История/History

Some puzzles are known from ancient times. The original logic problems found on the walls of Egyptian pyramids, in ancient Greek manuscripts and other historical monuments. The heyday of the medieval history of the puzzles can be considered the end of the IX century. The growth of the level of education and the reduction of religious intolerance in the sciences have led to increase the number of fans of logical tasks. At this time, there was also the first book of puzzles in Europe - a collection of Irish educator Alcuin "Challenges for the development of a young mind."
The most widely spread puzzle received at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. Through the activities of the American Sam Loyd and Englishman Henry Dudeney puzzle penetrated in many periodicals, it became popular among the general population. Lloyd is the author of the most popular around the world puzzle "Fifteen." The game was so popular that some employers were forced to issue an order prohibiting bring it to work.
A further impetus to the development of the puzzle was the invention in 1974 by Hungarian Erno Rubik's famous Cube. Rubik's Cube has become not only a toy, but also the object of research mathematicians and engineers. Since then, all over the world are regularly held competitions on high-speed assembly cube. Modern industry is developing rapidly puzzles. Constantly on the market there are new games, design and publications designed to keep the human intellect in good shape, develop logic and lateral thinking exercise to raise the intellectual level in general.
Since 1992, the world championships are held pazlsportu - intellectual mind the competition, in which participants compete in high-speed solving puzzles on paper.
Famous authors puzzles
The most famous are the creators of puzzles Henry Ernest Dudeney, Sam Loyd, Martin Gardner, Erno Rubik.
He is known for a variety of puzzles on paper, and as the author of jobs world championships pazlsportu mathematics professor from the United States Erich Friedman.
In Russia and the former Soviet Union known Sergei Grabarchuk Sr., Anatoly Kalinin, Vladimir Krasnouhov Leonid Mochalov, as the creators of mechanical puzzles, and Andrey Bogdanov, Boris Boris Kordemsky Olga Leontief, Yakov Perelman, Vladimir Portugal, Riad Khanmagomedov Mikhail Hotiner as authors on the paper puzzles.

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It all started with mathematics

