By Peter Nydam

Welcome to the first puzzle in MAA’s Mathic Gamelet ! Every month, this column will publish a puzzle that illustrates some concept, idea, or theorem in mathematics, although a strong math background is not a prerequisite to solving any of the puzzles here. This month’s puzzle takes the form of a crossword with a mathematical twist. Once you have tried the puzzle , scroll down to read about the mathematical connections at play here and check your solution.

Puzzle

Click here to download a printable PDF of the puzzle, and click here to view the puzzle hosted on PuzzleMe.

Insight

In this month’s puzzle, ghosts do not float through walls in the traditional sense, but they do move across the boundaries of the grid. Since solutions wrap around the edges of the puzzle, we can imagine this grid might exist on a larger space of copied grids, where reading off the right edge on one grid leads into the left of the neighboring grid.…