There are various ways of building the ten castles so that they shall
form five rows with four castles in every row, but the arrangement in
the next column is the only one that also provides that two castles (the
greatest number possible) shall not be approachable from the outside. It
will be seen that you must cross the walls to reach these two.
[Illustration: The King and the Castles]
207.--CHERRIES AND PLUMS.
There are several ways in which this problem might be solved were it not
for the condition that as few cherries and plums as possible shall be
planted on the north and east sides of the orchard. The best possible
arrangement is that shown in the diagram, where the cherries, plums,
and apples are indicated respectively by the letters C, P, and A. The
dotted lines connect the cherries, and the other lines the plums. It
will be seen that the ten cherry trees and the ten plum trees are so
planted that each fruit forms five lines with four trees of its kind in
line. This is the only arrangement that allows of so few as two cherries
or plums being planted on the north and east outside rows.
[Illustration]
208.--A PLANTATION PUZZLE.
The illustration shows the ten trees that must be left to form five rows
with four trees in every row. The dots represent the positions of the
trees that have been cut down.
[Illustration]
209.--THE TWENTY-ONE TREES.
I give two pleasing arrangements of the trees. In each case there are
twelve straight rows with five trees in every row.
[Illustration: Figure 1, Figure 2.]
210.--THE TEN COINS.
The answer is that there are just 2,400 different ways. Any three coins
may be taken from one side to combine with one coin taken from the other
side. I give four examples on this and the next page. We may thus select
three from the top in ten ways and one from the bottom in five ways,
making fifty. But we may also select three from the bottom and one from
the top in fifty ways. We may thus select the four coins in one hundred
ways, and the four removed may be arranged by permutation in twenty-four
ways. Thus there are 24 x 100 = 2,400 different solutions.
[Illustration]
As all the points and lines puzzles that I have given so far, excepting
the last, are variations of the case of ten points arranged to form five
lines of four, it will be well to consider this particular case
generally. There are six fundamental solutions, and no more, as shown in
the six diagrams. These, for the sake of convenience, I named some years
ago the Star, the Dart, the Compasses, the Funnel, the Scissors, and the
Nail. (See next page.) Readers will understand that any one of these
forms may be distorted in an infinite number of different ways without
destroying its real character.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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