Counting Solutions
The following table gives the number of solutions for placing n queens on an n × n board, both unique (sequence A002562 in OEIS) and distinct (sequence A000170 in OEIS), for n=1–14, 24–26.
| n: | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | .. | 24 | 25 | 26 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| unique: | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 12 | 46 | 92 | 341 | 1,787 | 9,233 | 45,752 | .. | 28,439,272,956,934 | 275,986,683,743,434 | 2,789,712,466,510,289 |
| distinct: | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 4 | 40 | 92 | 352 | 724 | 2,680 | 14,200 | 73,712 | 365,596 | .. | 227,514,171,973,736 | 2,207,893,435,808,352 | 22,317,699,616,364,044 |
Note that the six queens puzzle has fewer solutions than the five queens puzzle.
There is currently no known formula for the exact number of solutions.
Read more about this topic: Eight Queens Puzzle
Famous quotes containing the words counting and/or solutions:
“If all power is in the people, if there is no higher law than their will, and if by counting their votes, their will may be ascertainedthen the people may entrust all their power to anyone, and the power of the pretender and the usurper is then legitimate. It is not to be challenged since it came originally from the sovereign people.”
—Walter Lippmann (18891974)
“Every man is in a state of conflict, owing to his attempt to reconcile himself and his relationship with life to his conception of harmony. This conflict makes his soul a battlefield, where the forces that wish this reconciliation fight those that do not and reject the alternative solutions they offer. Works of art are attempts to fight out this conflict in the imaginative world.”
—Rebecca West (18921983)