82 // Coin Swap

Coin Swap The first diagram shows six silver coins, A, C, E, G, I and K, and six gold coins, B, D, F, H, J and L. Your job is to move the coins into the arrangement shown in the second diagram. Each move must swap one silver coin with one adjacent gold coin; two coins are adjacent if there is a straight line joining them. The smallest number of moves that solves this puzzle is known to be 17. Can you find a 17-move solution?

Move the coins from the first position to the second.

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Answer on page 273

The Stolen Car Nigel Fenderbender bought a secondhand car for £900 and advertised it in the local paper for £2,900. A respectable-looking elderly gentleman dressed as a clergyman turned up at the doorstep and enquired about the car, and bought it at the asking price. However, he mistakenly made his cheque out for £3,000, and it was the last cheque in his chequebook.

Now, Fenderbender had no cash in the house, so he nipped next door to the local newsagent, Maggie Zine, who was a friend of his, and got her to change the cheque. He paid the clergyman £100 change. However, when Maggie tried to pay the cheque in at the bank, it bounced. In order to pay back the newsagent, she was forced to borrow £3,000 from another friend, Honest Harry.

After Fenderbender had repaid this debt as well, he complained vociferously: `I lost £2,000 profit on the car, £100 in

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