pleasantville, RDBury, Rawling, Rick Norwood, Riki, Rjwilmsi, Rupert Clayton, Seberle, Sicherman, Sjorford, Smith609, Spinningspark, Stebulus, Strake, Superninja, Tomruen, Truthflux, Wikievil666, XJamRastafire, 48 anonymous edits Polyominoid Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=479189211 Contributors: GB fan, Gwalla, INVERTED, Jeff3000, Michael Hardy, Sicherman, 1 anonymous edits Polystick Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=458755879 Contributors: Bluemoose, David Eppstein, Gfis, Headbomb, Herbee, INVERTED, Joseph Myers, Nonenmac, RDBury, Sicherman, Zahnrad, 1 anonymous edits Tetromino Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=478578975 Contributors: 63.192.137.xxx, 63.25.79.xxx, AIEA, Aaron Kauppi, Anypodetos, Basilicofresco, Bkil, Bryan Derksen, Cleared as filed, Cmglee, Conversion script, Damian Yerrick, Daniel Lawrence, Deathawk, Dreftymac, Fleminra, Fyifortherecord, Gadfium, Gasheadsteve, Gerculanum, Gogo Dodo, GraemeMcRae, Graham87, Grid, Gus Polly, Headbomb, INVERTED, Jacobolus, Jakemalloy, Jon Ace, Josh Grosse, Khrrck, Kku, Kung Fu Man, Laval, Liko81, Magister Mathematicae, Maximillion Pegasus, Mwakefie, Nonenmac, Ozob, Papa November, Patrick, Rjwilmsi, RockMFR, Ruud Koot, Seraphim, Shreevatsa, Smack, TWCarlson, The Anome, Timwi, Toiletduck, Vendettax, Wikievil666, Woohookitty, XJamRastafire, Yms, 56 anonymous edits Tromino Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=449391551 Contributors: Andreas Kaufmann, Anypodetos, Arteitle, David Haslam, Gadfium, Headbomb, INVERTED, Isnow, Jason Quinn, John Cross, Joseph Myers, Percy Snoodle, Rjwilmsi, SunnyChan465, Tedernst, XJamRastafire, 11 anonymous edits Journal of Recreational Mathematics Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=472613154 Contributors: Blotwell, Bubba73, Doctormatt, Epsilon60198, Guillaume2303, Joseph Myers, Karlscherer3, Kinewma, Kowey, MathMartin, Mhym, Neutrality, Oleg Alexandrov, PrimeFan, Psora, Robinh, StAnselm, Xdamr, 2 anonymous edits
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Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=451621364 Contributors: APH, Blotwell, Charles Matthews, Fritzlein, Fuliza, Gdr, Giftlite, Gogo Dodo, Headbomb, JocK, Kevyn, Leon math, MakeRocketGoNow, MathMartin, N Shar, Oleg Alexandrov, Phil Bordelon, Phys, Salix alba, SethTisue, Spacepotato, The Anome, Tobias Bergemann, Trialsanderrors, Wikiteaching, Xdamr, 8 anonymous edits Conway puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477919475 Contributors: Blotwell, Carlossuarez46, Grafen, Jeffq, JocK, Martin S Taylor, The Anome, TheFarix, ZeroOne, 1 anonymous edits Dissection puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=479495510 Contributors: -Ril-, Blanvill, Charles Matthews, Curps, DMY, Dan100, David Eppstein, Donarreiskoffer, Furrykef, GregRobson, Happysailor, Ianmacm, Jimp, Karlscherer3, Ling.Nut, Macedonian, Oleg Alexandrov, Phidauex, Rjwilmsi, S8333631, SharkD, Silverfish, Splash, Stellmach, Tomer T, Xiong, 12 anonymous edits Edge-matching puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477373618 Contributors: Arthur Frayn, Brhaspati, David Eppstein, Dhansen07444, Dodekpz, Headbomb, Karada, Tmonzenet, 3 anonymous edits Eternity II puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=474475854 Contributors: Actionjackson1306, Aprock, Arthur Frayn, Boffob, BozMo, CapnZapp, Creativecog, David Eppstein, Frietjes, FunPika, Gargaj, Groyolo, Huw12345, Isilanes, Jedudedek, Jess cubed, Joepnl, Karada, Keldon85, Nixon873, Oscarthecat, PeterAllanJohnson, Rjwilmsi, Samuel A S, Sgryphon, The Anome, Trevor hansen, Wanderer57, Xargy, ZICO, Zvika, 79 anonymous edits Eternity puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=465726607 Contributors: Alexburke, Anthony Appleyard, B. Meijlink, Blotwell, CBM, Charles Matthews, DragonflySixtyseven, Edemaine, Enric Naval, FunPika, Gdr, Groyolo, Hawaiian007, Headbomb, Joseph Myers, JoshuaZ, Karada, Maksim-e, McGeddon, Michael Hardy, MickMacNee, Mild Bill Hiccup, MurfleMan, Notinasnaid, Paravane, PeterAllanJohnson, Qutezuce, Rmhermen, Rwflammang, Slp1, Squids and Chips, Stephen B Streater, Tabletop, Tavn8r, The Anome, Wesley M. Curtus, Writtenright, Xario, Yamara, 36 anonymous edits Ostomachion Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477221406 Contributors: Androstachys, AnonMoos, Assianir, Brian Kendig, Caesura, DagosNavy, David Eppstein, Deucalionite, Eavenue, EncycloPetey, Fgrosshans, Fish and karate, Gandalf61, Giftlite, Gnomon, Headbomb, Ianmacm, Katalinjones, Lambiam, Macedonian, Meisenstrasse, Mendori, Michael Hardy, MrOllie, Orniphobe, PanagosTheOther, ParallelPain, PericlesofAthens, RealGrouchy, Rjm at sleepers, TurreyonlineMKII, WikHead, 47 anonymous edits Packing problem Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=478685324 Contributors: -Ril-, 99of9, Akriasas, Arthur Rubin, Atlantima, BD2412, Bando26, Berberisb, BigrTex, Blotwell, Blueyoshi321, Bryan Derksen, CRGreathouse, Calcyman, Captainj, Charles Matthews, Chris the speller, Chuunen Baka, Cngoulimis, DanMS, Danny