The eight first half-strings are: 1 to 6 (2 routes); 1 to 8 (1 route);
1 to 10 (3 routes); 1 to 12 (1 route); and 1 to 14 (1 route). The eight
second half-strings are: 7 to 20 (1 route); 9 to 20 (1 route); 11 to 20
(3 routes); 13 to 20 (1 route); and 15 to 20 (2 routes). Every different
way in which you can link one half-string to another gives a different
solution. These linkings will be found to be as follows: 6 to 13 (2
cases); 10 to 13 (3 cases); 8 to 11 (3 cases); 8 to 15 (2 cases); 12 to
9 (1 case); and 14 to 7 (1 case). There are, therefore, twelve different
linkings and twelve different answers to the puzzle. The route given in
the illustration with the greyhound will be found to consist of one of
the three half-strings 1 to 10, linked to the half-string 13 to 20. It
should be noted that ten of the solutions are produced by five
distinctive routes and their reversals--that is, if you indicate these
five routes by lines and then turn the diagrams upside down you will get
the five other routes. The remaining two solutions are symmetrical
(these are the cases where 12 to 9 and 14 to 7 are the links), and
consequently they do not produce new solutions by reversal.
337.--THE FOUR KANGAROOS.
[Illustration]
A pretty symmetrical solution to this puzzle is shown in the diagram.
Each of the four kangaroos makes his little excursion and returns to his
corner, without ever entering a square that has been visited by another
kangaroo and without crossing the central line. It will at once occur to
the reader, as a possible improvement of the puzzle, to divide the board
by a central vertical line and make the condition that this also shall
not be crossed. This would mean that each kangaroo had to confine
himself to a square 4 by 4, but it would be quite impossible, as I shall
explain in the next two puzzles.
338.--THE BOARD IN COMPARTMENTS.
[Illustration]
In attempting to solve this problem it is first necessary to take the
two distinctive compartments of twenty and twelve squares respectively
and analyse them with a view to determining where the necessary points
of entry and exit lie. In the case of the larger compartment it will be
found that to complete a tour of it we must begin and end on two of the
outside squares on the long sides. But though you may start at any one
of these ten squares, you are restricted as to those at which you can
end, or (which is the same thing) you may end at whichever of these you
like, provided you begin your tour at certain particular squares. In the
case of the smaller compartment you are compelled to begin and end at
one of the six squares lying at the two narrow ends of the compartments,
but similar restrictions apply as in the other instance. A very little
thought will show that in the case of the two small compartments you
must begin and finish at the ends that lie together, and it then
follows that the tours in the larger compartments must also start and
end on the contiguous sides.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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