Tuesday, February 14, 2017

tiling - Is this Tetris puzzle solvable?


As a birthday present last year, I received some fridge magnets. They didn't come as a puzzle, so I don't know if they have a solution, but I made a puzzle out of them anyway.


The magnets are tetrominoes. There are 7 of each shape. Is it possible to arrange them into a 7x28 rectangle so that they are all used and all inside the rectangle?


The closest I have managed is this:


enter image description here




Answer



It is impossible.


Proof:
Let the $7\times 28$ area be painted with black and white squares in a checkerboard pattern. Every piece will cover $2$ black and $2$ white squares, except the T-piece, which covers $3$ of one color and $1$ of another. Since there are $7$ T-pieces, a tiling that uses every piece cannot cover the same number of black and white squares. Since the board contains the same number of black and white squares, it is impossible.


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