How to Solve the Torus Puzzle

doi:10.3390/a5010018

This article is

freely available
re-usable

Algorithms 2012, 5(1), 18-29; doi:10.3390/a5010018

Article

How to Solve the Torus Puzzle

Kazuyuki Amano¹, Yuta Kojima², Toshiya Kurabayashi², Keita Kurihara¹, Masahiro Nakamura², Ayaka Omi², Toshiyuki Tanaka¹ and Koichi Yamazaki^1,*

¹ Department of Computer Science, Gunma University, 1-5-1 Tenjin-cho, Kiryu, Gunma 376-8515, Japan ² Kiryu High School, 1-39 Miharacho, Kiryu, Gunma 376-0025, Japan

* Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Received: 27 December 2011; in revised form: 30 December 2011 / Accepted: 30 December 2011 / Published: 13 January 2012

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Puzzle/Game Algorithms)

Download PDF Full-Text [191 KB, uploaded 13 January 2012 09:58 CET]

Abstract: In this paper, we consider the following sliding puzzle called torus puzzle. In an m by n board, there are mn pieces numbered from 1 to mn. Initially, the pieces are placed in ascending order. Then they are scrambled by rotating the rows and columns without the player’s knowledge. The objective of the torus puzzle is to rearrange the pieces in ascending order by rotating the rows and columns. We provide a solution to this puzzle. In addition, we provide lower and upper bounds on the number of steps for solving the puzzle. Moreover, we consider a variant of the torus puzzle in which each piece is colored either black or white, and we present a hardness result for solving it.

Keywords: torus puzzle; 15 puzzle

Article Statistics

Click here to load and display the download statistics.

Cite This Article

MDPI and ACS Style

Amano, K.; Kojima, Y.; Kurabayashi, T.; Kurihara, K.; Nakamura, M.; Omi, A.; Tanaka, T.; Yamazaki, K. How to Solve the Torus Puzzle. Algorithms 2012, 5, 18-29.

AMA Style

Amano K, Kojima Y, Kurabayashi T, Kurihara K, Nakamura M, Omi A, Tanaka T, Yamazaki K. How to Solve the Torus Puzzle. Algorithms. 2012; 5(1):18-29.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Amano, Kazuyuki; Kojima, Yuta; Kurabayashi, Toshiya; Kurihara, Keita; Nakamura, Masahiro; Omi, Ayaka; Tanaka, Toshiyuki; Yamazaki, Koichi. 2012. "How to Solve the Torus Puzzle." Algorithms 5, no. 1: 18-29.

Algorithms EISSN 1999-4893 Published by MDPI AG, Basel, Switzerland RSS E-Mail Table of Contents Alert