Monday, May 7, 2012

No fault lines

Build a rectangle with multiple 2x1 bricks such that the rectangle has no "fault lines".  A fault line is a straight line through the rectangle that does not cut through any of the bricks.

For example, the following rectangle fails because of the fault line indicated in red.
What's the smallest rectangle you can make without fault lines?  You may send solutions to skepticsplay at gmail dot com.

Can you do the same with 3x1 bricks?

This puzzle is taken from Polyominoes: Puzzles, Patterns, Problems, and Packings, by Solomon W. Golomb.

See solutions