The diagram below shows cities A, B, C, ..., K, and L.

            +---A   +---+   +---+---+---+
            |       |   |   |   |       |
            +---+   +   B   C   +   D   E
                |   |           |   |
            F---+---+---+---+---G---+---+
                |           |   |       |
            H   +   +---+   I   +   +---+
            |   |   |   |       |   |
            +---+---+   J   K---+   +---L

Knowing that each line segment measures 1 km and the distances (along the lines) between two cities, are:

            Bodov  -  Direb:   9 km
            Vega   -  Mares:   5 Km
            Fugud  -  Rigel:   4 km
            Tolima -  Bodov:   8 km
            Atlas  -  Supra:  11 km
            Cona   -  Poris:   6 km
            Kuma   -  Atlas:   4 km
            Fugud  -  Cona:   12 km
            Poris  -  Vega:    5 km

Identify the cities.

Building the table was drudge work, and I must confess to the errors cited.  I do think, however, that having the full table (if correct) would ease the solving: those who did not do so wound up counting many paths anyway -- so why not have them at the start?  I generally attempt only those puzzles which proffer scope for computer approaches, but I saw no practical approach along those lines (the time-consuming part, getting accurate distances for all pairs, would still be a manual task).  Haste makes paste, or something of the sort.

Posted by ed bottemiller on 2008-07-28 16:27:49