Frogs Puzzle

Five red-eye frogs and five orange frogs line up in a row with a space between them.

They have to change places but they can only hop, one frog over another frog or slide to an empty space next to them.

Red-eye frogs can only move to the right and orange frogs can only move to the left and never in the other directions.

How can they change places following these rules?

How many moves will it take?

Try the puzzle with 2 frogs on each side first, then with 3 frogs on each side …

In the Triangle Frogs Puzzle, the frogs slide and hop as in the standard puzzle. There are 12 cells, 3 on each edge and one at each vertex that is empty at the start. For example, the A and B frogs at the top can change places as follows:

1. Frog A slides into the empty rhombus shaped cell leaving an empty space.

2. Frog B hops over Frog A and lands in the empty cell.

There are 6 different possible starting layouts with 3 frogs of each kind on each edge. Work out how to start from the layout shown and move to each of the other 5 layouts and how many moves it would take.

Click here for the FROGS Inclusion and Home Learning Guide.

Click here for the FROGS worksheet.

Click here for the Notes for Teachers.