The aim of this chapter is to show the evidence that features “one puzzle—one solution”, “careless formulation change”, and “incomplete solution set” appear also in popular matchstick puzzles that were published by authors who came after Tromholt. It means that these features, caused by different cognitive biases, aren’t accidental behavior of a single author but rather a collective behavior in the community of authors write books on matchstick puzzle. In the first two puzzles, special attention is paid to unfortunate phenomenon: authors, who carelessly reformulate puzzles, eliminating the restrictions about the size-equality of remaining triangles or squares, publish the solution to puzzles with restrictive formulations. Namely, unrestrictive formulations of puzzle open possibilities for multiple solutions, either visually or fundamentally different. For the third, multiple-solution puzzle either in restricted or unrestricted formulation, all book authors published only different version of a single solution.

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Restricted and Unrestricted Formulations of Matchstick Puzzles

  • Josip Slisko

摘要

The aim of this chapter is to show the evidence that features “one puzzle—one solution”, “careless formulation change”, and “incomplete solution set” appear also in popular matchstick puzzles that were published by authors who came after Tromholt. It means that these features, caused by different cognitive biases, aren’t accidental behavior of a single author but rather a collective behavior in the community of authors write books on matchstick puzzle. In the first two puzzles, special attention is paid to unfortunate phenomenon: authors, who carelessly reformulate puzzles, eliminating the restrictions about the size-equality of remaining triangles or squares, publish the solution to puzzles with restrictive formulations. Namely, unrestrictive formulations of puzzle open possibilities for multiple solutions, either visually or fundamentally different. For the third, multiple-solution puzzle either in restricted or unrestricted formulation, all book authors published only different version of a single solution.