Puzzles to Inspire Youngsters

[drsteve]

I've changed the Sudoku to Irregular, which seems to be the standard.

Black and White has become Yin Yang - the most recent occurence was in WOC 2009 which called it YING Yang, but that does seem to be wrong, so I'll follow Cihan in PQRST with the naming.

As for formatting, if I had time, I'd do the screenshot method (that's how I did the Yin Yang, which looks better than most) - the main problem is the sample solutions - I don't see how to draw a convincing loop that goes through the centre of the squares. Any ideas?

Anyway, thanks for all the help. I'll let you know how it goes down.

[nickdeller]

As for formatting, if I had time, I'd do the screenshot method (that's how I did the Yin Yang, which looks better than most) - the main problem is the sample solutions - I don't see how to draw a convincing loop that goes through the centre of the squares. Any ideas?

I've got various bits of fancy layout and drawing software in my arsenal and time on my hands, I'll stick some nice looking sample solutions together for you if you like. Any preferences for an output file format?

[gareth]

Your Every Second Turn example puzzle has multiple solutions. I wondered why I was finding it harder than the three main puzzles!

I don't know how best to draw one of the alternatives, but perhaps you know this already?

[nickdeller]

Your Every Second Turn example puzzle has multiple solutions. I wondered why I was finding it harder than the three main puzzles!

Odd, I think it's unique! Using my normal format, Columns A to F, rows 1 to 6 downwards.

F1 and A6 are in the corners, so must be uncircled turns. Extend the lines to the nearest circles (A1, D1, B6, F6), then make the only possible 90 degree turns in those cells. C1 and C6 are now forced to contain uncircled turns, so draw them in and extend the lines to the nearest circles again. B2 and E5 are now uncircled turns - same again. B5 must go up to B4 and then turn (else the loop short circuits), so draw in the turn at B4 and extend lines to circles. Next, E3 is a forced turn - same procedure again... and finally, D2 joins to E2 to complete the route.

[Maxelkat]

I agree with Nick (now why does that sound familiar?), it has a unique solution.

[gareth]

I agree with Nick (now why does that sound familiar?), it has a unique solution.

Oh, I didn't know it had to use every square... I should have read the instructions more carefully. Sorry!

Well that was worth doing then - learning the rules!

Wow... that sure makes them easier.

[detuned]

As for formatting, if I had time, I'd do the screenshot method (that's how I did the Yin Yang, which looks better than most) - the main problem is the sample solutions - I don't see how to draw a convincing loop that goes through the centre of the squares. Any ideas?

I've got various bits of fancy layout and drawing software in my arsenal and time on my hands, I'll stick some nice looking sample solutions together for you if you like. Any preferences for an output file format?

What software do you use Nick? For my blog I am very lazy and never bother with solutions - but I can foresee needing to do have them in the future!

Re the bottom right Every Second Turn btw Steve - I thought it was very elegant puzzle!

[nickdeller]

I've got various bits of fancy layout and drawing software in my arsenal and time on my hands, I'll stick some nice looking sample solutions together for you if you like. Any preferences for an output file format?

What software do you use Nick? For my blog I am very lazy and never bother with solutions - but I can foresee needing to do have them in the future!

I've got Creative Suite CS2, which gives me Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop to play with - I'm mostly using Illustrator. I'm basically happy to chip in some design work on anything non-profit for nowt at the moment, I'm improving my own skills as I go along which can only be a good thing, and there's always the chance of it having a pay-off further down the line.

[drsteve]

Re the bottom right Every Second Turn btw Steve - I thought it was very elegant puzzle!

Cheers - although all I did was draw a nice loop, mark the corners and then check for uniqueness.

So far, I've made about five or six and so far, uniqueness has followed automatically - I'm sure that's just dumb luck, but it made it much easy to set.

The hardest puzzle to make was the Sudokus - mainly just trying to find a solution to fit the various patterns, as the different shapes add constraints that were not immediately obvious.

Lots of fun, anyway, and the first issue is now with the school print room.

Time to think of some new varieties for next time - maybe I might have a go at the railway one, as that's accessible.

[AndreyBogdanov]

Time to think of some new varieties for next time - maybe I might have a go at the railway one, as that's accessible.

I provided some small competitions for children (of the same ages - 9-13) this summer - I could send you the files if you were interested.

[drsteve]

Time to think of some new varieties for next time - maybe I might have a go at the railway one, as that's accessible.

