Coin-Moving Puzzles

We introduce a new family of one-player games, involving the movement of coins from one configuration to another. Moves are restricted so that a coin can be placed only in a position that is adjacent to at least two other coins. The goal of this paper is to specify exactly which of these games are solvable. By introducing the notion of a constant number of extra coins, we give tight theorems characterizing solvable puzzles on the square grid and equilateral-triangle grid. These existence results are supplemented by polynomial-time algorithms for finding a solution.

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2002
• Where: CORR
• Authors: Erik D. Demaine, Martin L. Demaine, Helena A. Verrill
• Keywords: Coins, CORR 2002, Education, One-player Games, Solvable Puzzles