Corral Puzzles

[Thinking Skins]

I just finished a script that creates some puzzles called Corral Puzzles. Would anybody mind giving me some feedback on how well they can understand the rules?

My explanation can be found at http://learninglover.com/blog/?p=760 but here's an excerpt.

 

We are given a square grid (say 4 rows and 4 columns, or 5 rows and 5 columns, or in general n rows and n columns). Inside the grid some of the cells have a number inside of it. The object of the puzzle is for the user to draw a bag (also known as a corral) around the numbers inside the grid. The limitation is that the numbers tell how many neighboring cells can be “seen” from the given cell, looking only horizontally and vertically in both directions without reaching an endpoint of the bag. There are no restrictions on the shape of the bag except that it actually represents a closed loop inside the grid.

And here's a sample puzzle and how we reach the solution:

 

 

In this example, we are told the following hints:

• Cell (1, 2) (row 1, column 2) can see 6 of its neighbors.
• Cell (3, 1) can see 3 of its neighbors.
• Cell (4, 2) can see 5 of its neighbors.
• Cell (4, 3) can see 5 of its neighbors.

From these hints, we can reach the following solution:

Let me know if that makes sense to you. I was just told that the words "corral" and "bag" are confusing so I'm probably going to re-word it.

And if you're interested in more puzzles like these, check out :

http://www.learninglover.com/examples.php?id=62

[China]

OK, after seeing the example I understand.  On first blush I assumed "neighbor" cells to be immediately adjacent cells, which of course wouldn't work for cell 1,2 in the example because there are only 5 open immediately adjacent cells to that one.

[chipwhich]

TS, your website is awesome, I would love to use it to assist my kids.  Very impressed.

[Thinking Skins]

OK, after seeing the example I understand.  On first blush I assumed "neighbor" cells to be immediately adjacent cells, which of course wouldn't work for cell 1,2 in the example because there are only 5 open immediately adjacent cells to that one.

 

Hmmm. Interesting, I hadn't thought about that. I'll add a sentence to help with the confusion.

TS, your website is awesome, I would love to use it to assist my kids.  Very impressed.

 

Thanks. hope your kids find it helpful, The content ranges with a lot of different stuff based on their interests/assignments. One day I'll have to sit down and find a better way to organize it than just standard blog type lists.

[Dan T.]

Rename this game with a Japanese word and you have a hit on your hands.  I plugged "Corral" into a English-Japanese translator and came up with something that sounded like "Takuri". . .   a good name for such a puzzle.  But translated back from Japanese to English, "Takuri" comes back as "kettle."

[dchogs]

once i got the hang of it, it was pretty fun, thinker.

took me a bit to figure out that you "count" the square with the number in it too.

[Thinking Skins]

Rename this game with a Japanese word and you have a hit on your hands.  I plugged "Corral" into a English-Japanese translator and came up with something that sounded like "Takuri". . .   a good name for such a puzzle.  But translated back from Japanese to English, "Takuri" comes back as "kettle."

 

Well, Actually the Corral Puzzle was created (I think) in Japan. There is another puzzle Nikoli which is a variant of it (or Corral is a variant of this one).

once i got the hang of it, it was pretty fun, thinker.

took me a bit to figure out that you "count" the square with the number in it too.

 

Aah, I didn't mention that. Thanks for pointing that out.