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Topic: A few match puzzles (Read 1000 times) |
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BNC
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A few match puzzles
« on: Jan 26th, 2003, 6:44am » |
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Starting all of the following with this initial state (12 matches)
Code:
solve:
1. Remove two matches to get two squares -- one larger than the other.
2. Move 3 matched to get 3 identical squares.
3. Move 4 matched to get 3 identical squares.
4. Move 2 matches to get 7 (non-identical) squares.
hint: you may place one match over another
5. Move 4 matches to get 10 (non-identical) squares.
6. Move 8 matches to get 6 identical squares.
[edit]
Edited to fix error (sorry...) on #5 -- changed number of required squares to 10.
[/edit]
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| « Last Edit: Jan 27th, 2003, 4:36am by BNC » |
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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Misha
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #1 on: Jan 26th, 2003, 6:21pm » |
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1. Remove 2 matches for 2 squares one larger than other:
__ __
|__| |
|__ __|
2. Move 3 matches for 3 identical squares:
3. Move 4 matched to get 3 identical squares. _
|_|_
|_|_
|_|
4. Move 2 matches to get 7 (non-identical) squares.
hint: you may place one match over another
_ _
|+| |
- -
|_| (well you get the idea)
5. Move 4 matches to get 7 (non-identical) squares.
6. Move 8 matches to get 6 identical squares.
Gave up on the rest
[edit by Icarus to fix formatting on #3]
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| « Last Edit: Mar 5th, 2004, 7:43pm by Icarus » |
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BNC
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #2 on: Jan 27th, 2003, 4:37am » |
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Had an error on number 5 (sorry).
Edited to change required number of squares to 10.
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How about supercalifragilisticexpialidociouspuzzler [Towr, 2007]
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Garzahd
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #3 on: Jan 27th, 2003, 11:01am » |
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1) See Misha's answer
2) Choose 3 matches at random and turn them upside down in place
3) Choose 4 matches at random and turn them upside down in place
4) See Misha's answer
5) Pull the two matches closest to the upper left and lower right corners, then put two matches in a + sign in the middle of each of the two remaining squares
6) Same as #5, then choose 4 matches at random and turn them upside down in place
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bobcat
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #4 on: Mar 4th, 2004, 6:45pm » |
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A nicer solution for #3 that uses all the matches would be
_
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For #2 and #6 there must be better solution that uses all the matches and changes their position rather than lifting them and replacing them where they were (although I have not discovered it yet).
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| « Last Edit: Mar 5th, 2004, 7:44pm by Icarus » |
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bobcat
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #5 on: Mar 4th, 2004, 6:48pm » |
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My apologies, Misha. Looks like our artwork was the same but did not work out  (Should be three squares on a diagonal).
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bobcat
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #6 on: Mar 4th, 2004, 7:37pm » |
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For #6, make a cube.
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Icarus
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #7 on: Mar 5th, 2004, 7:50pm » |
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A trick for fixing the spacing: When you first post, for some reason YaBB has the weird idea that it absolutely must collapse any occurences of a set number of spaces in a row (I think it is 7) down to a single space. The only way I know to stop this is to use the "code" tag. Not even the "preformatted text" tag will change YaBB's mind on this.
But, when you modify a post, it skips this "collapse the spaces" step. So you can post, immediately modify the post, and repost again without making any changes. Then it will stop collapsing the spaces. I have done this to both your and Misha's posts, so your diagonal diagrams now show as intended.
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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bobcat
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #8 on: Mar 7th, 2004, 2:59pm » |
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Thanks Icarus. I enjoy puzzles and riddles but computers are not my strength . I am getting there though...
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Icarus
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #9 on: Mar 8th, 2004, 9:32pm » |
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This quirk isn't anyone's strength. It's just one of those tricks that people stumble across eventually, then share around. There was no reason to expect that YaBB should work this way. An intelligent design wouldn't collapse the spaces for the original posts either.
