Pieces used in the Conway puzzle, one of each kind.

Conway's puzzle is a packing problem using rectangular blocks, named after its inventor, mathematician John Conway. Packing problems are one area where Mathematics meets Puzzles ( Recreational mathematics) John Horton Conway (born December 26, 1937, Liverpool, England) is a prolific mathematician active in the theory of finite groups It calls for packing thirteen 1 × 2 × 4 blocks, one 2 × 2 × 2 block, one 1 × 2 × 2 block, and three 1 × 1 × 3 blocks into a 5 × 5 × 5 box. ^[1]

Solution

A possible placement for the three 1×1×3 blocks.

The solution of the Conway puzzle is straightforward when one realizes that the three 1 × 1 × 3 blocks need to be placed so that precisely one of them appears in each 5 × 5 × 1 slice of the cube.

See also

• Slothouber–Graatsma puzzle

References

1. ^ Conway Puzzle. The Slothouber–Graatsma puzzle is a packing problem that calls for packing six 1 × 2 × 2 blocks and three 1 × 1 × 1 blocks into a 3 × 3 × 3 box Wolfram MathWorld. Retrieved on 2007-03-14. Year 2007 ( MMVII) was a Common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar in the 21st century. Events 1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice.

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