Hot Air Balloons

How do you solve the Hot Air Balloons Scramble Squares 9 Piece Puzzle?

My nine year old son and I have been working on the Hot Air Balloon Scramble Squares. For those of you who don’t know what that is, the object is to arrange the nine illustrated square pieces into a 12″ x 12″ square so the graphics on the pieces’ edges match perfectly to form a completed design in every direction. My son has worked on the hot air balloon puzzle for hours but has not been able to solve the puzzle. I hate for him to be so discouraged that he will not try another one. Is there a website or book that shows the answers to this one puzzle? It may help him understand how it is done so he can complete the other puzzles he has.

There are a couple of sites that attempt to teach how to solve scramble squares. I’m not sure if they will be helpful to you. They are themselves complex. Have a look anyway since there doesn’t seem to be any other options.

Explanation:

http://www.cs.rockhurst.edu/~burger/research/scramble/

Trial:

http://www.cs.rockhurst.edu/~burger/research/scramble/applet.html

Explanation and Data Imput Info:

http://www.vandine.biz/scramble_solve.php

Online Scramble Squares:

http://www.b-dazzle.com/ScramblePuzzle.asp

This puzzle was meant to take hours to solve, so it’s doubtful that there is an easy solution available. Good Luck!

How to Fly a HOT AIR BALLOON.