Comments on: Pure Planar Evil http://www.arsmathematica.net/2005/07/12/pure-planar-evil/ Dedicated to the mathematical arts. Fri, 29 May 2015 09:17:44 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.41 By: Robbie http://www.arsmathematica.net/2005/07/12/pure-planar-evil/#comment-83 Fri, 15 Jul 2005 01:16:50 +0000 http://www.arsmathematica.net/?p=89#comment-83 That’s slightly different to what I was doing … I noticed that using all the nodes with two and three edges and a few nodes with four edges, it is possible to make a perimeter. That leaves nodes with four edges on the inside, which you can move towards their centre of gravity (with a slight bias towards nodes on the perimeter).

Given the limited size of the board, this gives you more room to play with than starting with a triangle.

A post by John Tantalo on Crooked Timber, explains how he generates the graphs (which can explain why a perimeter like this can be found).

]]> By: michael http://www.arsmathematica.net/2005/07/12/pure-planar-evil/#comment-82 Thu, 14 Jul 2005 23:31:00 +0000 http://www.arsmathematica.net/?p=89#comment-82 Someone on Crooked Timber posted my method.

]]> By: Robbie http://www.arsmathematica.net/2005/07/12/pure-planar-evil/#comment-81 Thu, 14 Jul 2005 18:18:27 +0000 http://www.arsmathematica.net/?p=89#comment-81 After playing for a while, I found some of the quirks in how the puzzle is generated lead to strategies for solving it (e.g. no nodes have more than 4 edges — though this one isn’t particularly helpful).

Also, it IS evil. After level 11 it reported to me a time of around 12 minutes. I managed to convince myself that this must be the cumulative time I’d spent playing the game. It wasn’t until after I completed the next level (and compared the time on the wall clock), that I realised that it was the time for a single level. I’m still not sure how my perception of time could have been off by so much.

]]> By: analog http://www.arsmathematica.net/2005/07/12/pure-planar-evil/#comment-80 Thu, 14 Jul 2005 16:52:10 +0000 http://www.arsmathematica.net/?p=89#comment-80 Off topic
Walt! I have been looking for you. Send me an email if you get the chance. analog999 near hotmail.com

]]> By: michael http://www.arsmathematica.net/2005/07/12/pure-planar-evil/#comment-79 Thu, 14 Jul 2005 00:56:37 +0000 http://www.arsmathematica.net/?p=89#comment-79 Two comments:

1) Eszter has an Erdös number of 3??!! Grrrr.

2) Never mind. I was going to post my methodology, but I would hate to ruin anything for anyone. Some of the commentors on Crooked Timber seem to be having a hard time though.

]]> By: vitop http://www.arsmathematica.net/2005/07/12/pure-planar-evil/#comment-78 Thu, 14 Jul 2005 00:20:06 +0000 http://www.arsmathematica.net/?p=89#comment-78 What I like is that one can get an intuitive sense of what moves need to be made without really learning the rules. I was having fun developing rules (although I have to admit to losing patience around level 6 or so).

]]> By: michael http://www.arsmathematica.net/2005/07/12/pure-planar-evil/#comment-77 Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:52:33 +0000 http://www.arsmathematica.net/?p=89#comment-77 I like it. Seems a bit easy though, since you already know the graph is planar, you know what moves you need to make.

]]> By: Megan http://www.arsmathematica.net/2005/07/12/pure-planar-evil/#comment-75 Wed, 13 Jul 2005 17:11:55 +0000 http://www.arsmathematica.net/?p=89#comment-75 Evil? This is the best game ever! My productivity took a rapid nose dive after visiting this site.

I am gurgling with happiness.

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