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Designer

Manufacturer

Dates of Design

Date of first public disclosure or manufacture

Materials used

Goal/problem statement

• Start by placing the blocks on the board in an arrangement so that the red squares on the board are covered by the blocks and the red squares of the blocks face upward (there are multiple ways of doing this).
• Blocks are then moved by "rolling" them edgewise to empty, adjacent squares of the board (a new color of square will then be face up on the block, and that block will be covering completely new squares of the board). After a move, the blocks must be completely contained within the board's boundaries (no part of a block may hang over the edge of the 7x7 board).
• The final goal is to maneuver the blocks so that all of the yellow squares of the board are covered and, at that point, all of the blocks show yellow squares face up. Before reaching the final goal, however, one must first reach an arrangement ("interim goal") that covers all of the blue squares of the board with the blocks all showing blue squares upward. The goal is to accomplish the final goal in as few moves as possible.
• Note that after intermediate moves (between "start", "interim", and "final goal"), face-up squares on blocks need not color-match the squares of the board they are covering -- this is only a requirement at the start, interim and final goal stages.

Solution

The starting arrangement assumes that the board is oriented such that red squares dominate the left side of the board; uncovered blue and yellow empty spaces of the board (at the start) are shown by "b" and "y" respectively. The square blocks can be oriented in a couple of ways. In the starting position this example solution, it is assumed that the 9 and 1 blocks have blue side-squares along their left/right edges, while the 4 block has its blue side-squares along the top and bottom.

An ASCII representation of the board is below:

999yyyy
999yyyy
99944yy
22144bb
66333bb
66bbbbb

3D,3D,4R,4D,4L,4U,4R,4D,4D,1R,
1R,1R,1U,1U,2R,2R,2R,6U,6R,3U,
3R,6D,6D,9R,9D,9L,9U,9R,2L,2L,
3L,3L,9D,9R,3R,2R,2R,2D,1D,1D, <-- (blue squares covered at this point --
9U,1U,1U,1U,3L,6U,6U,6U,6R,4L,      "interim goal" achieved after 40 moves),
4U,4U,4U,4U,2L,2U,2L,2U,2U,2R,
3U,3R,3R,3U

Puzzle Classification

Additional information

The official goal is to start the blocks on the red squares and end up on yellow squares after achieving the blue squares. This could be abbreviated as the "R>B>Y" challenge. Of course, other challenges are possible (for example, "B>R>Y"). It is interesting to note that there is a (very efficient) solution to "R>B" which may not be extended to solving "R>B>Y".

I assembled this puzzle by hand. I have no immediate plans to sell it, but if there is interest in additional copies being made, I will consider it (and, of course, if a manufacturer wishes to approach me about marketing it, I am open to that).

If there are any question about the above instructions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Better Solution

999yyyy
999yyyy
99922yy
33344bb
66144bb
66bbbbb
66bbbbb

4R,4D,4L,4L,1R,1D,1D,3R,3R,3D,
3D,3D,2D,2D,2D,9D,9R,9U,9R,9D,
6U,6R,6U,6R,6D,9U,6U,2U,2U,2U,
2U,2U,2R,4U,4U,4R,4U,1U,1U,1U,
1U,1R,1U,3U,3L,3U,3U