My son would like to write a program to solve so called "fifteen puzzle" which is very usefull for education if program solves it and show soluition steps. Most online game programs for solving "fifteen puzzle" are either manual or instant solver and they don't show solution steps one-by-one and so is not usefull for educational purpose but he wants computer to solve the puzzle and show solution steps. Anyone knows how to do this or came about a pogram to be able to do this?

Regards
steve robinson

Hi Steve,
I found the algorithm for the solution of this puzzle on a college page. Implementing it in an automated fashion would be fairly straightforward. Is your son, by any chance, taking 6.042J at MIT this semester, and looking for a hint?

No. He just was interested to do this by himself. I told him it is not too easy and asked him not to put too much time on it.