Question: i have a question that a lot of my friends are arguing if it is possible or not. We have a 2 dimensional number puzzle that starts out looking like....
01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08
09 10 11 12
13 14 15
This is in a 16 space square where you can slide the numbers around. Is it possible to make it look like....
15 14 13 12
11 10 09 08
07 06 05 04
03 02 01
I say this is possible they say it is not. Let me know if it is....
Katie
Answer: Unfortunately we have to say that it's really impossible to make from the start position:
01 02 03 04
05 06 07 08
09 10 11 12
13 14 15
the final position you're asking about:
15 14 13 12
11 10 09 08
07 06 05 04
03 02 01
The best thing you may get is something like this:
15 14 13
12 11 10 09
08 07 06 05
04 03 02 01
Question: I'm trying to find an old puzzle that was shaped like a square, and had 15 tile-like pieces in it with one empty space. The object being to move the tiles around to get them in numerical order. Hope you can help. Thank you
Judy R.
Answer: An old puzzle you're trying to find is the Fifteen Puzzle - one of the World's best known puzzles. Its object
is exactly as you've described: just scramble the 15 numbered tiles in a square tray 4x4 with one vacant space, and then slide them into correct numerical order.
Originally introduced more than 120 years ago it instantly made the whole World crazy. Recently the Fifteen Puzzle was recreated by Binary Arts Corp. in smooth, polished
metal and decorative enamel, just as it appeared during the 1930s. A booklet featuring over 30 additional challenges is enclosed as well.
Question: I have recently bought this puzzle and enjoy
spending time playing with it. Is there an enthusiasts site for this puzzle? I'd like to learn some of what I think could well be, classic moves!
Cheers Virginia.
Answer: We aren't aware about any enthusiasts site for the Fifteen Puzzle. But we're planning to organize a section at our site about this great classic puzzle, and give there some details and tricks about the puzzle and its solving. We'll remember your interest in this, and will let you know when this happens.
Question: I have a 5 piece ring puzzle (Harem wedding band) that I am looking for instructions for. It seems to be a common ring, with a single wide band locking ring. Can you point me in the direction of directions. Thank you,
Anne N.
Answer: Perhaps, the best place to learn how to put together a 5-band puzzle ring is the
Jewelry by José Grant site. José Grant, a retired TWA airline pilot, is America's number one maker of puzzle rings, who since 1940 has been handcrafting puzzle rings of the highest quality. There is a special
Puzzle Ring Instructions page with
puzzle ring
instructions (including video instructions) at that site.
There you'll find a great variety of free
puzzle ring instructions - provided with great step-by-step photos - for puzzle rings in range
4 bands through 9 bands, and chain puzzles.
If you aren't sure what type of puzzle ring is yours, there you'll find a lot of designs which can be very helpful, before you choose a particular instruction.
The greatest thing about the Jewelry by José Grant site is that it's, perhaps, the only site that shows the solutions for odd-number-band puzzle rings with 5, 7 and 9 bands. These rings are considered (and they really are!) to be the most challenging puzzles.
Also you can order the instructions to your puzzle ring if they aren't presented online.
There are some more good places showing different instructions how to assemble puzzle rings - mostly with 4, 6, and 8 bands.
Puzzle World describes (with step-by-step illustrations) how to put together a
4
band puzzle ring. This method can be generalized for puzzle rings with more bands, although for different rings there may be some
exceptions like with the odd-number-band puzzle rings.
The
Puzzlering.net site devoted to puzzle rings crafted by Norman Greene, Puzzle Ring Artist, presents
animated puzzle ring
instructions. You can even run them step-by-step in the Animation Slowed Down mode. There are 4, 6 and 8 band puzzle ring instructions, and chain ring instructions.
Question: Am looking for information on "Victorian Puzzle." What was it? What is it? What is premise behind the puzzle? Can they be obtained today? Any information would be appreciated?
Jon S.
Answer: Victorian Puzzle or The English Sixteen Puzzle was very popular in Victorian England and Europe. As a puzzle kind it's a Sequential Movement Puzzle/Jumping Peg Puzzle.
You can see what this puzzle looks like (and even play it!) at our site; we have it presented in Our Collection. It's a Java puzzle applet written
a couple of years ago by
Bob Kirkland as a birthday present for
our Puzzles.COM site - "English16."
There is a few books that describe this puzzle under different names.
1. Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of 5,000 Puzzles, Tricks and Conundrums, 1914, 1974 (reprint).
-- Fore and Aft Puzzle, page 108.
2. Creative Puzzles of the World by Pieter van Delft and Jack Botermans, 1978.
-- The Moving Peg Puzzle, page 166.
3. Mathematical Puzzles and Other Brain Teasers by Anthony S. Filipiak, 1942.
-- Sixteen Peg Puzzle, page 29.
4. Hoffmann's Puzzles Old and New, by Professor Hoffmann, 1893, 1993 (reprinted and reedited by Edward L. Hordern).
-- The "English Sixteen" Puzzle, page depends on the edition. The 1993 edition on page 188 contains a nice photo of an old sample issued by Messrs. John Heywood, of Manchester, 1880-1895.
