You have quarters laid out in the following pattern on the left and you want to move quarters to form the pattern on the right.

  Q      Q Q
 Q Q    Q   Q
Q Q Q    Q Q

Before| |After

The only rule is you must slide a coin without moving any others, such that the coin's ending location touches two other quarters. This means the following moves are illegal:

 A 1     Moving C to 1    
B C D 2  Moving B to 2  
 E F 

What is the shortest solution?

A
B C
D E F
------------
A
E B C
D F
------------
E B C
A D F
------------
E B
A D F
C
------------
E B
A D F
C
------------
E B
A D
C F
------------
This may not be the shortest, but it will do for now.

-Jer

Posted by Jer on 2004-03-26 14:22:11