Puzzle

“ The practical usefulness of puzzles is a point that we are liable to overlook. Yet, as a matter of fact, I have from time to time received quite a large number of letters from individuals who have found that the mastering of some little principle upon which a puzzle was built has proved of considerable value to them in a most unexpected way. Indeed, it may be accepted as a good maxim that a puzzle is of little real value unless, as well as being amusing and perplexing, it conceals some instructive and possibly useful feature. ”

“ A puzzle is defined as 'something which perplexes or embarrasses; a difficult problem or question; hence a toy, contrivance, question or problem designed for testing ingenuity; as a cross word puzzle.' Webster's New International Dictionary. A jigsaw picture puzzle comes squarely within this definition-'a contrivance * * * designed for testing ingenuity.' None of the articles specifically named in the statute and used in games is a contrivance designed for testing ingenuity. ”

“ And the puzzle which that boy accidentally discovered is now in all the old puzzle books.
Puzzles can be made out of almost anything, in the hands of the ingenious person with an idea. Coins, matches, cards, counters, bits of wire or string, all come in useful. An immense number of puzzles have been made out of the letters of the alphabet, and from those nine little digits and cipher, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 0.
It should always be remembered that a very simple person may propound a problem that can only be solved by clever heads—if at all. ”

“ How many of the boys and girls are fond of puzzle pictures? Hold up your hands. Ah, I thought so. I believe nearly everyone likes puzzles; we are attracted to many things which possess an element of mystery. So I am going to draw a little puzzle landscape today and see if we can get a lesson from it. [Draw the landscape, naming the objects as you complete them—the tree, the land, the water, the distant foliage, and so on, finishing Fig. 41. This completes the drawing for the entire talk.] ”

“ Was I the same when I got up this morning? But if I'm not the same, the next question is, 'Who in the world am I?' Ah, that's the great puzzle!" ”

“ What are they, anyway, these curious combinations of unforeseen incidents which under the name of "coincidence" startle us out of our dull acceptance of things? Can it be that, after all, space and circumstance are but pieces in a puzzle to which the key is lost, so that, playing blindly, we are startled by the click which announces the falling of some corner of the puzzle into place? ”

“ The commonest of all puzzles are coloured maps, pictures (“ jig-saw ”) or designs, dissected into numerous variously shaped pieces, to be fitted together to form the complete design. A great number of puzzles are based on mathematical principles, such as the “ fifteen puzzle,” the “ railway shunting puzzle,” and the like. ”

“ They are interesting merely as fallacies. But I want to say something on two little points that are always arising in cutting-out puzzles—the questions of "hanging by a thread" and "turning over." These points can best be illustrated by a puzzle that is frequently to be found in the old books, but invariably with a false solution. The puzzle is to cut the figure shown in Fig. 1 into three pieces that will fit together and form a half-square triangle. ”

“ The puzzle picture with its tantalizing face, or animal, or what not, hidden in the trees, or fantastically constructed out of heterogeneous elements that make up the composition, is to many quite irresistible. ”

“ This puzzle is well named, to say the least, and those curving question marks will try the endurance of the solver to the utmost. Some of you will get out your Atlases and love this. Others in despair will throw themselves in the Siberian river and drown their woes. ”

“ A puzzle is something to be done or solved by the individual. For example, if it were possible for us so to master the complexities of the game of chess that we could be assured of always winning with the first or second move, as the case might be, or of always drawing, then it would cease to be a game and would become a puzzle. Of course among the young and uninformed, when the correct winning play is not understood, a puzzle may well make a very good game. ”

“ From morning to night we are being perpetually brought face to face with puzzles. But there are puzzles and puzzles. Those that are usually devised for recreation and pastime may be roughly divided into two classes: Puzzles that are built up on some interesting or informing little principle; and puzzles that conceal no principle whatever—such as a picture cut at random into little bits to be put together again, or the juvenile imbecility known as the "rebus," or "picture puzzle." The former species may be said to be adapted to the amusement of the sane man or woman ”