Question: You need to arrange nine (9) trees in an orchard. The puzzle is to end up
with 10 rows containing 3 trees. The rows can be horizontal, diagonal,
vertical. Can anyone help me with the solution?
Thanks, Gary
Answer: Fortunately, we have this puzzle at our site. Just not with trees but with coins. Its name is "In
Puzzleland." Another puzzle gem by Sam Loyd!
Our first Mini-Contest with the
PuzzleCLUB
sector. Simultaneously, the
names of the solvers of the puzzle are presented here at the Puzzle Help sector too.
Mini-Contest 20 is Finished
It was our twentieth mini-contest. Now we'd like
to propose this contest's results and some details about
the puzzle and
its
solution. With this Mini-Contest
20 is finished.
It was our first Mini-Contest with
PuzzleCLUB
sector, and
you, our fellow visitors, were extremely active. Actually we have the
site's record in the right answers to our Mini-Contests. We thank you for this,
and look forward to the next Mini-Contests. Happy Puzzling!
Contest Results
The winners are:
1. Horst Karaschewski.
2. Jon Black.
3. Alison Thompson.
4. Joey Hwang.
5. Jensen Lai.
6. Michele Ely.
7. Meltom F. Gonzales.
8. Mark Sunter-storey.
9. Amit Chawla.
10. Wisline Legros.
11. Josh Anderson.
12. Wade Kaple.
13. Blake.
14. Buddy Dorman.
15. Barbara Algarin.
16. Mohamed Sabry.
17. Yensing.
18. Jugvinder Singh.
19. John Birch.
20. Kiruthika K.
21. Bruce A. Hedge.
22. Robyn McCabe.
23. Andersen.
24. Rajesh Kumar Sinha.
25. Chris Baynton.
26. Ed Peacock.
27. Jana Pomeroy.
28. Anna Zachariasson.
29. Jon Dyer.
30. Sumanth.
31. Mysterymeat1749.
32. Veron Cheung.
33. Tony R. Buonopane.
34. Elizabeth Johnston.
35. Dan Blobaum.
36. Jeff Rogers.
37. lucas land.
38. Steve Gomes.
39. Dan Cheek.
40. Diane.
41. Charlie.
42. Summy S.
43. PZorz.
44. Anup Aravind.
45. Sandip Agarwal.
46. Girish Nehate.
47. Benjamin Osuna.
48. Amiee Marcel.
49. Bogdan Knezevic.
50. Adam Davies.
51. Jamie Sanderson.
52. litlscooby.
53. Jeff LaGrone.
54. Ian Pedder.
55. Emrah Baskaya.
56. Brian M. Dailey.
57. Naiem A. S.
58. Nigel Wilson.
59. Carol.
60. Marcus Dunstan.
61. Sue Hinman.
62. Tierrie.
63. Russell Baum.
64. Eric Lafontaine.
65. James.
66. Alan Lemm.
67. Michael Lever.
68. Jim Tarsi.
69. David Atkinson.
70. Colleen.
71. Shlomo Baime.
72. William Hill.
73. Matt Benton.
74. Dave Schnizlein.
75. Trevor Graham.
76. Sweta Singh.
77. Jennifer Cheong.
78. Suhas Subramanya.
Question: I found this triangle problem on the internet
today. I have been looking at it for a while and I am baffled. I feel
silly not being able to figure it out, but nevertheless I am stuck.
Unfortunately the web site I pulled it from did not have solutions to any
of their problems. You may already have this problem on your site, but I
could not find it. I have attached a picture of it.
Thanks for any help.
Jim B.
Troublesome Triangle
Answer: We guess we know the site you "pulled" this puzzle from; it might be "Eli's Math and Logic Puzzles and Interesting Finds" at: http://www.karplus.org/eli/puzzles/.
At that page it's stated that this puzzle is "...from Nat Beagley, AKA Mr. Beaglesworth..."
In fact this triangle version of the vanishing area paradoxes was proposed by Martin Gardner, based on the great paradox invented in 1953 by Paul Curry, an amateur magician from New York City.
Martin Gardner describes a lot of similar paradoxes and their history in his famous book - Mathematics, Magic and Mystery.
We have at our site one of the most interesting version of these paradoxes, presented as a geometrical trick "Magic
Triangle."
There you can find
the explanations how this trick (paradox) works. Same is true and for the simple 4-piece triangle version you sent us, since the trick
by Martin Gardner, we have at our site, is based on this simpler version.
Also we got two messages from our visitors with
their explanations of this paradox. Thank you very much!
Answer: <<The answer to this problem is fairly simple. The two "triangles" are actually optical illusions, because the green triangle and the red one are not in equal proportions. The red one is 8x3 squares, and the green one is 5x2 squares. Therefore, in the two complex "triangles" the hypotenuse is not a straight line. In the first example it bends downwards slightly, and in the second one it it bends upwards slightly. The difference between these two lines is the "extra" square in the lower drawing.
