Saturday, February 11, 2012

Knight's Tour: Animated GIF

I run hot and cold on Wikipedia, but I stumbled upon this animated GIF of a Knight's Tour, and thought it was worth sharing. The Knight's Tour is a mathematical puzzle that requires a knight to visit every square on the board once using his standard move. The GIF is the work of Ilmari Karonen, and uses the following moves:

e8 g7 h5 f6 e4 g3 h1 f2 d1 b2 a4 c3 d5 b6 a8 c7 b5 a7 c8 d6 c4 a3 b1 d2 f1 h2 g4 e3 f5 h6 g8 e7 c6 d8 b7 a5 b3 a1 c2 d4 f3 e1 g2 h4 g6 h8 f7 g5 h7 f8 e6 f4 h3 g1 e2 c1 a2 b4 d3 c5 a6 b8 d7 e5



There's a beautiful symmetry in the finished solution. If, for some reason, the animation starts in the middle, just let it play out and it should loop around to the beginning.