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Dust mite dilemma brainteaser

By , 31 March 2021

This brainteaser comes from our new book, Puzzles and Projects. This book features some of the best puzzles, hands-on activities, stories and more from Double Helix magazine. Plus, there’s stacks of new content to explore!
You can buy a copy on the CSIRO Publishing website, or pick it up from your favourite bookstore!

 

Crosshatched page with arrows and numbers in different directions.

Credit: Alex Hallatt

Can you help the dust mites find their way to the bed? The arrows in the squares show the direction they need to go, and the numbers indicate how many squares they need to travel. The dust mites must start on one of the blue squares: but which one?

Scroll down or click for a hint, or the answer!

 

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Brainteaser hint

You can solve this by trying every starting spot, but it might be faster to work backwards and find all the arrows that lead back to the middle!

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Brainteaser answer

Red line showing the route of the dust mites on the board.

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