75

ch invol
one. Vle
A NEW PENTOMINO PUZZLE
may be
:es such
to the

ansposals
r s added. J. A. LINDON
LINA (ad Weybridge, Surrey, England
he reader
:ht lette r s Polyominoes -- the many different shapes of dominoes having
ldding T three or more faces -- were introduced to recreational ITlatheITlatics
,les. How by SoloITlon GoloITlb in 1954. Since then, they have been extensively
letters
investigated; many of their ITlathematical properties are discussed in
of the
Golomb ' s Polyominoes (Scribner 1 s, 1965). Perhaps the most inter
I and so
esting polyoITlinoes are the 12 distinct pentoITlinoes -- all the possible
shapes of dOITlinoes having exactly five faces. There are many ways
in which the pentominoes can be assembled to form rectangles of
size 3 x 20, 4 xIS,S x 12 and 6 x 10.

More recently, various word puzzle s based on the pentominoes

have been formulated. vVhile enumerating all the possible ways the
" 1909 pentoITlinoe s can be ar ranged to form a 6 x lOr ectangle, Leigh M<, rcer
" 1967 discovered in 1968 a pair of rectangles with a ITlost unusual property -
each pentOITltno can be transferred from one rectangle to the other with
out rotation. If five letters are written on the squares of a pentomino,
the letters remain readable when it is located in either rectangle.

At first, this discovery seemed to have cryptographic significance.

Why not write down a plaintext mes sage of 60 letter s in one rectangle,
rearrange the pentominoes to form the other rectangle, and read of{
the encrypted message from this? However, Howard Bergerson soon
discovered a more interesting logological puzzle. He suggested that
one find a set of ten six-letter words such that when they are written
in one of the rectangles, the pentominoes ITlay then be rearranged into
the other rectangle to produce a new set of ten six-letter words. I
was successful in finding two solutions to the 6 x 10 puzzle (Word Ways,
August 1969 and February 1970) and one solution to the 5 x 12 puzzle
( V,rord Ways, August 1970) .

Without rotating any of the pentOITllnoes, it is also possible to ar

range theITl successively in a 4 x 15, a 5 x 12 and a 6 x 10 rectangle.
This construction forms the basis for the patterns on the following
page, where 60 letters have been inscribed on the twelve pentomi
noe s in such a way that each rectangle contains a cOITlplete set of
words.
 76

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