Instruction
Arrange the tiles so that all the tiles are in the
correct positions. You do this by moving tiles. You can move a tile up, down, left,
or right, so long as the following conditions are met:
- there's no other tile blocking you in the
direction of the movement.
you're not trying
to move outside of the boundaries/edges.
If you wish to try another picture, try this.
Background
The 8-puzzle - also
known as the sliding-block/tile-puzzle - is one of the most popular
instrument in the artificial intelligence (AI) studies. It belongs to AI exercises
commonly referred as toy-problems.
Toy problems - as the name implies -
are somewhat fun. They are not real-world problems, but they're
useful because they are simple to define and confined. It means that an exact
description of the problems are possible, and all the factors that affects the problem are
known (there is no need to worry about unpredictable factors such as weather or terrain).
The 8-puzzle, along with chess,
tic-tac-toe, and backgammon, has been used to study new search algorithms, neural-network,
and path-finding. It's usually one of the first instrument that
computer-scientists use to test a new search algorithm.
About the Applet
This applet implements the A* search
(pronounced A-star) algorithm to find solutions. It may take a while for the applet
to find a solution. If you become impatient, reshuffle and try another puzzle.
The SOLUTION button will be enabled only after you ask the computer to
solve the puzzle for you.
Programmed by F. Permadi.
© 1998, 1999 F. Permadi
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