Impossible Puzzle

Really?... You spent you whole summer trying to solve this puzzle?... i spent mine drinking and getting laid... but i mean... uh...whatever rocks your boat...

This puzzle has been around for a long time. It is addressed in an obscure branch of mathematics called Topology. No need to let it frustrate you; it is quite impossible unless one breaks one of the basic stated rules. It is a two dimensional puzzle and can only be solved if one uses a third dimension. No matter how it is approached, one object will always remain outside a closed loop.

For more excitement in Topology, search for such subjects as the old Koenigsberg Bridges problem, the Moebius Strip, Klein bottles, mathematically transforming flower pots into donuts -- all within the realms of Toplogy.

A Moebius strip is simply a paper strip, pasted at the ends with one twist. For more fun, make two. Cut one down the middle, cut the other a third of the width of the strip. See what happens.

The Moebius strip, although a three dimensional object, has only one side and one edge. Two mirror image Moebius strips, when combined properly, yield a Klein bottle. This object can not exist, simply because it has no inside nor an outside - it has only one side! It can either hold nothing or everything in the Universe.

Topology. Fun math - nothing else. Thanks for stirring old memories...

Here is what i got: http://img301.imageshack.us/img301/3526/riddlehousetw3.jpg

SMART PANTS.... go to the link at the END AND SEE THAT THIS IS IMPOSSIBLE ON A FLAT PICE OF PAPER !!!!!!!!!!!! so don't say you did it... LIERS http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.3utilities.html

THIS PUZZLE is impossible to solve on a regular bases... meaning on a sheet of regular paper in 2D flat.. HERE IS YOUR ANSWER http://mathforum.org/dr.math/faq/faq.3utilities.html

normally this a puzzle u have to do on the computer of course its impossible so try to downoad the puzzle on internet or on metacafe dont really know if they have it and then try it ...

Actually there is an easy way to solve a nonplanar graph: Poke two holes and run the line on the other side of the paper. Easy.

Don't waste any time trying to solve this problem. It is easily provable that it is a nonplanar graph (see wikipedia under planar graphs) and therefore the puzzle is impossible.

hey i ahve the same video and i have spent alot of time trying to solve this but the answer is tha it is unsolved it can only be solved in 3d

hahaha that stinks i solved it in 5 minutes

i solved it
i am sure and positive

When i was told this puzzle, they said that you had to conect a line from each house to each utilites without crossing, and that you could put the buildings in any order. If that is correct, than i have an answer. ph17@hotmail.com

took me 10 min i got it on paper

http://www.justriddlesandmore.com/images/answer.gif

One of the utility is build on top of one of the house

got the answer.

HERE it is:

There is no way to solve it.

USE WIRELESS!!

How can we e-mail you if we don't have your e-mail address?:P

its hard becouse dont have answer

it took me 10 sek, how can be so....

the lines must be strait like ---------- or they can be like (_____ ?

the way towork thisout is tomake a cube out of paper or card then it is vey simple to work out cos there is a 3rd dimention then when u av worked it out that way open the folded paper it all works out flat too just dont goover the joining edge of the box simple when u use common sence not all this topology n sh*t how crap is it when someone tells u after u have tried for so ong it isnt possible just because they couldnt work it out and they didnt wont to feel dumb so they made up some math bull crap saying it cant be done well uv just been officialy proven wrong

well.. kindof... it is impossible to solve in 2D.. but it can be solved very easily in 3D lol.. thats the only possible way :)

Do what cities do. Creat a sub station.
Put the three squares on top as stated. Put the three circles lower down.
Then put a dot in the center and call it a sub station. Connect the utilties to the substation. Connect each home to the substation. Voila

as it is impossible!

If you didn't get nowhere, do you know where you didn't get? No, where? (get it?... like in: Did you did or did you didn't get it?) Or maybe you didn't not get it... are we getting anywhere? Let me know when you do get somewhere!

only if u tell me how to put a a metacafe video

Get another plumber

are you trying to be Mr. Mackey or you actually talk like that?

DuDe have you ever tought that there is a posibility not to have an answer.I mean .. you have never seen it solved <!>???? And the only way to do it is using cornered lines not sr8 ones ..... took about a minute to get the picture ..........

this trick is kind simple I was taught the answer in 5th grade the answer is you rent a back-hoe for 50 bucks a day and dig under the other pipline lol its a play on words

i cant belive how easy that was.... it was fun though.

mmm'kay ;)

What is your e-mail???

Easy done..been doing it for years.

Run one utility under all three houses and same with second and third. No lines touch or cross.

It can be solved. In fact, I now know of two solutions at least. If you demand tangency and no more from pipes with houses/utilities, and that the paper is 2-dimensional (instead of the real 3-d very, very thin sheet it is), I don't know of any.

it took me 15 sec.
it was really easy
:):):) seriouly it is very easy

dude if u said it cant cross over or become one big pipe line why dont u just make the pipes go around the houses? u didnt say there couldnt be any twist, turns or curves right?

but it cant be done

i solved it in like 5 minute i did it in paint all u have to do is use color 4 h or u
shit that is ezer then teaching string theory

does it have to be straight lines?
if not i killed it in 4 mins...

... you take the problem in a 2d enviroment and no line where crossed.

This is old, when I was little, me and my mom both got stumped on this for a while. I think it took us about 3 days to solve it. Fortunately, I cannot remember how, so I get to try again!

lol man u wasted ur summer on tht...i did tht in like 5 mins...how u wanna know the answer...reply me

i have done this puzzle p.s email me

what you can do is make curve lines and join each one in the back part of the circle

While the reality solution is 3-d, the solution my daughter and I had at the same time was simply run the first utility through the front of each house(Horizontal by your picture), the second utility through center (also horizontal ) and the third through the back ( still horizontal ). Lines never cross

who would spend there summer vacation doing a puzzle?

U can do it.

it doesnt say you can't pass the 'pipes' over the utilities. its easy! don't be kept in the box your mind creates!
peace

u have 3 utilitiez, m'k?

I cant Figure it out

Dude really hes right this is a freaking hard puzzle!

Do I have to figure it out?

Im sure that nobody can do this