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.

(In reply to Get your own problem! by Jer)

To further clarify what SK was saying:

The puzzle is indeed from elsewhere (in a slightly different form), and it is certainly true that it wasn't aknowledged in the problem. As SK was saying, it is common practice to put such aknowledgements in the solution, usually if the puzzle is from somewhere else on the web. This is simply to discourage people from simply looking up the answer elsewhere and posting it here - it removes the fun. The citation you are hoping for will appear in a few days when the solution is posted.

On the other hand, I have posted several other problems that have been adapted from outside sources, such as Raymond Smullyan's books. These I have cited in the problems themselves, as it would much harder to find the solution online.

I don't know whether people think that Perplexus is due for a policy revision in this regard. Certainly all puzzles that are borrowed from other sources, even if they are adapted for Perplexus as I did here, should have a citation somewhere. At the moment there are no formal rules for such citations, but perhaps such rules might be necessary.

Posted by Sam on 2004-05-10 13:34:16