Percy’s Puzzle 3 x 3

How to Start

Click or touch to choose a tile, waiting until the white border appears. Then drag it over another tile and let go and the tiles will swop places. The aim is to line up all the numbers between the tiles across and down. A green edge shows you have a match between two tiles. Choosing a puzzle shuffles the tiles but the solution is the same. If you give up, just choose the Solution button.
1
3
2
1
3
3
3
3
1
1
3
3
2
1
2
3
2
3
2
2
1
3
1
2
2
1
3
3
1
2
1
3
2
3
1
1
Puzzle 1
Puzzle 2
Puzzle 3

Solution
On to 4 x 4 Puzzle

History

This puzzle was first published in UK in 1921 by Percy A. MacMahon in his book ‘New Mathematical Pastimes’ He had patented the 6 x 4 tile puzzle with four coloured triangles in each tile in 1892. A much simpler version using a 3 x 3 tile grid was produced by Scott Ferguson in 1991 for Microsoft Windows 3.1. It was named TetraVex. My version is named Percy’s Puzzle in honour of the original inventor.

Hint

It may help to know that when you solve the puzzle each row will have four number 1s, four number 2s and four number 3s.
 
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