Can you solve the 9 dot problem connect all nine dots with four straight lines and without lifting pen or pencil?

Get a pen and some paper and copy the nine dots arranged in a square below. To solve the problem, you need to join all nine dots by drawing no more than four straight lines. The straight lines must be continuous – i.e. you must not lift your pen from the paper once you start drawing.

What is the 9 dot exercise?

The rules are simple; connect all 9 dots using a maximum of 4 straight lines without lifting your pen off the paper or retracing back over an existing line. Most people will see a square and mentally add lines around it creating the context with which to solve the puzzle.

How do you do the nine dot problem?

The 9 Dots Problem The problem is to connect the dots with no more than 4 straight lines without lifting your hand from the paper. First attempts are always frustrating. For one always comes up with 5 lines instead of 4. The solution lies in the observation that it’s permissible to cross square boundaries.

How do you solve the nine dots problem?

Solutions to the nine-dot problem 1 Cut out the nine dots and glue them in one line on a piece of paper, then draw your line through them. 2 Take a paint brush and connect all nine dots with one broad stroke covering all of them. 3 Burn the paper and spread the ashes in one line for you to draw through.

How do you draw on a paper with nine dots?

1) Cut out the nine dots and glue them in one line on a piece of paper, then draw your line through them. Nothing in the challenge prohibits you from that. 2) Take a paint brush and connect all nine dots with one broad stroke covering all of them. 3) Burn the paper and spread the ashes in one line for you to draw through.

What is the “trick” for connecting dots with 4 lines?

The “trick,” of course, is that you have to think outside box — quite literally — to be able to connect the dots with four straight lines without lifting your pen off the paper. And many adults self-impose a rule I haven’t imposed — they assume the lines may not extend beyond the boundary formed by the 8 dots along the outside of the square.

What does the 9 dot puzzle mean?

The 9 dot puzzle is an old puzzle. It appears in Sam Loyd’s 1914 puzzle book. It is a very well known problem used by many psychologists to explain the mechanism of ‘unblocking’ the mind in problem solving activities. It is probable that this brainteaser gave origin to the expression ‘thinking outside the box’.