Henry Ernest Dudeney/Puzzles and Curious Problems/254 - The Flanders Wheel/Solution 1
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Puzzles and Curious Problems by Henry Ernest Dudeney: $254$
- The Flanders Wheel
- Place eight lettered counters on the wheel as shown.
- Now move them one at a time along the line from circle to circle
- until the word $\text {FLANDERS}$ can be correctly read round the rim of the wheel as at present,
- only that the $\text F$ is in the upper circle now occupied by the $\text N$.
- Of course two counters cannot be in a circle at the same time.
- Find the fewest possible moves.
Solution
Move the counters in the following order:
- $\texttt {A N D A F L N D A F D N L D R S D L N A F R S E R S L N A L}$
which is $30$ moves in all.
Historical Note
The $30$-move solution was that given by Dudeney.
The $28$-move solution was reported on by Martin Gardner, who set it as a puzzle for his readers to solve.
He notes that it is isomorphic with a sliding-block puzzle of $8$ blocks on a $3 \times 3$ square array.
He then references his Mathematical Games columns in Scientific American for March and June $1965$.
Sources
- 1932: Henry Ernest Dudeney: Puzzles and Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Solutions: $254$. -- The Flanders Wheel
- 1968: Henry Ernest Dudeney: 536 Puzzles & Curious Problems ... (previous) ... (next): Answers: $379$. The Flanders Wheel