Futility Closet

Breakfast of Champions

Posted in Puzzles by Greg Ross on May 31st, 2007

Christopher Columbus's Egg Puzzle

"Christopher Columbus's Egg Puzzle," as it appeared in Sam Loyd's Cyclopedia of Puzzles (1914):

The famous trick-chicken, Americus Vespucius, after whom our great country was named, showed a clever puzzle wherein you are asked to lay nine eggs so as to form the greatest possible number of rows of three-in-line. King Puzzlepate has only succeeded in getting eight rows, as shown in the picture, but Tommy says a smart chicken can do better than that!

Can you? I'll give the answer tomorrow.