In "The King and the Castles" we have the Star, and its solution gives
the Compasses. In the "Cherries and Plums" solution we find that the
Cherries represent the Funnel and the Plums the Dart. The solution of
the "Plantation Puzzle" is an example of the Dart distorted. Any
solution to the "Ten Coins" will represent the Scissors. Thus examples
of all have been given except the Nail.
On a reduced chessboard, 7 by 7, we may place the ten pawns in just
three different ways, but they must all represent the Dart. The
"Plantation" shows one way, the Plums show a second way, and the reader
may like to find the third way for himself. On an ordinary chessboard, 8
by 8, we can also get in a beautiful example of the Funnel--symmetrical
in relation to the diagonal of the board. The smallest board that will
take a Star is one 9 by 7. The Nail requires a board 11 by 7, the
Scissors
[Illustration]
11 by 9, and the Compasses 17 by 12. At least these are the best results
recorded in my note-book. They may be beaten, but I do not think so. If
you divide a chessboard into two parts by a diagonal zigzag line, so
that the larger part contains 36 squares and the smaller part 28
squares, you can place three separate schemes on the larger part and one
on the smaller part (all Darts) without their conflicting--that is, they
occupy forty different squares. They can be placed in other ways without
a division of the board. The smallest square board that will contain six
different schemes (not fundamentally different), without any line of one
scheme crossing the line of another, is 14 by 14; and the smallest board
that will contain one scheme entirely enclosed within the lines of a
second scheme, without any of the lines of the one, when drawn from
point to point, crossing a line of the other, is 14 by 12.
[Illustration: STAR DART COMPASSES FUNNEL SCISSORS NAIL]
211.--THE TWELVE MINCE-PIES.
If you ignore the four black pies in our illustration, the remaining
twelve are in their original positions. Now remove the four detached
pies to the places occupied by the black ones, and you will have your
seven straight rows of four, as shown by the dotted lines.
[Illustration: The Twelve Mince Pies.]
212.--THE BURMESE PLANTATION.
The arrangement on the next page is the most symmetrical answer that can
probably be found for twenty-one rows, which is, I believe, the greatest
number of rows possible. There are several ways of doing it.
213.--TURKS AND RUSSIANS.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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