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Okay, here is a test... Has anyone taken this test? Can we really think "outside the box?"

The rules:

In regards to the above set of dots, you must connect all 9 dots with only 4 straight lines WITHOUT taking your pen/pencil off the paper...

Have fun,
Me

Got it.

Spoiler:

Start on the top right dot. Draw a diagonal line to the bottom left dot through the middle one. Draw up through the two above dots and keep going. Draw a diagonal line through the top middle and right middle dots. Keep going. Draw a line through the remaining dots.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Heres a drawing. *SPOILER*

Attached Images

a.bmp (88.5 KB, 385 views)

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P.S. This is what part of the alphabet would look like if Q and R were eliminated.

-- Mitch Hedberg

Yep. That'll do it. I see you went in the other direction.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

Got it too, just started fro a different position

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The plural of "anecdote" is not "data".

Here's another way, which might be considered cheating, though it seems to follow the instructions(you end up drawing more than 4 lines, but end up with only 4 lines on the paper):

I'll start at the upper right dot. Draw a line to the left dot, then draw dawn to the bottom left dot, then again to the bottom right dot. Then redraw over the line you just made back to the bottom left dot, then up the line on the left to the middle dot, then draw a line over to the right middle dot. You end up with the letter E.

You can do it with one very fat line. Outside the box enough?

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0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0....

I did it in 3 lines..

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I met this wonderful girl at Macy's. She was buying clothes and I was putting Slinkies on the escalator.
-Steven Wright



My Website: The Black Cat's Web Page

That was my first take on it: There was no restriction against retracing a line, and there are several ways they can be connected by four lines.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Another way to do one line: Fold the paper along three lines of dots, and three more folds between the lines. Fold like an accordion so all dots are together (three sets of three touching dots). Draw one line along the edge of the paper, across the nine dots.

Edit to add: It occurs to me that with two additional folds, it should be possible to connect all 9 dots with no lines.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Here is how I did it. Start at the upper left (it doesn't matter what corner, this is just an example). Draw down a long way. Then draw so that you end at a point in line with the third column but way above it. Then draw down to the bottom of the third column. As long as either your lines or the three points are not infintiely small, if you start the second line low enough and end it high enough it will pass through the three points in the middle column. This is becase the longer you make the second line, the closer it gets to being vertical. If you make it close enough to vertical it will tough the three points in the center column. You can see it here (note I rotated it clockwise 90 degrees). If the dots were smaller, you can simply make the line larger. If the dots were infinitely small the line still has thickness, so this would still work.

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I met this wonderful girl at Macy's. She was buying clothes and I was putting Slinkies on the escalator.
-Steven Wright



My Website: The Black Cat's Web Page

One of the programs I use at work has thi puzzle as it's logo...

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A Nerd can figure out how long it will take the original Enterprise traveling at warp 6.5 to travel from Regulus to Antares.
A Geek will think he can use that to pick up a girl in a bar.
A Dork knows he can't pick up the girl with it, but will hang around for hours anyway, just in case she asks.
She might. You never know.

unless you assume a true point and a true line. the point is dimensionless, and the line has no width.

taks

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goodbye richard pryor :(...

But the rules didn't say that. When thinking outside the box, one should assume something can be done unless it is specifically forbidden.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Accelerate the diagram to an appreciable percentage of lightspeed, along an axis diagonal to the box. After it's compressed, draw whatever lines you like.

True, a line of infinate thickness would work, too...

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I am Mugs, of the Alien clan of Usa, Nordamerica, a Terran, of Sol.

Perception isn't reality. It's merely an abstraction thereof, and quite often not a very good one at that.

I am human. Fully human.

Think outside the box?

No problem...



although it does get a little chilly in the winter.


PS: I first saw that puzzle back in the 1960s.

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A person's name, or a mark representing it, as signed personally or by deputy, as in subscribing a letter or other document.

I don't think I'd have gotten it if I hadn't seen it pretty often in puzzle books.

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Forming opinions as we speak

Right, which is why I specified at least one of the two must be of finite size. We were told to connect a specific set of dots in the OP, all of those dots were of finite size.

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I met this wonderful girl at Macy's. She was buying clothes and I was putting Slinkies on the escalator.
-Steven Wright



My Website: The Black Cat's Web Page

By the way, this reminds me of a bit I read some time ago on "outside the box" thinking. There is a test question that says:

You are given a barometer. How do you determine the height of a certain building?

The expected answer would be to measure the air pressure on the ground and at the top of the building and calculate from there, but there are some other answers:

Use the barometer as a weight on the end of a strong, non-stretching line. From the roof, lower the barometer to the ground. Mark the length of the line, and measure it.

Drop the barometer from the roof. Determine the time it takes to hit the ground. Given the time and acceleration, calculate the height of the building.

Find a building official and say "I'll give you this nice barometer if you tell me how tall the building is."

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

Heck, you could use the shadow of the building, the shadow of the barometer, and trig.

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Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?