Home Sweet Home

I was feeling poetic today so I wrote a poem about the problem of the week:

The numerals 1 through 8,

Are patiently lying in wait,

For you to move them round and round,

Until their home and neighbors are found.

1 doesn't like 2, 2 doesn't like 3,

Consecutive integers don't like each other, you see.

So make sure, by the end of the day,

Consecutive integers aren't neighbors, OK?

I know, I know, only a math freak would write a poem about a math problem...but since I have already admitted to being a math freak, I think it's OK.  :)  Here is your problem of the week:

Arrange the numerals 1 through 8 in the figure so that no two consecutive integers touch at a side or on a corner.

Here is some information on "consecutive integers" for those of you who aren't a math freak like me.  Consecutive integers are integers (in your case - the numbers 1 through 8) that follow each other in order.  In other words, 1 and 2 are consecutive integers, 2 and 3 are consecutive integers, 3 and 4 are consecutive integers, and so on and so forth.  Got it?

So, looking at the picture below:

If you put the number 1 in the space with the star in it, you couldn't put a 2 in the spaces with the diamonds because they touch a corner of the space the 1 is in nor could you put a 2 in the space with the triangle because it touches the side of the space the 1 is in.

Similarly, if you put a 2 in the space with the star in it, you couldn't put a 1 or a 3 (because 1 and 2 are consecutive integers AND 2 and 3 are consecutive integers) in the spaces with the diamonds or the triangle.

Hope that makes it very clear.  It should be a fairly fun, simple problem, but that's coming from a math freak after all, so...

Enjoy and Good Luck!  Answer will be posted Sunday.

Sincerely,
The Math Freak