Let’s Play

Get an overview of problem-solving and try playing some games.

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Problem-solving

Problem-solving

Problem-solving is the universal skill of identifying a problem and finding the relevant solution. It is the process of finding solutions to complex or challenging issues and involves identifying, analyzing, and resolving difficulties encountered in various contexts. Whether in personal, professional, academic, or social settings, problem-solving is a fundamental skill that allows individuals to overcome obstacles and achieve goals. We can think of it as our superpower for handling tricky situations. It’s like being detectives, but we’re cracking real-life puzzles instead of solving mysteries. A deeper understanding of how to systematically solve these games and puzzles will improve our problem-solving skills.

Let’s go on an adventure to learn the art of problem-solving by diving into games and puzzles.

Let’s play!

Water measurement

Imagine you have just a 4-quart and a 9-quart container. Your challenge is to precisely measure out six quarts of water. With an endless water supply, how do you cleverly use these two containers to achieve this seemingly puzzling task?

You can click “Fill,” “Pour,” and “Empty” to perform tasks for the respective pails.

Rabbit jumping

The objective of this puzzle is to switch the rabbits’ positions so that all three white rabbits are on the right and all three brown rabbits are on the left. When all the rabbits reach the other side, you win! Here are the rules of this puzzle:

Click a rabbit to make it jump forward.
A rabbit can jump a maximum of two spaces, and the destination spot must be free.
White rabbits can only hop to the right. Brown rabbits can only hop to the left.
Rabbits can only jump onto an empty rock. A rabbit can jump over one rabbit to an empty rock—but only over one.
Rabbits cannot jump back, only forward. It’s easy to tell which way they can go—they face the direction they want to jump.

If you get stuck and your rabbits can’t jump anywhere, press the “Reset” button to reset the game.

Guess the number

There is a treasure hidden in a building with 50 rooms. Your task is to guess the room with the treasure within six attempts. When you enter a room number, the window will light up. With each guess, the computer will give you one of these hints:

“Wrong guess! Your guess is too low.”
“Wrong guess! Your guess is too high.”
“Congratulations! The number is correct.”

On the list of your room number guesses, the arrow next to the most recent room number tells the direction in which you should move. If the arrow points upward, you should guess a higher number. Similarly, if the arrow points downward, you should guess a lower number.

Minesweeper

In this game, you have a rectangular grid of cells, where each cell can be in one of the following states:

The numbers 1 to 8 represent the count of mines in the adjacent cells (including diagonals).
An empty cell represents neither a mine nor a number.

The game starts as follows:

All the squares are covered at the start. You can uncover a square by left-clicking it.
When you’ll uncover a square, it will either be empty or contain a number. The number represents the number of mines adjacent to that square (in the eight surrounding squares). If a square has no mines nearby, it will be completely empty.
If you suspect a square contains a mine, you can mark it with a flag by right-clicking it to prevent accidental clicks.

In this game, the goal is to utilize the provided clues to accurately locate all the mines, mark them with flags, and uncover all the cells without triggering any explosions.

Polyas method

Bottom-Up Approach

Top-Down Approach

Wire Length Calculator

Stepwise refinement

Guessing Games

Minesweeper Game

Triangular Wall

Pattern Identification

Conclusion