One of the early puzzles looks like this:
Dawson jumps in and devours these things. Right up until he encounters a puzzle like this:
"Dad, I don't get it."
"Get what?"
"This puzzle. I don't understand it."
"What's the rule?"
"I have to connect the two dots by going through each box."
"Is that the whole rule?"
"Yeah. No. I can only go through each box once and I can't go diagonally."
"Does that rule work for all the others you've done?"
"Yeah."
"Hmm."
I go back to doing the dishes as Dawson and Nevan (9) discuss what's "wrong" with this particular puzzle. Once I'm finished, I chime back in.
"So, have you figured it out?"
"No. I just don't understand?"
"Have you considered that maybe this particular puzzle doesn't have a solution?"
*perplexed*
"You mean, that's allowed?"
"Yeah. Sometimes problems don't have answers."
*points to a different puzzle on the page*
"Oh, then this one doesn't have an answer either."
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Posts
3 comments:
Now see if he can find one with more than one solution!
When I went to see Tanton he used these in his talk. We ended up figuring out which starting/ending points were possible for generalized grid sizes. (odd or even rows/columns)
"discrete." Well done, Mr. Cox.
Post a Comment