Three houses and three utilites- can you connect them without crossing lines? No stacking buildings.?

Question

There are three houses and an electric company, a water facility, and a gas company.

You must draw a line from each house to each utility, without the lines ever crossing. Buildings cannot be stacked and lines cannot be run under or though other buildings. Can you connect the houses to the utilities?

Answer 1

in middle school i use to draw them on a piece of paper. no one could figure out how. but i know.

Answer 2

The answer is "NO", the problem is impossible, at least on a flat piece of paper in regular, linear geometry.

With the number of connections that need to be made, somewhere, some of the lines have to cross.  

In the real world, in three dimensions, the electric, water and gas lines can be on different levels - so it's OK if they "cross"

when seen from above.

But on a flat piece of paper, graph theory tells us that the problem, as is, is not solvable.  Google "three houses three utilities" and visit mathforum.org to explain exactly why.

Answer 3

yes u would need to go around the globe to do it