On my puzzle blog earlier today I set the following three questions:
A barracks (the matchbox below) is surrounded by 24 guards (matchsticks) in groups of three, such that when the sergeant drives once around the guards to check that they are all there he sees two rows of 9 guards (the top and bottom rows), and two columns of 9 guards (the left and right columns).
Puzzle 1. Four guards sneak off to the cinema with four women. How can the remaining guards rearrange themselves so that when the sergeant drives around he still sees two rows and two columns of 9 guards?
Solution:
Puzzle 2. The four guards and the four women return to the barracks. The sergeant suddenly appears. How can all the guards and the extra women fit around the barracks so that the sergeant still sees two rows and two columns of 9 guards? We can assume that the women have time to slip into guard uniforms, and so are indistinguishable from them.
Solution
Puzzle 3. Place 3 matches on the table so they support the matchbox on them. The heads of the matches must not touch the table, nor each other, nor the matchbox. (Nor can the matches protrude from the edge of the table).
Place the three matches together like this:
And voila!
I set a puzzle here every two weeks on a Monday. Send me your email if you want me to alert you each time I post a new one. I’m always on the look-out for great puzzles. If you would like to suggest one, email me.
My puzzle book Can You Solve My Problems?which is recently out in paperback.