“ If you can not untangle every enigma and arrange every word square, never mind, but send us the answers of those which you can puzzle out, and do not be discouraged by a little trouble at the outset. The fun of making out a puzzle is in conquering it. ”

“ Everybody, I suppose, has at times. Your puzzle has puzzled the world always, and always will. And the more one gets away from the din and struggle of the beastly towns, the bigger seems the mystery of life and the beyond. ”

“ Although we should always observe the exact conditions of a puzzle we must not read into it conditions that are not there. Many puzzles are based entirely on the tendency that people have to do this.
The very first essential in solving a puzzle is to be sure that you understand the exact conditions. Now, if you divided your square in half so as to produce Fig. 35 it is possible to cut it into as few as three pieces to form a Greek cross. ”

“ You would accept groggy or fickle. Now apply this system to the solution of a puzzle.
The definitions of the words are shown in two divisions: one division is captioned Horizontal, the other Vertical. Before each definition is a number which indicates that the word defined has its first letter in the square of the same number on the pattern. For example, in the puzzle on the jacket of this book (which is Number 1 in the book itself) , we see under Horizontal, “1. stout.” This means that the word is read horizontally and starts in the space numbered “1” on the pattern. The answer is “plump.” ”

“ In short, we are all propounding puzzles to one another every day of our lives—without always knowing it.
A good puzzle should demand the exercise of our best wit and ingenuity, and although a knowledge of mathematics and a certain familiarity with the methods of logic are often of great service in the solution of these things, yet it sometimes happens that a kind of natural cunning and sagacity is of considerable value. For many of the best problems cannot be solved by any familiar scholastic methods, but must be attacked on entirely original lines. ”

“ In the puzzle lies a strong element of human interest. In my boyhood I used to notice how some puzzle of fox and goose and corn would set half a village to work to get them carried by twos across a stream—so stringless is puzzleland—without one animal or the other being left free to devour its natural food. ”

“ But as, in a Chinese puzzle, many pieces are hard to place, so there are some unfortunate fellows who can never slip into their proper angles, and thus the whole puzzle becomes a puzzle indeed, which is the precise condition of the greatest puzzle in the world—this man-of-war world itself. ”

“ How are good puzzles invented? I am not referring to acrostics, anagrams, charades, and that sort of thing, but to puzzles that contain an original idea. Well, you cannot invent a good puzzle to order, any more than you can invent anything else in that manner. Notions for puzzles come at strange times and in strange ways. They are suggested by something we see or hear, and are led up to by other puzzles that come under our notice. It is useless to say, "I will sit down and invent an original puzzle," because there is no way of creating an idea ”

“ I have already said that the ideal solution to a cutting-out puzzle is always that which requires the fewest possible pieces. We have just seen that two crosses of the same size may be cut out of a square in five pieces. The reader who succeeded in solving this perhaps asked himself: "Can it be done in fewer pieces?" ”

“ In this case, nobody would pretend that the richer and more elaborate conception which we gain of the puzzle after solving it came directly out of our first crude conception of it, for it is notoriously the outcome of experimenting with our hands. It is true that, as they both mean that same puzzle, our earlier thought and our later thought have one conceptual function, are vehicles of one conception. ”

“ First a fad, then a best seller, the Cross Word Puzzle Book became an American institution, immortalized in cartoons by Briggs, prose-epics by Bob Benchley, and ballads by F. P. A. [2]
Ordinary books are meant to be read. Here is a book in which one writes—more than that, a book in which one has the supreme satisfaction of unravelling a real mystery, tracking down clue after clue. ”

“ Every guest was expected to come armed with some riddle or puzzle for the bewilderment and possible delectation of the company. The old gentleman always presented a new watch to the guest who was most successful in his answers. It is a pity that all the puzzles were not preserved; but I propose to present to my readers a few selected from a number that have passed down to a surviving member of the family, who has kindly allowed me to use them on this occasion. ”

