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?

(In reply to re(2): 3 move solution, sorry Carlos by Mindrod)

I think Carlos' solution needs to move only E in step 2 and D in step 3

Anyway, if the first step was legal, there was a 2 step solution by moving D in between C and F.

 

Posted by Hugo on 2005-11-27 14:45:49