Yours,
Lionel Isaacs>>
Answer: <<This puzzle works because the longest leg of the big triangle is not straight. Therefore it's not actually a triangle. It changes angle between the two smaller triangles that make the long leg.
Proof: The 2 smaller triangles have different rise/run slopes of their longest legs, so when they are put together, they cannot form a straight line.
Question: There is a dot puzzle that you have to connect the dots without lifting up your pencil. The trick is that you have to draw outside the line of the dots and "think outside of the box." I can't find the puzzle and cannot seem to design it. Do you know what this puzzle is. Thanks for any help.
F.
Question: granddaughter needs this for school today.
nine dots on paper three in a row and three down. how can they be connected with only four lines and your pencil can not leave the paper?
Richard F.
Question: Okay you have 3 rows of 3 dots. You have to make all the dots connect with only 4 lines and with out lifting your pencil. HELP!
Nae
. . .
. . .
. . .
Question: you have to conect all 9 nots without moving any of them with only 4 straight lines. Please get back with me if you find the solution. Its a puzzle my mother-in-law got from a friend. We have played with it and we think there is no solution.
PLEASE HELP US!!!
Amanda
. . .
. . .
. . .
Question: i have a puzzle that has a 3x3 square of dots and it says draw exactly 4 lines to connect all the dots without lifting your pencil
G.
Answer: It's all about the Nine Dots puzzle. We have
it, called "Nine
Points," at our site.
There is a lot of similar puzzles with more than nine dots (like the 4x4
version described below), but we believe the 3x3 dot puzzle is most puzzling one of this kind.
Question:
Is it possible to connect 16 dots arranged in a square
without going beyong the box, nor lifting the pencil and
doing it with 6 lines?
Karen K.
Question: We have a puzzle I've seen many times but can't remember the
solution. A square of 16 dots arranged in 4 rows of four, you must draw through all
dots, using 6 lines without lifting the pencil or retracing. Can you help?
LC
Also there is a 3000 piece puzzle L'Arche de Noe (Noah's Ark) - an artistic view of animals of Noah's Ark existing in harmony. The animals depicted include a horse, lion, tiger, goat, camel, monkey, ostrich, parrot, peacock, and numerous other birds. You can find it at the PuzzleHouse site; there go to:
http://www.puzzlehouse.com/larchedenoe.htm.
Question: Our senior citizens group would like to buy the puzzles with large pieces. Any whereabouts or catalogs would be appreciated.
Hubie R
At that site you can find really wonderful puzzles such as Mosaic II Puzzle or Sun and Moon Shape Puzzle based on M.C. Escher's incredible works. Also they have the Lizards of M.C. Escher Soft Puzzles in two color sets and two sizes. The large set has its pieces measuring 12.25" x 11.75" x .5" each, and the small set has pieces measuring 4" x 3.5" x 3/8" each.
Question: I need help solving this puzzle---- There is a common English word that is nine letters long. Each time you remove a letter from it, it still remains an English word - from nine letters right down to a single letter. What is the original word, and what are the words that it becomes after removing one letter at a time?
Hopefully you will be able to figure this out THANKS!!
~ Kristi ~
Mini-Contest 19 is Finished
It was our nineteenth mini-contest. Now we'd like to propose this contest's results and some details about the puzzle and its solution. With this Mini-Contest 19 is finished.
We thank you for your participation, and look forward to the next Mini-Contests. Happy Puzzling!
Contest Results
The winners are:
1. Mary Gambrel.
2. Jon Black.
3. Neil Myska.
4. Michele Ely.
5. Marcelino Rancaño.
6. Sandy.
7. Philippe Guglielmetti.
8. Anju Saseendran.
Question: I enjoy Jumble Puzzle Books, but have a very difficult time finding them. I recently finished one that I had for some time that was stashed away in a box and I found it when we recently moved. It was an older book and now I can't seem to find this kind of puzzle book anywhere. Any suggestions?
Thanks....
Susan
Question: Hello I recently bought (second hand) a puzzle. It is oval and consists of 20 numbers. a round circle moves 4 numbers at a time. object of puzzle to put numbers in order. I can't for the life of me figure out how to do it. PLEASE help. What is the logical way to do this one?
Deborah
Answer: Congratulations! Now you're a happy owner of the Top-Spin® puzzle. This puzzle is also sold as No. Crunch™.
Top-Spin® is one of most challenging mechanical puzzles ever. Designed by a teacher, and first introduced by Binary Arts in 1988, this puzzle become an American classic... over a million was sold.
The object is simple - just put the number in order. For this slide the 20 tokens with numbers around the track, flip the turnstile to rearrange them... Easy, 'til it comes to that last number!
Despite the fact that Top-Spin® can produce approximately 2,432,902,000,000,000,000 combinations, any its challenge can be solved with only 20 moves! And that is what makes this puzzle so challenging!
How to solve Top-Spin® you can see at Jaap's Puzzle Page with this really unique puzzle.
