First, my thanks to everyone who completed the survey yesterday. Much appreciated. OK, here is the puzzle….
Here is a schematic plan of an orchard, with the green circles representing trees. The orchard belongs to four brothers and they want to split it between them. Can you divide the orchard into four parts, such that each part is the same size and same shape, and has the same number of trees?
As ever, please do NOT post your answers, but feel free to say if you have solved it and how long it took. Answer on Monday!
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September 24, 2010 at 5:35 am |
That only took a few seconds, but I think I’ve seen this puzzle or one very like it before, so that may have helped.
September 24, 2010 at 5:43 am |
Um, five seconds?
September 24, 2010 at 5:43 am |
I solved this really quickly but that’s because i play teris alot…
September 24, 2010 at 8:19 am
same here
September 24, 2010 at 1:04 pm
Yes, that was the key! (and that’s a hint for the rest of you!)
1 minute only because I had to get a pen and paper to confirm.
September 24, 2010 at 2:35 pm
Me too. Although I don’t think it’s a hint. any shape you can make with 4 squares is on tetris
September 24, 2010 at 3:48 pm
15 seconds or so, but I credit my mad Soma puzzle skillz.
September 24, 2010 at 5:54 am |
About a minute, but I don’t play Tetris.
September 24, 2010 at 6:27 am |
Yes, I can… about half to one minute (Is too earlier in the morning to solve this in a range of seconds
)
September 24, 2010 at 12:00 pm
@Joao Pedro…..Morning! This one gave me a bit of a problem at first today.
September 24, 2010 at 6:34 am |
GOt it, in about 30 seconds. I hope my solution fits to a T.
September 24, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Cheeky
September 24, 2010 at 6:35 am |
Does any one else find with these puzzles that you have them in a minute or less, or they take loads longer? No middle ground.
September 24, 2010 at 7:43 am
Yes I find that.
I think for me I get an idea in my head and if that solution doesn’t work it’s then really difficult to see any other way to solve the problem, because I keep going back to the way that doesn’t work.
September 24, 2010 at 1:10 pm
I think it depends on your puzzle solving style. Maybe one person thinks better, spatially while another thinks better with words and a third thinks better with numbers. Me, although I got this puzzle pretty quickly I can’t solve a rubik’s cube to save my soul! I’m better with abstract concepts.
Maybe Richard can do or sponsor some sort of survey / study? Give solvers 50-100 puzzles of all sorts and note each solution time to see if there is a difference.
I’d guess it’s a left brain vs right brain thing.
September 24, 2010 at 7:03 am |
Yep, didn’t take more than a minute. Some puzzles just happen, others don’t.
And tetris helps.
September 24, 2010 at 7:07 am |
40 seconds. Spent counting trees and eliminating possible shapes for the areas. And then realising that my first tiling didn’t work, and seeing which tiling would work.
September 24, 2010 at 7:24 am |
about 30 seconds to eliminate my first ideas.
then realised a good starting point to get 3 trees and 4 squares in a pattern.
then another 30 seconds to mentally trace it round to see if it worked. It did.
and yes, I suspect tretrisonians have a head start.
September 24, 2010 at 7:26 am |
Way to ruin the puzzle for everyone, Tod.
P’raps we could read the instructions next time?
September 24, 2010 at 7:28 am
Ah, well, Tod’s comment seems to have been rapidly deletified, which makes mine a bit surreal!
September 24, 2010 at 7:37 am |
About 2 minutes to work out 2 different methods
September 24, 2010 at 7:37 am |
Got it!
As soon as I shifted my brain from my initial mode of thinking about the position of the trees then I got it in about 10 secs. Spent about 5 mins under my first mode of thought though
September 24, 2010 at 7:40 am |
Yes, I got this one. I find these ones a lot easier than some of the others- either that or the others are really hard, yes that must be it!
September 24, 2010 at 7:42 am |
Took about a minute, though may have cheated as am not sure my solution is allowed!
September 24, 2010 at 7:49 am |
It took me less than a minute … The comment with Tetris is very nice…
September 24, 2010 at 7:51 am |
Solved it in about 10 seconds
September 24, 2010 at 7:56 am |
Got it in about 30 seconds then discovered there are at least two solutions after about two minutes.
September 24, 2010 at 3:13 pm
yes, just discovered the second “tetrisonial” solution… but maybe there are more, especcially as it is not a criterion that each part ist composed of squares that actually adjoin… hehehe
September 24, 2010 at 8:08 am |
20 mins, but only 2 minutes hard thinking
September 24, 2010 at 8:10 am |
A few seconds. Very often I just give up on these puzzles, so this one is decidedly easy.
September 24, 2010 at 8:14 am |
After _no time at all_ my correct answer to the question posed was “No, I can’t”. With that, I claim a WIN!
Now, after having thought about it for half a minute the answer has changed to “Yes, now I can.”
September 24, 2010 at 8:19 am |
Thanx all who mentioned Tetris
About 5 seconds after reading the comments
September 24, 2010 at 8:25 am |
Easy, around 6 seconds.
September 24, 2010 at 8:27 am |
Too easy – 10 seconds maybe.
