What is Digg?Sponsored by Travelzoo
All-time Low Fares for Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year view!
travelzoo.com - Flights $52 and up. Nifty all-airline calendar identifies absolute cheapest dates to fly.
58 Comments
- FlorentG, on 10/12/2007, -1/+24I've been searching for ages... until I found somewhere the mathematical proof that's it's impossible.
- thorvath, on 10/12/2007, -0/+21http://www.cut-the-knot.org/do_you_know/3Utilities.shtml
Guy mathematically proves it is impossible. - sluggoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+20@FlorentG: Thank you -- now I can stop wasting my time with it. A puzzle isn't any good if there's no possible solution....
- MackenzieWelch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+17dugg for the people that will play the game without reading the comments
- MinaSulo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+15***** me in the ass, I was playing this for a while and though "oh, so close! one more try!"
The person who made this game is a dick. - JDWTC, on 10/12/2007, -5/+17can I just ask, did you vote for george bush?
- Crimsoneer, on 10/12/2007, -3/+14You must be a creationist.
- Yokai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Like me? I wasted a good hour on this stupid thing. >=(
- postitnote, on 10/12/2007, -3/+9I did it, really: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=4pxpe0x
When you get it so that the middle house needs to connect to one of the side utilities, start drawing it, right click, click again so the line goes through a house, then finish. - danc4498, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Stupid puzzle. Mathematically impossible. I think the point is to make you feel stupid...
- Vectorman2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5Rawful. Needs moar solvability.
- ParadoxOFailure, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Let's not rely on math? Math is the fundamental science of our world... why would we not rely on it? This puzzle is impossible unless you can pull it into 3 dimensions as aznchristmas said
- funkiermonksay, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5It seems like there is a possible solution, or mabey I just refuse to believe that someone could be so cruel as not make a puzzle without one...
- arjie, on 10/12/2007, -1/+4Hey, we used to do this when we were little kids. We used to do it on a piece of paper, so you could run off the edge of the paper, or fold the paper over a part and drag the pencil across the folded part. I believe that was the trick.
- Yokai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Why "deh heck" would you skip your English class? It is only an hour of your day!
- AnteChronos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@motion2
"i believe this is actually possible.. even if math goes against it.. geometry has alot of logical errors and this been proven.. so lets not rely on math here.."
Wait wait wait, geometry has *logical* errors (despite the two being unrelated)? Don't believe the math because math has been *proven* to be wrong (hint: proofs are a mathematical construct)? Wow. Just . . . wow. Yours has to be one of the stupidest comments I've EVER seen on the Internets. And I've witnessed the AOL invasion of Usenet, so that's saying a lot. - owanderhoffe, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3hard? pshhh
http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/8949/picture3cb4.png - dbhaley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3^ cheater ^
- eaglejm, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3The one time i dont read the comments! Too many beers on a thursday for me :)
- dbhaley, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Math, is there anything it can't do?
- clorby, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3um, no. the two triangles are not similar (the red and green smaller ones). they do not form a straight line. i can explain why completely, but that's the gist. the slopes are different, so the rearranged triangle is not a triangle. the hypotenuse is not straight. compare the slopes of the red/green little triangles... one is 2/5, the other is 3/8... these are not the same.
that illusion is BS and the three utilities puzzle is impossible. geometry has been around for thousands of years, if it was wrong, we'd probably have figured it out by now. - sibhod, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I hear the jury's still out on "math".
- person425, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2haha, welcome to graph theory 101 :-)
This is about the simplest non-planar graph that exists.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planar_graph
Interesting that every other non-planar graph either has a k3,3 (in the game), or a k5 inside it - interiot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2No no... just do it like they do in squatter villages in Turkey... have one house steal the electricity from his neighbor... http://paperlined.org/tmp/3cottages_chain.png
- aznchristmas, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2it is not possible. you can do it in 3 dimensions, or if there was a hole that the lines could go through to get to the other side (like on a piece of paper). however, the way this is set up, there's no way you can do it. (unless i missed something)
- strangewill, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Maybe the solution IS to cheat the program using right click...
Anyway, this isn't addicting, especially when you find out it isn't doable. - Vectorman2, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1100,000 hours in MS paint, amirite?
- smish420, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I thought I saw this before....
rubbish! - frontbrain, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1The first time I saw this was at the hands on museum in Ann Arbor, MI. It said it was impossible once you tried to do it or something. Although I still tried a few times on this one, even though I know it can't be done.
- adidos, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1"geometry has alot of logical errors and this been proven.. so lets not rely on math here"
Umm, the definition of geometry is "the pure *mathematics* of points and lines and curves and surfaces" - interiot, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1It's a standard problem in topological graph theory. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_cottage_problem
It only works if the cottages are on a torus (or if you can go outside 2D, or cross lines). - Yokai, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2You're kidding me, right Motion2? Or are you really that mathematically (mentally?) challenged?
And what type of name is Motion2 anyway? Where are you Motioning To in the first place? Damn you piss me off! - LordofChaosIori, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2I wonder if there's a win message? lol
- kronotic, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1impossible... there will always be 1 left out.. geeze.. come on geeks whats the debate there is no solution to it.. accept it.. lol
- jon02129, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Oh, come on. Did NO ONE get my joke?
- counterplex, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1There is no solution except by going into the third dimension or if the plane of the game is in the form of a donut. I'm sure it kept a few people busy tho :)
- heresy0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1This is terrible... I thought from the start that it wasn't possible... but I just kept going...
- sibhod, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Math cannot be wrong, because Math is a unnatural concept. There is no "1","2" or "x" in nature. These are concepts created by humans so by their very definition they are constrained by the rules and limits of math. Concepts like points, lines, planes, ect. not only don't exist, but cannot physically exist because they are impossible within the constraints of physics.
Now math can obviously be applied to real life situations, but real life will not exactly duplicate math unless you filter it through math's pre-defined rules. - Yokai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1More game developers need to make their games impossible. Imagine if WoW added up to 80 levels but said that you could get to level 81 and everyone kept trying but nobody ever realized that it was impossible. I am sure that 1/4 of the WoW population would probably lose their jobs and go into bankruptcy due to addiction... It is perfect... For Blizzard that is!
- strangewill, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Disprove itself.
- baustin, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Here's a more detailed answer http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.3utilities.html as to why it is not possible in 2 dimensions, unless you have a torus.
- IAMKOREA, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The length of the hypotenuse of one triangle is longer. It's that simple.
- mavrick45, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0yeah I've been doing this for years
I wonder what the history of this puzzle is...
it seems like a line game that ancient Greek or Egyptian or Chinese children would play using a stick to draw in the dirt. - jon02129, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1Ohh boy, will this be fun telling my competitive friend I made it to level 5!
- ribo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0hahaha, this made the rounds when I was back in middle school, albiet with paper and pencil.
It's impossible, good joke, though. - byibmi, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0I tried going through the houses like some of you showed and it doesn't allow it even with right click. Am I just gullible to believe that it it possible? Cuz no matter which way I tried, it doesn't work.
- Karine24, on 10/11/2007, -0/+0Since 4 days, I played and I'm trying to find "THE" solution...Oh No!! grrr...
- z00k, on 10/12/2007, -3/+2The guy who made this made little puppies cry.
... Yeah. - motion2, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0dblpost
- motion2, on 10/11/2007, -1/+0explain this
http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y48/Wargod3K/AttnWhore/Math.gif -
Show 51 - 58 of 58 discussions
The Digg Toolbar for Firefox lets you Digg, submit content, and keep track of Digg even when you're not on the Digg site. Download the official 
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 
