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>"Maybe now I can shift my irritation from the lamp itself to whoever designed it to possess such a property. "

I wouldn't be mad at the designer. That person designed a lamp and proposed an impossible puzzle that at first glance looked plausible.

It is the best way to troll people... ever!

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:15-puzzle-loyd.svg

:)

"Some later interest was fuelled by Loyd offering a $1,000 prize for anyone who could provide a solution for achieving a particular combination specified by Loyd, namely reversing the 14 and 15.[13] This was impossible, as had been shown over a decade earlier by Johnson & Story (1879), as it required a transformation from an even to an odd combination."

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