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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MMS85249
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #10 on: May 21st, 2004, 1:45pm » |
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Did anyone ever post an answer to "Move 3 matched to get 3 identical squares"?
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Three Hands
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #11 on: May 21st, 2004, 3:21pm » |
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Garzahd did, but I think the correct answer is to take two matches from one corner of the big square and one from the opposite corner of the big square (external, rather than internal matches) and then put these three matches in place to form a square with the originally external match in the corner you took the third match from. You should end up with a kind of zig-zag formation for the squares - one line of three matches with one square below in the middle and two above on the ends.
(maybe I should figure out how to draw...)
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Grimbal
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #12 on: May 22nd, 2004, 5:24pm » |
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on May 21st, 2004, 1:45pm, MMS85249 wrote:| Did anyone ever post an answer to "Move 3 matched to get 3 identical squares"? |
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2.
-- --
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-- -- --
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--
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| « Last Edit: May 22nd, 2004, 5:25pm by Grimbal » |
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Three Hands
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #13 on: May 23rd, 2004, 3:40am » |
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Thanks Grimbal - that's pretty much what I was trying to describe 
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Grimbal
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #14 on: May 23rd, 2004, 11:11am » |
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A picture is worth a hundred words.
(92 if you don't count the "(maybe I should ...)" at the end).
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Three Hands
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #15 on: May 23rd, 2004, 11:15am » |
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 So it is. Guess that proves I'm reasonably good at being concise, given the usually accepted conversion rate of words to pictures...
I suppose it counts as rather sad that I then decided to check that statement...
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| « Last Edit: May 23rd, 2004, 11:16am by Three Hands » |
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Sir Col
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #16 on: May 24th, 2004, 6:14am » |
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on Mar 5th, 2004, 7:50pm, Icarus wrote:| A trick for fixing the spacing... |
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The reason for the "glitch" is quite complicated. Firstly, HTML (the encoded characters in your browser window) does not support multiple spaces. Although the spaces still exist in the document, the browser ignores them. So the text, "Hello World", embedded in a document would display the same as "Hello World" in a normal HTML document. However, yaBB goes some of the way to modify this by converting spaces in a post to non-breaking spaces (which do display). A HTML programmer would need to artificially inserting " " as necessary (each displays on the screen as a space and you can concatenate as many as you wish). However, it seems that the yaBB software is limited to converting no more than 7 consecutive characters.
A potential work around is to use the actual non-breaking character in your post via its ASCII code. For example, holding down ALT and typing 0065 on the numeric key pad would display "A" (the zeroes at the front are not necessary in this case, but to be consistent with the following I included them). The non-breaking space is an extended ASCII character (beyond 127), so to use it, hold ALT and type 0160.
Alas, yaBB is smart and parses even these characters!
So Icarus' clever trick is the best solution. How he discovered it, I do not know? Bravo!
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mathschallenge.net / projecteuler.net
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Icarus
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #17 on: May 24th, 2004, 4:53pm » |
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Even in HTML you can get the correct spacing using the preformatted text tags <pre> </pre>. Alas, YaBB's tags are not so well-behaved.
As to how I discovered it, it was by reading someone else's post to this effect long ago!
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"Pi goes on and on and on ...
And e is just as cursed.
I wonder: Which is larger
When their digits are reversed? " - Anonymous
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Barukh
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #18 on: May 27th, 2004, 3:41am » |
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Let me go back to the origin of this thread. 
The solutions to BNC's #2 and #3 show the way to arrange 12 matches so that they enclose exactly 3 square "match units".
Find at least two other arrangements of that kind. Both should enclose a single area.
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Grimbal
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Re: A few match puzzles
« Reply #19 on: May 27th, 2004, 5:32pm » |
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Any shape? For example:
_
|\/\/_|
\/\/
where the \/\/ are at angles 60°
or
./\./\.
| ./\|
|/\|
again, the /\ are 60° angles.
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