Solution to Richard Tucker’s Original Rolling-Block Maze:First of all, there’s more to print. Click here for a diagram of the solution and print it.The solution takes 39 moves. For the first move, you tip the block to the west. It now lies horizontally across two squares, so I put a number 1 in each of those two squares. For the second move, you roll the block to the north. It again lies horizontally across two squares, so a 2 is in each of those squares. For the third move, you roll the block east. It now stands upright on a single square, and that square has a (3) in it. I use parentheses to indicate when the block is upright. You don’t really need that information, but it’s helpful. At one point there is an alternate path you may have taken if you solved the maze. The alternate path is slightly longer—by two moves. It starts with the block horizontal across the two squares numbered 22 then it precedes south, west, north, north, east, east, south, west, south. We’ve now rejoined the main solution, and the block is standing upright on the square with (29) in it. At first I thought this alternate path was the only solution, and that’s the solution I presented in Mensa Bulletin. Three readers, Rodney Hamilton, William Bradley, and Richard Horvitz, wrote me to point out a shorter path. So their path is now the official solution. Back to the rules of the maze.
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