Eight |
The 15-puzzle has been around for over 100 years; even if you don't know it by that name, you've seen it. It is constructed with 15 sliding tiles, each with a number from 1 to 15 on it, and all packed into a 4 by 4 frame with one tile missing. Let's call the missing tile `x'; the object of the puzzle is to arrange the tiles so that they are ordered as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 xwhere the only legal operation is to exchange `x' with one of the tiles with which it shares an edge. As an example, the following sequence of moves solves a slightly scrambled puzzle:
1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8 5 6 7 8 9 x 10 12 9 10 x 12 9 10 11 12 9 10 11 12 13 14 11 15 13 14 11 15 13 14 x 15 13 14 15 x r-> d-> r->
The letters in the previous row indicate which neighbor of the `x' tile is swapped with the `x' tile at each step; legal values are `r',`l',`u' and `d', for right, left, up, and down, respectively.
Not all puzzles can be solved; in 1870, a man named Sam Loyd was famous for distributing an
unsolvable version of the puzzle, and
frustrating many people. In fact, all you have to do to make a regular puzzle into an unsolvable one
is to swap two tiles (not counting the missing `x' tile, of course).
In this problem, you will write a program for solving the less well-known 8-puzzle, composed of tiles on a three by three arrangement.
For example, this puzzle
1 2 3 x 4 6 7 5 8is described by this list:
1 2 3 x 4 6 7 5 8
2 3 4 1 5 x 7 6 8
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