At 6:00am this morning I opened this gift from my mom. After playing around with it for a few minutes I realized that the puzzle was not at all easy. At about 6:10am I started thinking that perhaps randomly placing the pieces together just wasn't going to work. I needed a plan.
There are 9 pieces. I had no idea which piece was even supposed to be the middle piece. I decided that I'd start with each one as the middle piece in turn and work from there. I could see the hours piling up. The combinations and permutations seemed nearly endless. It was especially daunting because all the pieces look so much alike. It was going to be difficult just keeping track of them.
I chose the first piece at random and put it in the center. I then put a piece above it that fit and a piece below it. I then moved to the upper left and put a piece there and then one just below it.
At one point, I swapped two pieces but other than that everything just sort of fell into place. Puzzle solved at 6:15am.
I've never believed in luck, but if you can believe the packaging ("Perhaps the World's Most Challenging Puzzle!") then this was pretty much a Christmas miracle.
There was certainly no skill. I think I could have claimed that after a few hours perhaps, but it never actually got to that point.
The lucky person passes for a genius. - Euripides
That's certainly the risk you run in reading this blog!
Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity. - Seneca
Merry Christmas night my friend.
ReplyDeleteMerry Christmas night!
ReplyDeleteI've been thinking about the odds.
ReplyDeleteIt looks like there was a 1 in 144 chance of placing the first three pieces correctly. There was a 1 in 9 for the first one followed up by two 1 in 4's (not all remaining pieces would have fit).
That left me with 6 pieces left to place and I was nearly as lucky placing those too.
Luck never gives; it only lends. - Swedish Proverb
Oh crap. I think I should have read the fine print on the luck loan agreement. I didn't even look to see what my interest payments would be!
Let's see now, you single-handedly turned the gaming world upside down with Halo 3 and you thought that puzzle would be a challenge for you?
ReplyDeletePuleeze.
watchtower,
ReplyDeleteI really should have seen that one coming.
Desk meet forehead again.
Whack!
I'm going to try coming at this from another angle.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halo_3
"Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for Xbox 360."
I did not work at Bungie! I don't even own an Xbox 360!
"Release date(s): September 25, 2007"
I retired in 1999! Clearly I would have needed to master the concepts of time travel for your theory to be correct.
"Bill Gates sold copies of the game at the launch in Bellevue, WA."
Okay, okay. I did work in Bellevue, WA. That's just a coincidence though!
"Later research suggested that the Halo 3 players still watched the same amount of television and movies, regardless of the time they spent playing the game."
Just because Halo 3 players have mastered time travel doesn't mean I have!