Eternity II
 

Eternity II

Its a puzzle with a 2M$ prize to the first solver.
There's a smaller demo version on the site.

Re: Eternity II
 

Couldnt a computer solve this relatively quickly? Or are there too many combinations?

Seems a brute force edge matcher would work decently.

Re: Eternity II
 

I solved the 4*4 demo so I could post it if someones interested.

Well the main puzzle is significantly harder. It would take hundreds of years to solve it with brute force with todays best computers...

Re: Eternity II
 

got it 4:10, i think i got lucky though.

Re: Eternity II
 

4x4 was 2:15 i think for me.

Re: Eternity II
 

2:54

This has to be a computing power thing...

Re: Eternity II
 

Interesting...

There's 256 pieces, which can be arranged in 256 factorial ways. That's a huge number - my windows calculator shows it's 8.6x10^506.

It's actually a bit smaller because the corner and edge pieces can only be placed certain way.

But then again, all pieces can be rotated.

I think the formula for 256 pieces that can be rotated 4 ways that do NOT have borders and corners is 4^256 x 256! = 10^661 or so.

That number of combinations is, of course, impossible to compute.

Re: Eternity II
 

[ QUOTE ]
2:54

This has to be a computing power thing...

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: Eternity II
 

[ QUOTE ]
Interesting...

There's 256 pieces, which can be arranged in 256 factorial ways. That's a huge number - my windows calculator shows it's 8.6x10^506.

It's actually a bit smaller because the corner and edge pieces can only be placed certain way.

But then again, all pieces can be rotated.

I think the formula for 256 pieces that can be rotated 4 ways that do NOT have borders and corners is 4^256 x 256! = 10^661 or so.

That number of combinations is, of course, impossible to compute.

[/ QUOTE ]

I was thinking more along the lines of the computer chooses a piece at random and matches it to an available edge that would make it fit.

Dunno much about computers though.

Re: Eternity II
 

I think the creators are smart enough to avoid creating a puzzle that could be solved quickly by brute force