Good puzzle: connect the six boxes without crossing any lines

[SamSam]

@noahdjango

I guess it’s legal, it didn’t say not to do that?

@pjcamp

My solution follows the rules as stated.

@samthepea

Yeah, I felt like a bit of a child with a hammer and a bunch of smashed up boxes after I saw the proper solution.

The puzzle got edited, and unfortunately a crucial phrase got left out that invalidates these solutions.

Originally the puzzle said:

The lines can’t go through, along, or outside any of the boxes

A couple people, including me, mentioned that the very last part of the phrase (“can’t go… outside any of the boxes”) didn’t make any sense. But the first two clauses are crucial.

Unfortunately, @frauenfelder in his (good) haste to improve the instructions cut out that line, but the initial part of the rule is needed.

The rules should state:

1. Draw three, non-intersecting curved lines connecting 1-1, 2-2 and 3-3
2. The lines can’t go through or along any of the boxes
3. The lines can’t go beyond the bounds of the large rectangle enclosing the boxes

[SamSam]

@nimelennar

Maybe a natural-gas stove?

And also an outer-wall-venting refrigerator?

No, such a thing doesn’t exist as far as I know, but I’ve always wondered why not. In the winter the outside air is 10ºF, I heat my house to 62ºF, and then cool my freezer back down to 0ºF. In makes no sense. I just want a hole in my wall, with an insulated flap controlled by a thermosensor.

[samthepea]

I did think that my solution wasn’t in the true spirit of the game and rather inelegant but then I was like OH YEAAH

[jsroberts]

@LearnedCoward

And it doesn’t matter worth a damn that the lines aren’t straight. It never says straight lines. There’s no trickery of any kind involved, unless you want to assume that line always means straight line, and that’s a big unless.

It’s just testing your ability to find a nonlinear solution while thinking outside the box.

[anon6955837]