After another minute or so I found a second solution.
September 24, 2010 at 8:43 am |
Yes, easy. Ten seconds or so (as long as it took me to count trees for the first solution that came to mind, which happened to work).
September 24, 2010 at 8:49 am |
A few seconds, then counted the trees to be sure.
September 24, 2010 at 9:13 am |
Well I could just kick myself up one side and down another….been sitting here looking at this for the last 20 min and thinking this must be wrong….surely Richard will come back and move things around because there just isn’t any way to do what is asked. Then reread the question and slapped myself upside my head and saw the answer right a way! Now I am going to prepare myself a spot of tea in my new Royal Albert Old Country Roses tea set my younger son bought me! Yep tea is the answer for me now!
September 24, 2010 at 9:19 am
Tea is not the only answer – you could use a cup of joe
September 24, 2010 at 9:24 am
@Per…..lol….indeed!
September 24, 2010 at 9:21 am |
Did it in less then a minute!
September 24, 2010 at 9:23 am |
Let’s see – twelve trees, four brothers, sixteen squares…
I figured it out in my head, then had a play around with borders and background colours in Excel to be sure
September 24, 2010 at 9:26 am
@mittfh…….show off……..he he he…..
September 24, 2010 at 9:26 am |
A couple of minutes
September 24, 2010 at 10:29 am |
Two different solutions, couple of minutes.
September 24, 2010 at 10:43 am |
About 10 seconds — easier than it looks at first glance.
September 24, 2010 at 11:34 am |
Two answers, 2 mins.
September 24, 2010 at 11:41 am |
20 seconds!
September 24, 2010 at 12:23 pm |
Wow, I finally solved one
September 24, 2010 at 12:41 pm |
Yes – about 15s.
September 24, 2010 at 12:42 pm |
30 Seconds
September 24, 2010 at 12:43 pm |
Yes, 20 seconds or so.
September 24, 2010 at 12:47 pm |
I solved it! But it didn’t take too long…
September 24, 2010 at 12:48 pm |
Managed it in about half a minute? maybe a minute at most.
I did however have to put a piece of paper up to the screen to draw out my divisions.
September 24, 2010 at 12:51 pm |
I got one solution after about 30 seconds, but my shapes are not rotationally symmetric, two of the pieces are the mirror image of the other two images.
I found a solution where the pieces are rotationally symmetric as well after thinking about it for another minute.
September 24, 2010 at 1:13 pm
Damn you! My first solution took 3 minutes, then you had to mention rotational symmetry. Final solution took an additional 30seconds. But with the Tetris hints, and your point of rotational symmetry, it was pretty simple to figure out.
September 24, 2010 at 12:53 pm |
3 minutes into Gateways off the new Dimmu Borgir album (started about the same time the song started) I figured it out. Most of that time was drawing out the grid so I could mess around with it better.
September 24, 2010 at 12:56 pm |
Easy. Took me longer to get the felt pen off my screen than solving the puzzle.
September 24, 2010 at 1:16 pm
To remove permanent pen or marker use an erasable marker (the whiteboard kind) Simply scribble across the pen mark and immediately wipe off. Works a charm on non porous surfaces like white boards and computer monitors. The solvent in the erasable marker (why they smell) dissolves the ink and you can wipe it away easily.
I work in TV, its an old trick.
September 24, 2010 at 1:07 pm |
Think tetris.
September 24, 2010 at 1:10 pm |
About 30 seconds. Good one though.
September 24, 2010 at 1:21 pm |
About three minutes, just needed to look at it for a while before It popped out at me
September 24, 2010 at 1:27 pm |
“Among” not “”between”
September 24, 2010 at 1:46 pm |
About a minute eliminating the permutations.
September 24, 2010 at 1:54 pm |
this was really simple
September 24, 2010 at 1:57 pm |
A few seconds. Thanks Heather for sharing the puzzle.
September 24, 2010 at 1:58 pm |
What?! I did it instantly!
Or rather, I should say, on my first half-hearted attempt.
September 24, 2010 at 2:10 pm |
All you have to do is dig up the tree in the top left corner and…oh, I forgot I wasn’t supposed to tell how I did it.
September 24, 2010 at 2:21 pm |
2 answers – 20 seconds
September 24, 2010 at 2:22 pm |
A few seconds. I felt smug about this until I read the comments and discovered I wasn’t alone.
September 24, 2010 at 3:56 pm
Add me to this category
September 24, 2010 at 2:46 pm |
Pretty much straight after I read the problem.
September 24, 2010 at 3:20 pm |
Very easy one I think. Few seconds for an intial solution, few seconds more for a different solution using same shape, and a few after that for another solution using a different shape.
September 24, 2010 at 3:35 pm |
More or less instantaneously once I was done reading.
September 24, 2010 at 3:47 pm |
It took me about a minute. It is done. I made a few attempts and then realised that the requirements gave me a bit more freedom than i assumed at first.
September 24, 2010 at 4:36 pm |
Maybe a few minutes… I didn’t quite get it until I started trying to make the lower left-hand shape. Then it all came together.
