Fifteen Puzzle

Hey, have you ever played with a fifteen puzzle? I played for some time during my early teens and I still remember how interesting it is.

Oflate the parking system of Delhi reminds me of the game. Go to any part of Delhi; from Lajpat Nagar to C.P, every where the parking guys play the puzzle all through the day with our cars. I am sure that none of them played the fifteen puzzle ever in their life but they are so good in solving the puzzle in the daily life thus making our parking experience memorable and stress free.

The puzzle was "invented" by Noyes Palmer Chapman, a postmaster in Canastota, New York. Copies of the improved Fifteen Puzzle made their way to Syracuse, New York by way of Noyes' son.

The "15 Puzzle" consists of 15 squares numbered from 1 to 15 which are placed in a 4x4 box leaving one position out of the 16 empty. The goal is to reposition the squares from a given arbitrary starting arrangement by sliding them one at a time into the required configuration of generally serial order or in other arrangement.

The game became a craze in the U.S. in February 1880, Canada in March, Europe in April, but that craze had pretty much dissipated by July. The craze was, in part, fuelled by Loyd offering a $1,000 prize for anyone who could provide a solution for achieving a particular combination with tiles 14 and 15 exchanged specified by Loyd. It was later known that no solution to this "15 puzzle" was possible as it required a transformation.

I wonder, do these guys in real life also face such problems with a very unusual combination which has got no solution and the car gets locked among the others in the maze !!