Place four coins on the bottom row of circles (p a e r) so that the word "Plexus" is showing.

Your aim is to slide the coins along the lines from one circle to another (no stopping half way!) to expose the word "pleaser" (noting that there is a difference between the capital 'P' and the small 'p'). There is only one catch: At no time are two coins allowed to be next to each other along a line.

So for instance, the coin on 'p' cannot move initially, or it would end up next to the coin on 'a'. Some of the lines are easily missed: note especially the u-r connection.

To move the coin on the small p out, the l, e1, x, a and P circles must be clear. This leaves only the u, s, e2, r and blank circles left for the remaining 3 coins. No coin can be on the u, since this would restrict s, e2 and r and leave only the blank circle for 2 coins (not likely to work). A coin on the blank would leave only u and e2 free, and since u restricts e2, this is also impossible. Therefore the coins that were originally on a, e2 and r must be on the s, e2 and r circles at some point.

A solution which gets to this position is as follows:

r-blank-s-e1
a-x
e2-u-r-blank
x-a-u-e2
blank-r
e1-s

And from there: p-l-P. This far, these moves are definitley part of the solution.

Posted by Iain on 2004-05-08 14:04:30