September 24, 2010 at 4:50 pm |
Easy. <5 seconds.
September 24, 2010 at 7:40 pm |
I wasted about a minute trying to find the exact same shape with the exact same distribution of trees which (as far as I could see) couldn’t be done. Once I realized that it just had to have the same shape and same number of trees but not necessarily in the same spots within that shape, it only took a few seconds.
Reading comprehension is my friend.
September 24, 2010 at 8:50 pm |
About 4 minutes to get to a screen large enough to fit the whole orchard in. About 5 seconds once I could see whole orchard in one go. A little longer to find a second solution.
September 25, 2010 at 3:43 pm
Doh! Could have just turned phone to upright position. Not feeling so smart now!
September 25, 2010 at 6:42 pm
ya no feeling smart now
September 24, 2010 at 8:51 pm |
3 minutes cause I thought the arrangement of tree in each had to be the same.
September 24, 2010 at 8:57 pm |
Two solutions. Took some minutes.
September 24, 2010 at 9:39 pm |
Super easy, few seconds. http://tinypic.com/r/ma9roh/7
September 26, 2010 at 5:22 pm
It’s called don’t post the answer. Read it.
September 27, 2010 at 10:01 pm
I didn’t post the answer here. I assumed you don’t click through if you don’t want to see it.
September 24, 2010 at 10:45 pm |
Particularly easy since you don’t specify that the parts have to be contiguous.
September 24, 2010 at 11:13 pm |
About seven minutes. I saw a kind of this Puzzle in a book, but with five Fields each part.
By the way, referring of the survey of yesterday about luck: now i can say that i spend seven minutes to reach the state of happiness for a while, because i just solved this difficult problem…
I never will have a problem like this but it makes me proud to be able to solve such absurd things !
September 24, 2010 at 11:21 pm |
Did you also see the text soo weird after watching on the green cyrcles ? I think its an optical illusion. All Letters were small, i thought a need glasses, and also all it looked so “edgy”, also human faces !?!
September 25, 2010 at 12:11 am |
3 answers and I think there are no more. Took a couple of minutes.
September 25, 2010 at 12:11 am |
About 30 sec. This was a good one. Thanks!
September 25, 2010 at 3:03 am |
This took me a while to solve. I took time out to leave the house to go out to dinner. When I came back I tried again and found a solution. I could have kicked myself for not seeing it sooner.
September 25, 2010 at 7:11 am |
It took me a whole Knight plus a couple of minutes!
September 25, 2010 at 7:29 am |
yes, I got it in about 59 seconds, which made me happier than perhaps it should
the question is if I looked at it for 2 seconds then went away and did something that fully occupied my mind for 5 minutes and then can back to it, would I have already solved it in your subconscious.
Now where did I get that theory?
September 25, 2010 at 8:32 am |
15 seconds after I read the Tetris comment.
September 25, 2010 at 12:33 pm |
Took me about 3 minutes, because at first i tried to find shapes with dots at the very same places. After recognizing my mistake it was a matter of seconds.
September 25, 2010 at 1:10 pm |
Found 2 shapes that work in 3 arrangements total so far.
Didn’t think of the resemblence to tetris before someone mentioned it.
I’m now trying to find a solution using shapes not made up of squares, splitting the trees into fractions.
September 25, 2010 at 5:01 pm |
Got it! Took me about a minute.
September 25, 2010 at 6:41 pm
ya well cabeza is better chickens
September 25, 2010 at 6:21 pm |
Solved in 10 sec after I after I read the comments and found the hint “tetris”. Credit goes to the first guy to give that hint.
September 25, 2010 at 6:38 pm |
I got it right away. I am soooooo smart aren’t I folks. You don’t know me but my name is caaaaaaaaabeezaaaaaaaaaaa. And I love cooking. A great cooking website is pionner women cooks. I may have misspelled that but who cares I mean look at me I’m amazing .see ya next week cookers .Oops wrong website I mean people who think their smarter than me ,which we all know you aren’t……. right okay
Cabeza is leaving …… ciao
September 25, 2010 at 6:47 pm |
just kidding! I’m sure most of you did better than me at this problem.
September 25, 2010 at 8:37 pm |
I keep seeing swastikas, should I be worried?
September 25, 2010 at 9:16 pm |
About 15 seconds – 10 seconds to work out a condition which must be true, and then another 5 or so to find 2 possible answers
September 26, 2010 at 9:21 am |
Got in about 10 seconds.
September 26, 2010 at 10:01 am |
got it in about 20 seconds…..
September 26, 2010 at 5:59 pm |
<5 sec. and tetris helps.
September 26, 2010 at 7:30 pm |
Took about 2 minutes.
September 26, 2010 at 7:54 pm |
Took me 20 sec
Easy one…
September 27, 2010 at 3:05 am |
Solved. About 1.5 minutes.
September 27, 2010 at 5:30 am |
20 seconds.
September 28, 2010 at 3:24 am |
Yes, I did in 15 seconds.
September 29, 2010 at 3:09 pm |
Dear Rechard, I have not got your mail on Monday!!
Have you posted the answer?