You don’t need to know what a dihedral group is to recognise that these puzzles are related by a reflection in the bottom-left/top-right diagonal. I don’t want to go into this too much on the blog – I have initiated a discussion here – but suffice to say I think this is a rather eye-opening coincidence (rather than malicious plagiarism) based on the fact that actually Masyu with twisted symmetry are very highly constrained, and the creative puzzle author might put down the initial diagonal pattern and then finish off the puzzle in exactly the same way as I did.
Anyway, I’m still a little unsure as to what to make of it all, so please feel free to leave a comment either here or in the forum thread.
And so to business. This week’s puzzle is inevitably a Masyu with twisted symmetry. The solve is nothing special, but I hope you’ll agree the design is at least a little striking. Enjoy!
#123 Masyu – rated easyAll puzzles © Tom Collyer 2009-11
Interesting. I’ve heard of that happening in crossword puzzles as well. Not, the whole grid, mind you, but the theme clues for sure, and some of the fill where the constructor is very constrained by odd letters. And again, it happens because theme clues in crossword puzzles tend to be a certain length, and so if two people happen to pick the same theme (many of which are variations on each other anyway, so it’s not unusual to pick the same theme), there’s a good chance their theme clues will be the same.
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