Review metal puzzles from TTIE and Eureka

This is one of three reviews to be published this summer while i’m away on holiday,

This post is about metal puzzles that I received for my birthday and fathersday. My thanks go to the family members who donated them.

The metal puzzles from T.T.I.E, PO Box 62 2420 AB The Netherlands are a series of sturdy metal puzzles. They come in grey boxes, which are mostly of a standard size.

Many of the smaller ones look like standard problems, consisting of 1 twist. I was not able to find their website, zo it is probably not a very big firm.

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Two of the puzzles I received are more original, they come from Eureka! 3D puzzles. The one with three rings is nice, I havent seen it before, though all the elements are very standard.

The puzzle which I christianed “Double E” is a nice one. It took it with me to the office, where my puzzle friends quickly solved it. Then I twisted them into each other again, and somehow we have been unable to separate them again.

You can find the website of the supplier at http://www.eureka-puzzle.eu/eureka, though they only sell to retailers, and dont seem to sell to individuals.

Review crystal jigsaw puzzles

This is one of three reviews to be published this summer while I’m away on holiday,

This post is about plastic 3D jigsaw puzzles that I received for my birthday and fathersday. My thanks of course go to the family members who donated them.

Now I must confess that I dont like jigsaws puzzles. One reasons is they are way too common for my taste. Another reason is that they do not tax my brain enough: it needs diligent work, but not hard work.
But when it comes to 3D puzzles, the borderline becomes fuzzy. Ravensburg has published 3D jigsaw puzzles for I estimate over a decade. All pieces look like ordinary pieces, except they are thicker, so you can build walls and roofs with them.

On the other end of the 3d spectrum are the Japanese kumiki puzles, often beautifully made of wood, and representing several types of buildings, animals, fruit and other objects.

Somewhere in between are the plastic 3D jigsaw puzzles. I discovered them on the web, as produced by Kimzel Gmbh in Germany. They have a series of about 40 models. I ordered mine through Moenen and Mariken. This shop is in Dutch, and I can recommend their service, which was excellent.
If you live in the USA, you can order them from Amazon, where they are marketed by BePuzzled.

The number of pieces varies greatly. I have an apple of 13 pices, several of 46 pieces, and I have seen some of 90-100 pieces. Despite their name, they are not really crystal, but a sturdy plastic that looks like it. The copyright belongs to Beverley Enterprises Inc. & Jeruel Ind Co Ltd. The latter is a China based Toys and Puzzle producer, and the puzzles are produced in China. The pieces fit together really well. I guess the plastic does make them affordable, prices range from 3-20 euros.

Review Hanayama puzzles

This is one of three reviews to be published this summer while i’m away on holiday,

This post is about metal puzzles that I received for my birthday and fathersday. My thanks of course go to the family members who donated them.

The Hanayama series is a series of beautiful iron cast puzzles published by hanayame toys in Japan.

There are 2 kinds of packaging around, one is a beautiful shiny red/black cardboard box, the other a dull grey-green? cardboard box, which I dont have myself but did see on ads in the USA.

The puzzles themselves are very solid, and have varying degrees of difficulty. The manufacturer has them labeled with a number of stars, more stars meaning more difficult. Many of the puzzles have been designed by well established names in the puzzle world such as Oskar van Deventer and Nob Yoshigahara.

New puzzles seem to be published regularly, and can be mail ordered at several places:

• https://www.nextag.com/hanayama-cast-puzzle/products-html#!
• http://www.zoompuzzles.com/hanayama_cast_puzzles.html
• http://www.brilliantpuzzles.com/Hanayama_Cast_Puzzles.html

They have varying degrees of difficulty, 1-5, and come without a solution, though you may try the generally know video sites if you are completely stuck. I now have one of the rings, the cast duet and the cast quartet, and probably one or more others, and I’m very satisfied with them. There must be somewhere between 50 and a 100 of them by now,

Soma cube – part 2

Some time ago I presented some new soma cube puzzles. If you dont know what a soma cube is, have a look here.

