On the Subject of Factoring Maze

Who said module names needed to be original?

This module will contain a 4×4 grid of numbers. One of the squares will be white, this is your starting position. Pressing an adjacent square will move yourself in the direction of that square.

To solve the module, navigate to nth square in reading order, where n equals the product of the nonzero digits in the serial number*, subtracting 16 until the product is less than 17. *If all digits in the serial number are zeroes, use the top-left square as your goal position.

The module chooses 4 unique primes from 2 to 29 (select them on the next page).

• The smallest of these numbers will represent a wall above the cell.
• The 2nd smallest of these numbers will represent a wall left of the cell.
• The 3rd smallest of these numbers will represent a wall beneath the cell.
• The largest of these numbers will represent a wall right of the cell.

To find the walls surrounding a cell, separate its number into its prime factors. If the prime corresponding to a wall is a factor of the number, the wall is present. Otherwise it is absent.

Attempting to walk through a wall in the maze will incur a strike.

Read

Clear

U L D R

Interactive Controls

Use the above interactive graphic to input the read and try out different paths.

• In Read mode:
  • Type in the puzzle grid on page 1 and select the 4 primes.
  • Use the arrow buttons, or WASD, or arrow keys on your keyboard to toggle the walls of the selected cell
  • Use the Goal or Start tool to mark the goal or start position
• In Solve mode, the grid behaves like the module with options for free movement or enforced movement as the module demands.
• Use the arrow buttons, or WASD, or arrow keys on your keyboard to navigate the maze.
• Your Path may be invalid if you turn off enforced movement in Solve mode
• The ↻ button resets the puzzle back to the starting state.
• The sound effects can be muted.
• Press the Manual button to switch into Generated mode where you can have fun solving generated puzzles of size 3 – 8.
• Use the - and + buttons or press [-] and [+] on your keyboard to increment the size of the generated puzzle.
• The solution you came up with in Solve mode as well as the solution to generated puzzles can be shown or hidden.
  
• Using the other buttons, you can save the current state of the grid, delete the saves, or reset everything.