Henry Ernest Dudeney/Modern Puzzles/141 - The Six Submarines/Solution
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Modern Puzzles by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $141$
- The Six Submarines
- If five submarines, sunk on the same day, all went down at the same spot where another had previously been sunk,
- how might they all lie at rest so that every one of the six U-boats should touch every other one?
- To simplify we will say, place six ordinary wooden matches so that every match shall touch every other match.
- No bending or breaking allowed.
Solution
In fact, this has been simplified even further, and the submarines have been modelled as simple cylinders.
Historical Note
Martin Gardner, in his $1968$ repackaging 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems, references his own article in his $1959$ collection The Scientific American Book of Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions in which the question is answered in Seven Touching Cylinders, with $7$ appropriately-dimensioned cylinders.
Sources
- 1926: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Modern Puzzles ... (previous) ... (next): Solutions: $141$. -- The Six Submarines
- 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Answers: $312$. The Six Submarines