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  F

 B  C

D  E

_____

  A  F

B  C  D

  E

_______

  A  F

B       D

  E  C

Posted by Emily on 2004-03-26 21:30:13