Already in ancient Mesopotamia, almost five thousand years ago, and we were solved fairly complicated algebraic problems to determine the unknown quantity. Later, in ancient Egypt were first problem books. Conditions were simple from the point of view of today, but then many of them had worldly fullness that approaches dispassionate calculation to reality.
Scottish Egyptologist Hind discovered papyrus dating back to XVII century BC, dedicated to mathematics. It is a roll length of about five and a half meters and a width of about fifteen centimeters. The scribe Ahmes claims that copied the text from the original two centuries ago. Task 79 of the papyrus has the following contents: Seven houses contain seven cats. Each cat catches mice seven per day, and each mouse, stay alive she would have eaten the same day, seven ears of wheat. If each ear can give Hecate seven grain as all listed here?
Mathematics was formed unevenly, at different times in its development contributed to Babylon, Ancient Greece, China and India. By the way, mathematics in Babylon had to deal not only with the arithmetic, but also with algebra, seriously ahead of Egypt in this regard. Interestingly, Senary number system used in Babylon.
Ancient Greek mathematician Diophantus almost two thousand years after the papyrus Hind suggested the following problem: "Find three numbers that are paired with the addition of add up to twenty, thirty and forty."
indicator culture
In Europe, the very first collection of puzzles and logic problems was the book "The objectives for the development of a young mind," the Irish theologian, scientist and educator Alcuin. She appeared in the second half of the IX century. Written in Latin, the book includes 53 objectives. It was there for the first time meets the so-called "problem of crossing", later became very popular.
The peasant took to cross the river, present themselves with a wolf, a goat and a bunch of cabbages. The boat, which he was able to find only one housed, any pair of these. However, the farmer had to carry the severe punishment on the other side of all safe and sound, without damage. How should perform the crossing?
True flowering puzzles contributed to several events. Firstly, the epoch of religious obscurantism, and this has led to the cessation of persecution of mathematics, moreover, mathematicians scientists no longer perceived on par with warlocks, made an alliance with the devil. Second, the increased general education, which greatly increased the number of people who are interested in puzzles. In addition to Europe were brought chess, gave impetus to the invention of new games and related puzzles.
Fibonacci Italians (XIII century) and Tartaglia (XVI century) included the puzzle in their scientific research. The first belonged to the problem of rabbits. Someone bought a pair of rabbits and put them in a fenced enclosure on all sides. How many rabbits will be in a year, if we assume that each month the pair gives a litter as a new pair of rabbits, which from the second month of life is also beginning to bear offspring?
Tartaglia, who first discovered a method for finding the roots of the cubic equation, invented the problem of seventeen horses. The will of the deceased father of the family said that the available seventeen horses on the farm should be divided among the heirs in respect of one-half to one-third to one-ninth. How do his will? In the XVI century, there was another well-known problem puzzle: in the company of twenty people in the church need to put together twenty coins, the men paid for three coins, women - two children - at half the coins. How many men, women and children?
But what puzzles with words? They existed for three thousand years ago, because it was then that the Greek Pindar, pompous poet, wrote a poem puzzle, which hid the ciphertext. Another Greek Likofron also prone to poetic creativity, during the long trip to Alexandria was a flattering anagram of the royal rulers of Egypt. Apparently, the ability to reinvent the puzzle was not useless occupation of the court.
However, it is recognized and used - even in the archetype of the Bible in Hebrew construction of the text hides some puzzles. The logic of poetic forms in linguistic puzzles replaced mundane puzzles that appeared in France during the Renaissance. They certainly are not as elegant and designed for a wide range of readers, because they contain only a combination of words, symbols and images are encrypted text, but to find and read it is still not easy.
One of the puzzles in the form of messages received once Voltaire. Prussian King Friedrich invited him to dine at the palace Sanssouci. The message was written in the latest fashion and represents the image of the two fractions, which are located between the letter "a". Left fraction contained above the line starting with "P", a feature - an image of two hands. Right - numbers 6 and 100, respectively. Translated from the French, which was drawn up puzzle, it contained the phrase "lunch tomorrow in San Souci." And what do you think? Voltaire was famous wit, replied in the same spirit. He composed the puzzle-answer: "I have a good appetite," which consisted in two letters: "G a". Great minds knew how to have fun!
Englishman Jackson, mathematics teacher at the beginning of the XIX century published a puzzle in verse, loose translation of which reads as follows: "Nine subtract six, ten - of nine, after forty is reduced by as much as five dozen. Digit equal to six, the puzzle is complete. But about the disadvantages in numbers, I believe, no one heard. Then do not rush - simply write the puzzle. "
Colorful figures in the history of puzzles was American Sam Lloyd, who lived at the turn of XIX-XX centuries. His most famous invention was the puzzle "game in fifteen," caused quite a stir in the United States, and then, like a plague, exchanged a salvage and conquer the world. Popularity game was so great that the owners of firms have posted special announcements, forbidden to play with her during working hours. In Germany, she indulged in the meetings of the Reichstag, and even in France, she was given a new name - "Taken" ( "teaser"), because it seemed more serious disaster than alcohol and tobacco.
"Playing fifteen" consists of fifteen identical flat pieces as squares with sides of one linear unit. All pieces are numbered from one to fifteen and stacked in the open square box the size of sixteen by sixteen linear units, so that a free space still remains for one chip. Any of the adjacent chips can move your finger on an empty space. The goal is to arrange the tiles in rows according to the sequence deposited on their numbers.
The problem is not very serious, if not for one circumstance. When you try to put chips in a box at random it turns out that only half of all possible combinations gives in ordering according to these terms and conditions. Other combinations are reduced to the location at which the chips from the first to the thirteenth stand in their places, and the two chips with numbers fourteen and fifteen are reversed.
Such combinations used for advertising Lloyd puzzle company: for its decision has been assigned a prize of several thousand dollars, a very decent sum in those days. The author did not lose anything, because the "game of fifteen" of this combination has not been solved. However, it turned out much later, after a detailed mathematical description of the properties of the puzzle.
Today puzzles industry continues to flourish, annually supplying to the market all the new books and supplies, allowing us not just to kill time, but also in the form of a game to load our logical abilities, learn to think outside the box and act.

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