Square Space
Square Space
Square Space
July 6, 2022
By Adrienne Raphel
Summary
The Fifteen Puzzle, as New York Times crossword editor and puzzle guru Will Shortz has observed, was the first in the modern era to inspire crazes: the precursor to the crossword, the Rubik's Cube, and, most recently, Wordle.
"The major factor in the fascination with the puzzle from the beginning was that sometimes the puzzle, although a bit difficult, could be solved," they write in The Fifteen Puzzle.
Anticipating reader uproar over dedicating so much space to a game, the Journal's editors explained in their pages that they were not doing so in response to the puzzle's popularity but because "The principle of the game has its root in what all mathematicians of the present day are aware constitutes the most subtle and characteristic conception of modern algebra, viz: the law of dichotomy applicable to the separation of the terms of every complete system of permutations into two natural and indefeasible groups."
Loyd never affirmatively stated that he invented the Fifteen Puzzle, but he also never denied rumors to that effect.
Once people started attributing the puzzle to him, he embraced this claim, and folded "Inventor of the Fifteen Puzzle" into his biography.
Loyd couldn't have invented the Fifteen Puzzle.
Ironically, the very mechanism that made the Fifteen Puzzle impossible to solve half the time, the slight difference he wanted to patent in his sliding block puzzle, was what led to the game's outrageous success.
Reference
Raphel, A. (2022, July 6). Square space - jstor daily. Retrieved July 14, 2022, from https://daily.jstor.org/square-space-fifteen-puzzle/