“ The general solution in the case of this puzzle is 3n2 + 2n - 2 moves, where the number of frogs of each colour is n. The law governing the sequence of moves is easily discovered by an examination of the simpler cases, where n = 2, 3, and 4. ”

“ The puzzles in this department are roughly thrown together in classes for the convenience of the reader. Some are very easy, others quite difficult. But they are not arranged in any order of difficulty—and this is intentional, for it is well that the solver should not be warned that a puzzle is just what it seems to be. It may, therefore, prove to be quite as simple as it looks, or it may contain some pitfall into which, through want of care or over-confidence, we may stumble. ”

“ There are puzzles that look easy and are easy, puzzles that look easy and are difficult, puzzles that look difficult and are difficult, and puzzles that look difficult and are easy, and in each class we may of course have degrees of easiness and difficulty. But it does not follow that a puzzle that has conditions that are easily understood by the merest child is in itself easy. ”

“ Responding to a general request, therefore, we are reprinting each of the fifty puzzles in this book separately on stiff boards. In other words, every one at a party can now have his own puzzle, and a contest can be arranged to see who will be the first to turn in a perfect solution. ”

“ If you are hopelessly stuck, try another puzzle. Inspiration sometimes waits for a return engagement.
A pleasant feeling of something attempted, something done, accompanies the solution of a cross word puzzle. It’s good for the inferiority complex. ”

“ Have the youngsters join the happy throngs of Cross Word puzzle fans! Here is a book which will captivate and stimulate them.
It begins with small three-square cross word formations, alphabetically arranged, accompanied by definitions that the average youngster will understand and enjoy.
Gradually, the puzzles, which are printed in color, become larger and more difficult, thus giving the children an excellent opportunity to improve their minds while they are having the time of their lives. ”

“ Pg 114The puzzle is to find the shortest way of performing the feat, which in itself is not difficult. Remember, a person cannot help himself by hanging on to the rope, the only way being to go down "with a bump," with the weight in the other basket as a counterpoise.
PROBLEMS CONCERNING GAMES. "The little pleasure of the game."
MATTHEW PRIOR.
Every game lends itself to the propounding of a variety of puzzles. They can be made, as we have seen, out of the chessboard and the peculiar moves of the chess pieces. ”

“ Insight, when it does occur, is of great value. Insight into the general principle of the puzzle leads to a better general plan of attack, and insight into the detailed difficulties of manipulation leads to smoother and defter handling. The human "learning curve" (see Figure 50) often shows a prolonged stretch of no improvement, followed by an abrupt change to quicker work; and the subject's introspections show that 76 per cent, or more of these sudden improvements followed immediately after some fresh insight into the puzzle. ”

“ When a number of boys or girls were trying to find out a puzzle or guess put to them, and which they failed to unravel or answer, and when they were searching for something which had been hidden from them, and which they could not discover, the usual method of acknowledging that they were outwitted was by spitting on the ground ”

“ It will be seen that every one of these puzzles has its reverse puzzle—to cut a square into pieces to form a Greek cross. But as a square has not so many angles as the cross, it is not always equally easy to discover the true directions of the cuts. ”

“ The several pieces of wood were not only of different shapes and sizes, but they were as thin as the thinnest veneer; yet the box had been formed by simply joining them together. The man who made that box must have been possessed of ingenuity worthy of a better cause.
I perceived how the puzzle had been worked. ”

“ To solve the puzzle you must do this in five moves. The two children must always be taken from chairs that are next to one another; and remember the important point of making the two children change sides, Pg 68as this latter is the distinctive feature of the puzzle. ”

“ A rocking-horse as big as a pony, the finest dolls' house you ever saw, boxes of tea-things, boxes of bricks—both the wooden and the terra-cotta sorts—puzzle maps, dominoes, chessmen, draughts, every kind of toy or game that you have ever had or ever wished to have. ”