Related papers: The Problem of Pawns
We consider the problem of determining the minimum number of moves needed to solve a certain one-dimensional peg puzzle. Let N be a positive integer. The puzzle apparatus consists of a block with a single row of 2N+1 equally spaced holes…
We investigate the problem of the maximum number of cubic subwords (of the form $www$) in a given word. We also consider square subwords (of the form $ww$). The problem of the maximum number of squares in a word is not well understood.…
We present a novel proof that the maximum number of sets with 4 properties for 12 cards is 14 using the geometry of the finite field F_3^4, number theory, combinatorics, and graph theory. We also present several computer algorithms for…
In 1967, Klarner proposed a problem concerning the existence of reflecting $n$-queens configurations. The problem considers the feasibility of placing $n$ mutually non-attacking queens on the reflecting chessboard, an $n\times n$ chessboard…
We prove the computational intractability of rotating and placing $n$ square tiles into a $1 \times n$ array such that adjacent tiles are compatible--either equal edge colors, as in edge-matching puzzles, or matching tab/pocket shapes, as…
We consider the allocation of $m$ balls (jobs) into $n$ bins (servers). In the standard Two-Choice process, at each step $t=1,2,\ldots,m$ we first sample two randomly chosen bins, compare their two loads and then place a ball in the least…
We study the long-term behavior of the two-thinning variant of the classical balls-and-bins model. In this model, an overseer is provided with uniform random allocation of $m$ balls into $n$ bins in an on-line fashion. For each ball, the…
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…
What is the maximum number of intersections of the boundaries of a simple $m$-gon and a simple $n$-gon, assuming general position? This is a basic question in combinatorial geometry, and the answer is easy if at least one of $m$ and $n$ is…
We consider an assignment problem that has aspects of fair division as well as social choice. In particular, we investigate the problem of assigning a small subset from a set of indivisible items to multiple players so that the chosen…
This paper presents a solution to the Knights and Spies Problem: In a room there are n people, each labelled with a unique number between 1 and n. A person may either be a knight or a spy. Knights always tell the truth, while spies may…
The Gale-Berlekamp Light Switching Game is played on a square board of lights. Each light has two states, either on or off. There is a switch to every row and column. Turning this switch would change the state of all the lights on that row…
We prove that the number of 01-fillings of a given stack polyomino (a polyomino with justified rows whose lengths form a unimodal sequence) with at most one 1 per column which do not contain a fixed-size northeast chain and a fixed-size…
A 5x5 board is the smallest board on which one can set up all kind of chess pieces as a start position. We consider Gardner's minichess variant in which all pieces are set as in a standard chessboard (from Rook to King). This game has…
In this short note, we exhibit a draw in the game of Philosopher's Phutball. We construct a position on a 12 x 10 Phutball board from where either player has a drawing strategy, and then generalize it to an m x n board with m-2 >= n >= 10.
The Parks Puzzle is a paper-and-pencil puzzle game that is classically played on a square grid with different colored regions (the parks). The player needs to place a certain number of "trees" in each row, column, and park such that none…
Polynomial algorithms are given for the following two problems: given a graph with $n$ vertices and $m$ edges, where $m \ge 3 n^{3/2}$, find a complete balanced bipartite subgraph with parts about $\ln n/(\ln (n^2/m))$, given a graph with…
The queen's graph $Q_{m \times n}$ has the squares of the $m \times n$ chessboard as its vertices; two squares are adjacent if they are in the same row, column, or diagonal of the board. A set $D$ of squares of $Q_{m \times n}$ is a…
In graph theory, the longest path problem is the problem of finding a simple path of maximum length in a given graph. For some small classes of graphs, the problem can be solved in polynomial time [2, 4], but it remains NP-hard on general…
How many chess rooks or queens does it take to guard all the squares of a given polyomino, the union of square tiles from a square grid? This question is a version of the art gallery problem in which the guards can "see" whichever squares…