title: How do you solve the 15-puzzle with A-Star or Dijkstra's Algorithm?
body: <p>I've read in one of my AI books that popular algorithms (A-Star, Dijkstra) for path-finding in simulation or games is also used to solve the well-known "15-puzzle".</p>
  
  <p>Can anyone give me some pointers on how I would reduce the 15-puzzle to a graph of nodes and edges so that I could apply one of these algorithms?</p>
  
  <p>If I were to treat each node in the graph as a game state then wouldn't that tree become quite large?  Or is that just the way to do it?</p>