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Abstract

The idea of using sets of polyominoes as practical assembly puzzles can be traced back more than two and a half centuries. Les Amusmens, published in 1749, included a cross puzzle made of three Z-pentominoes and two L-polyominoes. The earliest rectangular puzzle formed from polyominoes that we found, named The Jags and Hooks Puzzle, was included in Catel’s Catalogue of 1785 [1]. It consisted of four L-tetrominoes and four Z-pentominoes and the only solution is shown in Figure 1.

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References

  • [1] Slocum, Jerry and Dieter Gebhardt, Puzzles from Cate’s Cabinet and Bestelmeier’s Magazine, 1785 to 1823, Slocum Puzzle Foundation, 1997.

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  • [2] Slocum, Jerry and Jacques Haubrich, Compendium of Checkerboard Puzzles, Third Edition, Slocum Puzzle Foundation, 1997.

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  • [3] Hoffmann, Professor, Puzzles Old and New, Frederick Warne and Co., 1893.

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© 2003 Springer Science+Business Media New York

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Coffin, S., Slocum, J. (2003). What’s New in Polyomino Puzzles and Their Design. In: No, JS., Song, HY., Helleseth, T., Kumar, P.V. (eds) Mathematical Properties of Sequences and Other Combinatorial Structures. The Springer International Series in Engineering and Computer Science, vol 726. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0304-0_13

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0304-0_13

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4613-5013-2

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