Rathjens, Dcoetzee, Dmcq, Do262, Dominus, Dysprosia, Etaoin, Falcor84, Gadykozma, Gamma, Giftlite, Gimutsh, Grendelkhan, Jessemerriman, JocK, Karlscherer3, Karol Langner, Koko90, Kwertii, Leon math, Leonard G., LokiClock, Maksim-e, Mandarax, Michael Hardy, Mikeblas, Mikiemike, Mperdeck, Nodulation, PMajer, PV=nRT, Paul August, Pleasantville, R'n'B, RMcGuigan, Rettetast, Rlsheehan, Rolling Man, Samohyl Jan, SharkD, Shreevatsa, Sigma 7, SimonP, Sjakkalle, Slike2, Tamfang, Tea with toast, Timwi, Toon81, Tosha, UdovdM, WAREL, WhiteCrane, Wiki5d, Woohookitty, Ylloh, 69 anonymous edits SlothouberGraatsma puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477945297 Contributors: AndrewWTaylor, Blotwell, Blueyoshi321, Carlossuarez46, Grafen, Headbomb, JocK, The Anome, TheFarix, Thesydneyknowitall, 1 anonymous edits Squaring the square Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477200611 Contributors: .:Ajvol:., Arcfrk, Badanedwa, Blotwell, CenturionZ 1, Charles Matthews, Dcljr, Debresser, Euclid 27, Fivemack, Gandalf61, Giftlite, Jinma, Jnestorius, Joseph Myers, Karada, Kinewma, Kingpin13, Linas, Mets501, Mhaitham.shammaa, Michael Hardy, Mjhowell, MrJones, MrOllie, Oleg Alexandrov, Oxymoron83, RDBury, Rossami, SGBailey, Se anderson, Stevenj, Tarquin, The Anome, Tosha, Wik, WoollyMind, 48 anonymous edits T puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=472837309 Contributors: Chaos Reaver, Craw-daddy, Headbomb, Hraefen, Kdkeller, Lcarsdata, Mboverload, OlEnglish, Overseer1113, Rick Norwood, 4 anonymous edits Tangram Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=477897231 Contributors: Aaronw, Abrech, Akriasas, Allstarecho, Andrejj, AngelOfSadness, Annielogue, AnonMoos, Anonymous Dissident, Arthena, Artichoke-Boy, AstroNomer, Basawala, Benjwong, Big Brother 1984, Bihco, Black Knight takes White Queen, Blotwell, Boleslav Bobcik, Booyabazooka, BorgQueen, Bratsche, CRGreathouse, Caerwine, Calebegg, Caltas, CalumH93, Camitava, Carnivorous Sheep, Cej10, Cflm001, ChicXulub, Christian.Mercat, Citicat, Coolimps, Cst17, Cureden, DJIndica, DanielHolth, David Eppstein, David Warner, DeadEyeArrow, Debresser, Deiz, Demarchi, Denisarona, Dgw, Dharmabum420, DocWatson42, Dr. Blofeld, DreamGuy, EdwardPhan, Eisfbnore, Elliskev, Ellywa, Enchanter, Ezelenyv, Fan-1967, Fetchcomms, FiP, FisherQueen, Florian Blaschke, Flowerparty, Furrykef, GGMM, GMAMG, Gilliam, Gimmetoo, Headbomb, Helder.wiki, Henrygb, Herbee, Here, IG-64, Immanuel Giel, Instruktorek, JamesAM, Jbergquist, Jerch, Joel7687, John Reid, Johnbibby, Jossi, Jwz, K.C. 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Sibley, RyanCross, RyanGerbil10, S8333631, SK999111, SanderEvers, Saros136, Scottdog1, Sergio58, Shadowjams, SilverSoul91911, Simeon, SimonP, Skim, Skullfiend, Spiritia, Stellmach, Stephenb, Sverdrup, THEN WHO WAS PHONE?, TakuyaMurata, Tangramking, Tangramman, Tangrams, Tanzzle, Tarquin, Tide rolls, Tomchiukc, Tommy2010, UncleMartin, Urshanabi, Verne Equinox, Werldwayd, Wiki alf, Wikieditor06, Wikkrockiana, Wood Thrush, Woohookitty, WoollyMind, Xedcrfv, Xiong, Yamamoto Ichiro, Yekrats, Zzuuzz, 366 anonymous edits TetraVex Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=422441949 Contributors: Admrboltz, AndreasRosdal, Booyabazooka, Burgundavia, Dawynn, Dead3y3, DreamGuy, Headbomb, Isilanes, Joen235, Karada, McGeddon, Mhenryhuang, Mika1h, Mrwojo, Nanawel, Only2sea, Philippe, Sertion, SiobhanHansa, Standard Deviation, Swerdnaneb, Universal Cereal Bus, Wknight94, 18 anonymous edits Three-dimensional edge-matching puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=395128135 Contributors: Brhaspati, David Eppstein, Dodekpz, Headbomb, Hmains, RHaworth, Skarebo Tiling puzzle Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=389019327 Contributors: -Ril-, Blotwell, Bryan Derksen, CaptainP, Curps, EagleFan, Ghewgill, GregRobson, Gtrmp, Karlscherer3, Kleitos, Maksim-e, Mani1, MartinHarper, Mmmbeer, OlEnglish, Quuxplusone, Rbrwr, RxS, SGBailey, SharkD, Shinpah1, Splash, The Anome, Whitepaw, 17 anonymous edits
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Image:Solid white.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Solid_white.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: Fibonacci Image:chess __t45.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Chess_t45.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: NikNaks93 Image:chess qlt45.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Chess_qlt45.svg License: GNU Free Documentation License Contributors: en:User:Cburnett Image:Eight-queens-animation.gif Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Eight-queens-animation.gif License: Public Domain Contributors: Hsilgneymerej Image:Turk-knights-tour.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Turk-knights-tour.svg License: Public Domain Contributors: User:Ilmari Karonen, User:Interiot Image:Knight's graph showing number of possible moves.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Knight's_graph_showing_number_of_possible_moves.svg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike Contributors: R. 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Recreational mathematics

