> > I have searched all of these pages for "hints" and tried a couple of suggestions, yet I'm still stuck. I've drawn a circle, used rows of dots, etc. and I'm still stumped. Help me if you can....Thanks, Karen
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> Well, I'd also suggest starting at a spot right next to one of the broken conduits (there are four such places, since each of the broken conduits has two adjacent junctions). This makes it easier because it cuts down the number of possibilities for that junction from four to two.
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> For example, if there's a broken conduit to your north, you can only have the links pointing south and across the inner parallel, or south and across the outer parallel. The two combinations which have a link pointing north are immediately ruled out.
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> If you're not getting anywhere trying to draw the solution on paper, this is probably the best way to go about doing it. Choose one of the two possibilities remaining at that first location -- if you end up having an impossibility, you'll have to start over, but you're guaranteed to get it to work on the second try.
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> So let's say that you chose south/inner parallel. Then move to one of the adjacent junctions a link is pointing to (either move south or across to the other side along the meridian). If you moved south, then at the new junction you've got to have a link pointing north to meet up with the first junction's link. If you moved across to the other side, then you have to link up along the meridian (i.e., across a parallel). So both junctions will point across the inner, or both will point across the outer.
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> So you might think that at the 2nd junction, after you choose one the links to hook up to to the 1st junction, you have two more choices of where the other link points. Not so, if you think carefully about all the rules (most importantly, that you have to alternate crossing the inner and outer parallels as you move from meridian to meridian, and that you have to have one circ