DISKOS

This puzzle is a exchange puzzle by Jeremiah Farrell for the International Puzzle Party 25 held in Helsinki, Finland 2005

Objective / Description

About the puzzle:

DISKOS are disks with two numbers or two letters on them. The twelve pressboard DISKOS are to be used on the 4x4 grid colored in the blue and white of the Finnish flag while the wooden DISKOS will be used on the 6x6 wooden grid. The 6x6 puzzle is very hard and either of the 4x4 warmup puzzles should be attempted first.

Goal:

THE 4x4 PUZZLES Puzzle

1: Place the 12 DISKOS on the grid so that the four occurrences of each number (1-6) mark the four comers of a square. The six squares may be of size 4x4, 3x3 or 2x2. Numbers on any DISKO are to be regarded as a kind of “coordinate” of the center of that DISKO and it will therefore make no difference how the DISKO is rotated. The ten squares of the example inevitably overlap so this puzzle is a little bit different than the usual 2-dimensional assembly puzzle. Puzzle

2: The symphonic poem Finlandia (1899) by Finnish composer Jean Sibelius(1865-1957) is highly esteemed by everyone. The six distinct letters of Finlandia can form the following 12 “words”: AD, AL, AN, DL (550 in Roman numerals), FA, FL,(Florida, abbr.), ID, IF, IN, LI (Chinese mile), ND (North Dakota, abbr.), NF (Newfoundland, abbr. ). Each of the six letters is used exactly four times and the puzzle is to place the 12 DISKOS on the grid so that each letter marks the four comers of a square. In other words, exactly like Puzzle 1 except now we use letters.

There are only six solutions to either of these puzzles not counting the usual symmetries of the square as different. Solvers are expected to find all six.

THE 6x6 PUZZLES

Solvers are asked to arrange the 20 DISKOS so that each of the four appearances of a number marks the four comers of a quadrilateral on the grid. In this puzzle, unlike the 4x4 cases, NO overlapping is allowed and thus we will obtain a true partitioning of the 6x6 square. Because we start with a square rather than a rectangle it will not be possible for all the partition pieces to be squares themselves.

There are essentially two solutions to this puzzle, one for each of the perfect rectangles found by the four students. The tenth quadrangle formed by the 20 DISKOS will be the outer 6x6 square itself and the other nine quads will separate the interior.

Packaging: Zip lock bag

Preliminary estimate of shipping costs from the Netherlands.

Netherlands: from 0 - 2 kg, max. approx $ 12.00

Europe 1: from 0 - 2 kg, max. approx $ 23.00 to Belgium, Germany, France, (incl. Corsica and Monaco), Italy (excl. San Marino and Vatican City), Luxembourg, Spain (incl. Balearic Islands, excl. Canary Islands).

Europe 2: (rest of Europe) from 0 - 2 kg, max. approx. $ 32.00 to all other countries in Europe (excl. Russia).

ROW (rest of the world): from 0 - 2 kg, max. approx $ 43.00 – to all other countries (incl. Russia).

The final shipping cost will be determined when the item is closed.

And if more items are sold to the same address, the average shipping cost per item will be lower.