unforum

[Magma]

Way beyond my abilities to create a program that can work something like this out.

But reverse engineering the answer in the zip above, I get the arrangement as follows:

[pheebs]

i'm completely confused, how does it work?[/spoiler]

[pheebs]

never mind, solved it!!

[cupragaz]

help

[Grizy]

If you download arnezami's xl file one page back.

[BrianEnigma]

Does anyone have a scan of the map on the reverse of this card?

[raypearce1]

thank all of you guys who worked so long and hard on this. It must have been very satisfying when it paid off. Thank you more for sharing your expertice with the rest of us. It was very satisfing for me to follow allong with your logic, you trials, your agrivation andf finally your success.

[CherokeeParkes]

Excellent work Magma and all the others.

A Cube Hunters friend is a PC, Scanner and Printer and a pair of scissors.

[almagest]

Could someone remind me of the exact wording of the extra conditions on provided on the solve screen?

In particular, I was wondering if it allowed the (many) solutions where there are more than one island visited by all 4 ships. Also if 16 has to be visited by all four ships (or just some island).

[aliendial]

almagest, this thread is only 6 pages long. You will find your answers here, don't make someone else go and find them for you.

[almagest]

aliendial - I have read all 6 pages, carefully, and more than once! The answers I sought in my previous post are not there!

The card was printed incorrectly - it allowed a large number of solutions. It was later corrected by one of those messages on the solve screen that you can only get by entering your code. But once you have entered a correct solution you can no longer access this screen. Unfortunately, I failed to take a copy of the message. My memory is that it required

(1) no boat visits an island more than once;
(2) there is an island which is visited by all 4 boats.

However, it is possible that the wording implied, or even required, that (2) be replaced by

(2') there is just one island which is visited by all 4 boats.

I am fairly sure that the wording did not require

(2'') all boats visit island 16.

[On the card island 16 is drawn slightly differently, which suggests there is something special about it]

My reason for going into all this is that I recently wrote a program to search for all possible solutions. If (2) is correct, then it has 6 possible solutions for B's track, not 1. However, if we require all boats to visit island 16 then there is only one solution (even if we allow additional islands visited by all 4 boats).

[CherokeeParkes]

Almagest take a look at Magama`s last post then scan the card and follow Magma`s advice.

[almagest]

Thanks for the thought CherokeeParkes, but I have already spent two solid days writing code which found the solution that Magma gives and many other possible arrangements of the pieces.

As far as I can remember from the wording on the solve box, it allows several different solutions rather than the single solution which the previous 6 pages focus on. Before going into detail I thought I would check if anyone had the exact wording of the solve box.

[jayito]

The Solve page is as follows:

CORRECTIONS FOR THIS CARD
Each boat never visits an island more than once, and all 4 boats visit 1 island. (Last Updated: 2006-07-26 14:58:38 GMT)

NOTES FOR THIS CARD
Please enter the island numbers separated by spaces, with no punctuation, e.g: 1 2 3 4


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Which islands, in order, does boat B visit?

[almagest]

Thanks.

Then there is more than one solution. See http://www.kalva.demon.co.uk/pc-cards/card231.txt