<![CDATA[Tectonics]]>The free Dutch daily newspaper Metro recently – I think it was in september – published a new type of puzzle calles tectonics.
The puzzle area usually is a rectangle, for example 4×5, which is subdivided into areas of size 1 to 5. An area of size 1 contains just the number 1, an area of size 2 contains the numbers 1 and 2, and so on, until an area of size 5 which contains the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 exactly once.
A second rule is that the same number may never be adjacent: not horizontally, not vertically, and not diagonally.
Note that there is no rule that a number may appear just once in a row or column.
A complete filled tectonic may look like:
The puzzles in Metro are designed by Denksport, the largest puzzle publisher in the Netherlands. In the magazine shop I discovered a magazine with these puzzles.
Tectonic puzzle booklet can be ordered here. I think the order page is only in Dutch, and I’m not sure if you can mail order from abroad.
Nr 1)*
Nr 2)*
Nr 3)**
You can check your solutions here, here, and here.
The publisher claims that these puzzles are a new international rage. That may well be true, but a quick search on “tectonic puzzles” turned up just puzzles on plate tectonics.
]]>