I provided some small competitions for children (of the same ages - 9-13) this summer - I could send you the files if you were interested.

That would be much appreciated, Andrey. Thanks

[AndreyBogdanov]

Here is a zip-file with four sets (I gave them for 45 minutes each).
These files contain grids only (and puzzle names in Russian). Look them - which are interesting.
I also could send instructions with examples and answers. Write me to bay73_at_mail.ru.

[Janix]

Steve

I benchmarked it with my 13 year old daughter after school today. Friends was on TV when I came home, but she quickly became engrossed in the puzzles and when I came back home half an hour ago, she was watching a rerun as she had missed it! She took about 45 minutes to solve them all (with a little encouragement for one, and clarification for another two - see below). In general, her reactions were similar to Alan's son. She enjoyed the challenge and sends her thanks.

ABC Connections - too easy. Once she looked at how you get from A-A, seeing that B=B and C-C were short straight lines, then she grasped the principle, and just went straight through the lot.

Every Second Turn - a good challenge. Once she understood the rules, she solved the first one quite quickly and the second one after a while. She gave up on the third one, and I prompted her to consider the rules and look for forced positions that must be correct. She then eventually solved it - this puzzle took by far the longest time.

Mini Jigsaw Sudoku - a fair challenge. She is familiar with Sudoku, and easily picked up on this new constraint. She solved all the puzzles logically, but started guessing in the bottom puzzle as was getting a bit tired (I managed to get her back on the correct track).

Black and White (Ying Yang) - ambiguous example. She could not solve without me pointing out that the black and white arms could have branches (battenburg), she was trying to form one continuous line of each colour. She then worked out that white would have to go around the edge and solved quite quickly. She understood the constraints very well, and never once created a one colour four block (I was impressed by that).

In conclusion, I think that they are a good set of mixed puzzles, but the ABC connections need to be made a little harder to maintain consistency of solving approach / time (managing expectations).

Oh, and Steve, I have just become a Maths teacher, and am currently working my way through my NQT year (via contract posts)

[AndreyBogdanov]

There was too late yesterday and I was lazy to write long post.
Here is some comment. Archive contains four files.
puzzles.pdf
1. Sudoku - standard sudoku 1-5
2. Battleships with small fleet (one 3-cells, two 2-cells and three 1-cell ships)
3. Arithmetics - write digits 1-9 (one time each) to satisfy equations.
4. Not Four in row. This puzzle requires accuracy (especially for diagonal rows) and many children made mistakes.
5. Crossword. Circle marks initial letters of all words.
6. Cut. Divide the figure to five parts with the same shape and size. Part may be rotated and mirrored.
puzzles1.pdf
1. Magnets
2. Tents
3. Dissection. Divide the figure to two parts with the same shape and size. Part may be rotated and mirrored.
4. Triangle arithmetics - write digits 1-9 (one time each) to satisfy equations.
5. Crack it Out. This puzzle is difficult to understand, but easy to solve.
6. Zigzag. ABC should repeat along the path from top left to bottom right.
puzzles2.pdf
1. Sudoku of three different sizes.
2. Maze. Find a simple closed loop going through all cells. You cannot intersect marked edges.
3. Cut. Divide the figure to five parts with the same shape and size. Part may be rotated and mirrored.
4. Darts. Get 100 by given number of darts.
5. Crossword. Write all given words to the grid.
6. Paper clips. Children awe this puzzle because it doesn't have evident start.
puzzles3.pdf
1. Easy as ABC
2. Minesweeper battleships.
3. Star cut. Divide the figure into the given pieces. Each part should contain one star.
4. Kakuro. Only digits 1-5 is used. These puzzles seem to be too hard for children (who isn't familiar with solving techniques)
5. One letter. It's language depended puzzle, but I think you could easy create the same for English. Take out one letter form each word - remaining letters in the same order should form correct word. All taking letter should form the word too.

[drsteve]

Well, Issue One has been given out to our Gifted and Talented Year Sevens and Eights. Some were very keen and one walked off (having asked) with a copy of the USPC 2009 that I had lying around.

Can I take this opportunity to thank everyone out there who helped me with this issue, especially the field testers, both old and especially young. Hopefully there will be another issue in month or so, but I do have this Poland thingy to take care of first.

In the meantime though, any request for puzzle types, especially from the younger generation? I was thinking slitherlink or one of those railway track puzzles, as they look quite settable.