Sam Loyd's naming of the puzzle is an allusion to the story of Egg of Columbus. King Puzzlepate performs the feat in six strokes, but from Tommy's expression we take it to be a very stupid answer, so we expect our clever puzzlists to do better The puzzle is therein explained as follows: The funny old King is now trying to work out a second puzzle, which is to draw a continuous line through the center of all of the eggs so as to mark them off in the fewest number of strokes. In 1914, Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of Puzzles is published posthumously by his son (also named Sam Loyd). Christopher Columbus' Egg Puzzle in Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of Puzzles, 1914 From at least 1910, Pearson's 'nine dots'-version appeared in puzzle sections. From at least 1908, Loyd's egg-version ran as advertising for Elgin Creamery Co in Washington, DC., renamed to The Elgin Creamery Egg Puzzle. īoth versions of the puzzle thereafter appeared in newspapers. It was there named a charming puzzle and involved nine dots. In the same year, the puzzle also appeared in A. The lines may pass through one egg twice and may cross. The problem is to draw straight lines to connect these eggs in the smallest possible number of strokes. In 1907, the nine dots puzzle appears in an interview with Sam Loyd in The Strand Magazine: ' Suddenly a puzzle came into my mind and I sketched it for him. The Columbus Egg Puzzle from The Strand Magazine, 1907 Said chess puzzle corresponds to a '64 dots puzzle', i.e., marking all dots of an 8-by-8 square lattice, with an added constraint. In 1867, in the French chess journal Le Sphinx, an intellectual precursor to the nine dots puzzle appeared credited to Sam Loyd. The puzzle has appeared under various other names over the years. The nine dots puzzle is a mathematical puzzle whose task is to connect nine squarely arranged points with a pen by four (or fewer) straight lines without lifting the pen.

The puzzle asks to link all nine dots using four straight lines or fewer, without lifting the pen. Mathematical puzzle The 'nine dots' puzzle.

Connect 4 dots with 4 lines