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New Scientist puzzle #58: Lego lockdown

Can you conquer a challenge involving sequences of red and blue Lego bricks? Plus the solution to puzzle #57, set by Hugh Hunt

6 May 2020

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#58 Lego lockdown

It is lockdown in my house and to keep the kids occupied, I have challenged them to find all the possible sequences when placing red 1×1 and blue 2×1 Lego blocks in a row.

There is only one way of making a row of length one (one red); there are two ways of getting a row of length two (B or RR); and three ways of getting a row of length three (BR, RB and RRR).

But after length three, the pattern seems to break down. There are five ways to get length four (BB, BRR,…

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