Paper by Erik D. Demaine

Reference:

Erik D. Demaine and Martin L. Demaine, “2,664 Coin-Sliding Font Puzzles”, in Exchange Book of the 13th Gathering for Gardner (G4G13), Atlanta, Georgia, April 12–15, 2018.

Abstract:

We present two font designs, each with 37 symbols (letters, digits, and slash), as grid configurations of the same number of coins. Each pair of symbols (say, A and B) forms a puzzle: re-arrange the first symbol (A) into the second (B) by a sequence of moves. Each move picks up one coin and places it in an empty grid cell that is adjacent to at least two other coins (the “2-adjacency” rule). We also present an online puzzle video game to play all 2,664 of these puzzles, where you can try to set the record on the minimum number of moves.

Comments:

This paper is also available from the online exchange book.

Length:

The paper is 6 pages.

Availability:

The paper is available in PDF (391k).

See information on file formats.

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Related webpages:

Coin Sliding Font