From: To: Subject: [eternity] Digest Number 4 Date: Monday, June 28, 1999 5:44 AM --------------------------- ONElist Sponsor ---------------------------- With more than 20 million e-mails exchanged daily... http://www.onelist.com ...ONElist is home to the liveliest discussions on the Internet! ------------------------------------------------------------------------ There are 4 messages in this issue. Topics in today's digest: 1. Eternity page updated From: "Ed Pegg Jr." 2. ON DIFFERENT APPROACHES From: dsaund2773@aol.com 3. So, who are you guys, anyway ? From: Andreas Gammel 4. this is me.... From: Andreas Gammel _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ Message: 1 Date: Sun, 27 Jun 1999 06:17:29 -0600 From: "Ed Pegg Jr." Subject: Eternity page updated I've updated my Eternity page at http://www.mathpuzzle.com/eternity.html . Switchblade software has made an Eternity screen saver. It will try to solve the puzzle with brute force. On the unlikely chance a solution is found, it will be hidden. You can then send it to Switchblade, which will jointly send in the solution for you. If it wins, you would get 1/3 of the money. Perhaps a bit of a rip-off, but a chance at over half a million for running an attractive screen saver doesn't seem to bad to me. I plan to post the software soon. --Ed Pegg Jr, www.mathpuzzle.com _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ Message: 2 Date: 27 Jun 1999 19:37:45 -0000 From: dsaund2773@aol.com Subject: ON DIFFERENT APPROACHES My approach is to find a situation where all pieces are right side up and properly rotated. This is done by numbering the 12 segments of a hexagon in such a way that the sum of the segments that form a right triangle equal 13. Thus, if two different pieces have segments whose sum value equal 13, They fit together. Initially, this is 12^208 to find all possible situations. These situations can then be checked for other types of parity. I am working on ways to reduce the scope of this search. Dick Saunders _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ Message: 3 Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 13:31:21 +0200 From: Andreas Gammel Subject: So, who are you guys, anyway ? Hi all, we just welcomed our 76th mailing list member. And still going strong. I thought it would be a nice idea to get to know the group a bit better. That's why I composed a little list of questions. I'd like you to fill it out, and send it to the list. just answer any question you feel like, but if you don't like it, then don't, its a free world... Andreas QUESTIONS -------------- What's your..... name : age : occupation : city : country : email : homepage : ------- Are you an active problem-solver, or just here out of general interest ? ------- ------- Do you hope that by listening to this list, you'll get the vital hint that'll make you win the prize ? ------- ------- Do you own an Eternity puzzle ? ------- ------- What's your best attempt by hand ? ------- ------- What's your best attempt by computer ? ------- ------- What language / system / pc are you using ? ------- ------- What algorithms / heuristics do you use for Eternity (brute force, backtracking, genetic algothims, simulated annealing, SECRET) ? ------- ------- Did you type in all 209 pieces yourself ? ------- ------- Did you try any simpler variations of Eternity ? ------- ------- Do you know some other interesting web-sites ? ------- ------- Other hobbies ? ------- ------- Other physical puzzles ? ------- ------- Other programming projects ? ------- ------- Are you willing to show the group your source code (after removing your secret functions) ? ------- ------- Any other stuff you like to add ? ------- ------- Do you know any other interesting problems ? ------- ------- What's the meaning of life ? ------- _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________ Message: 4 Date: Mon, 28 Jun 1999 13:37:58 +0200 From: Andreas Gammel Subject: this is me.... QUESTIONS -------------- What's your.... name : Andreas Gammel age : 34 occupation : software engineer city : Eindhoven country : Netherlands email : andreas.gammel@hta.nl homepage : http://www.hta.nl/php/Andreas.Gammel ------- Are you an active problem-solver, or just here out of general interest ? ------- Active. I've been collecting unsolved problems and puzzles for years. Do a lot of hacking to solve or improve nice problems. Did not start on Eternity yet, just thinking. ------- Do you hope that by listening to this list, you'll get the vital hint that'll make you win the prize ? ------- Well yes of course. I would also like to get my hands on some general set of data and functions to make the programming part easier and have more time to think ------- Do you own an Eternity puzzle ? ------- No, its not available in Holland. But I printed the grid and pieces on A3 paper. ------- What's your best attempt by hand ? ------- 3 ------- What's your best attempt by computer ? ------- none ------- What language / system / pc are you using ? ------- Pentium 450. Visual C++ 5.0 ------- What algorithms / heuristics do you use for Eternity (brute force, backtracking, genetic algothims, simulated annealing, SECRET) ? ------- no idea yet. But I think I can skip brute force ------- Did you type in all 209 pieces yourself ? ------- nope ------- Did you try any simpler variations of Eternity ? ------- I tried the 7 piece thingie on the mathpuzzle page. Couldnt do it. Set fire to them. ------- Do you know some other interesting web-sites ? ------- yeah, lots ------- Other hobbies ? ------- reading, collecting comics, unsolved problems, trying to find the meaning of life, philosophy, free-thinker ------- Other physical puzzles ? ------- cube (3,4,5), the wood & rope-thingies, soma, ------- Other programming projects ? ------- "what's the number of distinct non-selfintersecting routes a castle on a chessboard can take to get from field A1 to H8 ?" "What it the largest rigid 2d shape that can be moved through a 1 meter wide L-shaped corridor that has a 90 degree turn in the middle ?" "Compose a sentence: 'this sentence contains two a's, three b's, one c,.... and one z' that is both lingually as mathematically correct" ------- Are you willing to show the group your source code (after removing your secret functions) ? ------- nothing yet ------- Any other stuff you like to add ? ------- no know ------- How are you going to spend your 1000.000 pounds ? ------- stop working. Let some agency plan a world trip for me by Concorde. Get 7 wives. Start an invention agency. ------- Do you know any other interesting problems ? ------- ------- What's the meaning of life ? ------- to have another beer ************************* cheers, Andreas _______________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________________________________