Chess and mathematics

Grid determination puzzles

Thirty-six officers problem Trimagic square

Number placement puzzles

Chess and mathematics

Solutions to the eight queens puzzle

Eight queens puzzle

Eight queens puzzle

Eight queens puzzle

Eight queens puzzle

Eight queens puzzle

Explicit solution for 8 queens

Explicit solution for 9 queens

Eight queens puzzle

Explicit solution for 10 queens

The eight queens puzzle as an exercise in algorithm design

An animated version of the recursive solution

Eight queens puzzle

Eight queens puzzle

Eight queens puzzle

. And since the knight must visit every

square once, when the knight is on a square in

It follows that set

has the same elements as set

Divide and conquer solutions

Neural network solutions

Closed Knight's Tour on a 24 24 board solved by a neural network.

represents discrete intervals of time,

is the state of the neuron connecting square

Longest uncrossed knight's path

A longest closed path for n = 7 of length 24.

A longest open path for n = 8 of length 35.

Longest uncrossed knight's path

Mutilated chessboard problem

Mutilated chessboard problem

Mutilated chessboard problem

Wheat and chessboard problem

Wheat and chessboard problem

Origin of the problem

Wheat and chessboard problem

Second half of the chessboard

An illustration of the principle.

A solved Gokigen Naname puzzle

Basic positions and combinations assuming no strategy or game play.

Moderately difficult Hashiwokakero puzzle (solution)

Solution of above puzzle

A Hamiltonian cycle in a dodecahedron.

Seven Bridges of Knigsberg

Seven Bridges of Knigsberg

Significance in the history of mathematics

The 8th edge

Seven Bridges of Knigsberg

The 9th edge

The 10th edge

8th, 9th, and 10th bridges

Seven Bridges of Knigsberg

Present state of the bridges

Arc notation around a 2 in a corner.

Exactly 2 or 0 lines at each point