There is just one way to go from XXXXOOOO to XOXOXOXO in five moves if *three* adjacent coins are moved at each turn. How?

(In reply to solution by Tristan)

Not moving from original position definitely places this solution on top of the pile. Nice!

Question: How many different positions can be arrived at if we require the end position to be in the same 8 slots and we translate three at a time? What are the minimum move counts on these different positions?

Posted by owl on 2004-10-28 12:46:54