I came across an interesting toggling puzzle while looking through a code repository on GitHub. I want to find out more about it and see if there is any info on how to solve it, how to ensure solvability etc., but I can't seem to find any references to it online. The closest I can find is a puzzle called "lights out" which is in a grid and always has adjacent lights toggled when toggling a particular light. Is the puzzle I found one that is already well known but which I just don't know the name for so I can search for it, or is it a one-off wonder?
The rules are simple - toggle switches so they all end up as O
, but be aware that pairs of switches are connected. There is a version where the connections are hidden so you have to work the connections out yourself - this could be interesting if the goal is to minimize the number of goes.
┌─────────┐
┌─│─────┐ │
┌─│─│─┐ │ │
┌─│─│─│─│─┐ │ │
┌─│─│─│─│─│─│─│─┐ │
│ │ │ │ │ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
X X X X X X X X X X
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ ↑ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │ │
│ │ └─│─│─┘ │ │ │ │
└─│───│─│───┘ │ │ │
│ │ └─────┘ │ │
│ └─────────┘ │
└───────────────┘
Switch to toggle (0─9, or QUIT):