FAQ

1. Is this a Java Applet or shockwave?

2. Are you a math teacher?

3. Why do you start from zero and not from one?

4. Is there a pattern to follow in order to solve it?

5. Is there only one solution?

6. Can pieces stick out of the frame?

7. What are the zeros on the right and on the bottom?

8. Did you mean for the diagonals to be equal to 30 also?

9. Can I please get a clue?

10. That's it! what is the answer

11. Why Auto response and not the answer. are you collecting e-mail addresses for spam?

12. How do you know how many solutions are there?

Back to the Puzzle

Q Is this a Java Applet or shockwave?

A No and No, This is a flash movie (.swf) not to be confused with shockwave (.dcr).

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Q Are you a math teacher?

A No, I am a programmer who likes Math

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Q Why do you start from zero and not from one?

A The value of each piece is a decimal representation of binary values off its four sides going clockwise starting from the left. The piece labled 0 has negative space from all sides, which leads to 0.

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Q Is there a pattern to follow in order to solve it?

A I could not detect true pattern. Yet, there is a loose pattern until a certain point.

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Q Is there only one solution?

A No there are 144 solutions. out of the 144 solutions, in 16 solutions the sum of the diagonals is 30 as well.

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Q Can pieces stick out of the frame?

A Yes. Half of the pieces have to stick out.

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Q What are the zeros on the right and on the bottom?

A They show the sum of each row and collumn. Once you put a piece on the board you'll see it change.

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Q Did you mean for the diagonals to be equal to 30 also?

A No, but if you can do it please send me your solution.

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Q Can I please get a clue?

A Yes. one line or column has pieces 6,7,8 and 9 in it.

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Q That's it! what is the answer

A 42. I guess you wnat the answer to the puzzle. send an e-mail to solution@dubster.com and you will get the answer right away via auto response function.

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Q Why Auto response and not the answer. are you collecting e-mail addresses for spam?

A Good idea but no. I don't the answer be too easy to get so people will try a little harder before they give up.

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Q How do you know how many solutions are there?

A I wrote a program in java that tries all of the posibilities. you can see the code here brutforce.java if you are a programmer and have comment about the code I'd love to hear from you. I know this is not the most efficient code.

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