This is a list of puzzles which have been proven impossible. An impossible puzzle is a puzzle that cannot be solved by following the directions or criteria for that puzzle.
- Mutilated chessboard problem
- Some variations of Fifteen puzzle
- Three-colouring the edges of the Petersen graph
- Seven Bridges of Königsberg
- Water, gas, and electricity
- Three cups problem
Famous quotes containing the words list of, list, impossible and/or puzzles:
“Thirty—the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair.”
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940)
“Religious literature has eminent examples, and if we run over our private list of poets, critics, philanthropists and philosophers, we shall find them infected with this dropsy and elephantiasis, which we ought to have tapped.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Modern man must descend the spiral of his own absurdity to the lowest point; only then can he look beyond it. It is obviously impossible to get around it, jump over it, or simply avoid it.”
—Václav Havel (b. 1936)
“Woman and fool are two hard things to hit,
For true no-meaning puzzles more than wit.”
—Alexander Pope (1688–1744)