Amusements in Mathematics (PDF)

by Dudeney, Henry Ernest, 1857-1930

Available in 215 free installments

Owner:

View book

Email address:

Enter your email address above to start receiving your free daily installments.

Dripread will never disclose your email address to third parties.

The annexed diagram shows a second way of performing the Queen's Tour. If you break the line at the point J and erase the shorter portion of that line, you will have the required path solution for any J square. If you break the line at I, you will have a non-re-entrant solution starting from any I square. And if you break the line at G, you will have a solution for any G square. The Queen's Tour previously given may be similarly broken at three different places, but I seized the opportunity of exhibiting a second tour.

Pg226

329.?THE STAR PUZZLE.?solution

The illustration explains itself. The stars are all struck out in fourteen straight strokes, starting and ending at a white star.

picture405

330.?THE YACHT RACE.? solution

The diagram explains itself. The numbers will show the direction of the lines in their proper order, and it will be seen that the seventh course ends at the flag-buoy, as stipulated.

picture406

331.?THE SCIENTIFIC SKATER.? solution

In this case we go beyond the boundary of the square. Apart from that, the moves are all queen moves. There are three or four ways in which it can be done.

Here is one way of performing the feat:?

>? *..»+ ???*?- ,^?4^?-^

picture407

It will be seen that the skater strikes out all the stars in one continuous journey of fourteen straight lines, returning to the point from which he started. To follow the skater's course in the diagram it is necessary always to go as far as we can in a straight line before turning.

332.?THE FORTY-NINE STARS.? solution

The illustration shows how all the stars may be struck out in twelve straight strokes, beginning and ending at a black star.

picture408

333.?THE QUEEN'S JOURNEY? solution

The correct solution to this puzzle is shown in the diagram by the dark line. The five moves indicated will take the queen the greatest distance that it is possible for her to go in five moves, within the conditions. The dotted line shows the route that most people suggest, but it is not quite so long as the other. Let us assume that the distance from the centre of any square to the centre of the next in the same horizontal or vertical line is 2 inches, and that the queen travels from the centre of her original square to the centre of the one at which she rests. Then the first route will be found to exceed 67.9 inches, while the dotted route is less than 67.8 inches. The difference is small, but it is sufficient to settle the point as to the longer route. All other routes are shorter still than these two.

Pg 227

334.?ST. GEORGE AND THE DRAGON.? solution

We select for the solution of this puzzle one of the prettiest designs that can be formed by representing the moves of the knight by lines from square to square. The chequering of the squares is omitted to give greater clearness. St. George thus slays the Dragon in strict accordance with the conditions and in the elegant manner we should expect of him.

picture409

335.?FARMER LAWRENCE'S CORNFIELDS.? solution

There are numerous solutions to this little agricultural problem. The version I give in the next column is rather curious on account of the long parallel straight lines formed by some of the moves.

picture410

336.?THE GREYHOUND PUZZLE.? solution

There are several interesting points involved in this question. In the first place, if we had made no stipulation as to the positions of the two ends of the string, it is quite impossible to form any such string unless we begin and end in the top and bottom row of kennels. We may begin in the top row and end in the bottom (or, of course, the reverse), or we may begin in one of these rows and end in the same. But we can never begin or end in one of the two central rows. Our places of starting and ending, however, were fixed for us. Yet the first half of our route must be confined entirely to those squares that are distinguished in the following diagram by circles, and the second half will therefore be confined to the squares that are not circled. The squares reserved for the two half-strings will be seen to be symmetrical and similar.