Friday 13 June 2008

Mr Galloway's Jumping Frogs.



Mr Galloway sent me an animated puzzle on a excel spreadsheet that he and Mr Brock had been trying to solve (Ok, obviously they have WAY to much time on their hands) It is supposedly from a 2nd grade test in China or somewhere (don't belive everything you read on the internet, children). You can play it (and save to your own computer if you want) here . I'm going to wait to publish the solution, but if you are going crazy, here are two helpers... One, If you post a comment, someone will respond...even if it has to be me.. two,, a generous tip... two in a row of the same color is wrong, and finally a tip from old Sherlock Holmes who said"When you eliminate the impossible, what is left, is possible... I'll get back to this in a few days. THINK! And if you solve it, send me a comment.


Ok, too easy for some.. so there is a 2 dimensional variant of the puzzle here

The problem was first published by
Eduard Lucas, a 19th century French Mathematician; but versions of the problem may well date back to 8th century Arabia.

Lucas also created the Towers of Hanoi problem, try it here. He also did LOTS of work on the Fibonacci sequence (1,1,2,3,5,8,13...) and developed a generalized version that is called the Lucas sequence

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Concentrate to the things that could give information to the people.

Unknown said...

Wow Mr. Ballew! I finally got one of your brain puzzles, probably because it is not one of those horridly difficult metal ones that aggravate me. But for everyone else, pay attention to Mr. Ballew's generous hint ... it really is most helpful.