567 Slots · 2026-10-21

567 Slots: One Swap Must Repair Both Ends

One swap changes two positions. Follow a three-card arrangement from its starting order to its target without counting two separate moves.

Set three picture cards in the order cup, star, leaf. The target is star, cup, leaf. You may swap two positions once.

The first two positions are wrong, but a single swap repairs both. Swap cup and star while leaving the leaf untouched.

One swap affects two positions

Arun had counted two wrong positions and assumed two moves were necessary. He had not considered that one move affects two positions simultaneously.

Mark the source and destination before moving either card. This makes the two effects visible instead of treating the swap as an isolated replacement.

Now change the starting order to cup, leaf, star, keeping the same target. All three positions are different from the target.

One swap leaves the third position untouched, so it cannot fix this arrangement. Explain that limitation before searching for a particular swap.

Trace the second arrangement

Two swaps can work: swap cup and star to get star, leaf, cup; then swap leaf and cup.

Keep a before-and-after row for each step. The second move should begin from the first move's result, not from the original picture again.

Ask a friend to propose a different two-swap route. More than one route may reach the same target without making either route invalid.

The puzzle teaches a useful counting habit: count the positions a move can change before equating the number of errors with the number of moves.

567 Slots: One Swap Must Repair Both Ends

One swap affects two positions

Trace the second arrangement

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