Here are 8 new figures:
1) wall

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2) stairs 1

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3) airplane

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4) stairs 2

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5) castle wall 1

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6) gate

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7) castle tower 2

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8) castle tower 3

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If you solved it, we have the solution to
wall,
stairs 1,
airplane,
stairs 2,
castle wall 1,
castle gate,
castle tower 2,
castle tower 3,

10 Trees in 5 rows

How can you plant 10 trees such that they are planted in 5 rows of 4 trees each?

Soma cube

Though this blog mainly concentrates on logical puzzles, this post is about the Soma Cube, invented by Danish scientist Piet Hein in 1933 during a lecture on quantum physics. The name SOMA may be related to the name of an array.

It is a solid dissection puzzle, where a 3x3x3 cube is divided into 7 pieces:

You can easily create your own set with a saw and some wood glue.

The Soma cube has been discussed in detail by Martin Gardner and John Horton Conway, and the book Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays contains a detailed analysis of the Soma cube problem. There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma cube puzzle, excluding rotations and reflections.

Piet Hein also published or authorized a booklet with puzzles. I found a copy here. However, I found 2 figures with a number of blocks less than 27, so I have discarded them and added two of the problems listed below in this file.

Here are some problems I did not find elsewhere on the web:
1)

2)

3)

4)

5)

6)
(Thanks go to fellow consultant Harrie Jans for this one!)
7)

8)

Many people noticed that the pieces used are not all tetracubes, and the tricube is a strange duck in the pond. In response several people have suggested something dubbed Soma+, but that is a subject for a different post in this blog.

There is an awful lot of literature on the web. Here are some links:
* Thorleif Bundgaard collected a very nice and very extensive collection of figures which can be made with the soma cube pieces.
* Chapter 24: Pursuing Puzzles Purposefully from the book “Winning Ways II “
* Article on english wikipedia on soma cube
* Article on englsih wikipedia on tetrominoes
* List of figures
* All 240 solutions to the cube
* Instructions for making a soma cube

If you solved it, we have the solution to nr 1, nr 2, nr 3, nr 4, nr 5, nr 6, nr 7, and nr 8

Thinking outside the box

1) 3×3^*
Try to draw 1 line consisting of 4 straight segments through all 9 dots. It is not allowed to lift your pen from the paper, to backtrack over a line, or to go through a dot twice.

2) 4×4^**
With the conditions from the previous puzzle, how many straight line segments do you need to connect all 16 dots in the figure below?

3) 5×5^**
With the conditions from the first puzzle, how many straight line segments do you need to connect all 25 dots in the figure below?

4) 3×3^**
The first problem is often used as an example of the need to think “out of the box”. “Out of the box” does not mean “as shipped”, but rather “outside the box”, a term which is also used and more accurate. Then intention is that to solve the problem, the problem solver has to shake off his unconscious borders and step over these borders in order to solve the problem.

To practice some real “outside the box” thinking, try to solve the first problem with 1 (yes, one) straight line, every dot crossed exactly once, no backtracking, etc. There are at least 4 solutions.

5) 3×4^**
There is no reason to limit ourselves to squares. Can you draw 5 straight lines through these dost, connecting them all as in problem 1, and end where you started?

6) nxn dots^****
There seems to be a clear pattern
3×3 dots: 4 straight lines
4×4 dots: 6 straight lines
5×5 dots: 8 straight lines
This suggests an infinite series:
nxn dots: 2*(n-1) straight lines.
As far as I know, this problem is unsolved. It is trivial that there is an upper limit of 2n-1 lines.

You can check your solutions:
solution 3×3 dots
solution 3×4 dots
solution 4×4 dots
solution 5×5 dots
solution 5 ways with 1 line

Did you know…
Exercising your brain may help reverse the effects of brain damage?

Endview, Edgeview

Edgeview or Endview or “ABC End view puzzle” is the name of a popular class of logic puzzles. The english language wikipedia calls it Buchstabensalat, but gives no source for this name, and I frankly believe this is a mistake. I have seen it called Endview, though personally I prefer the name edgeview. At the time of writing, the arguments ‘endview puzzle’ gives 18.600 hits, buchstabensalat 16.000, but often with a different meaning or with an explanation that this is an “ABC end view puzzle”. It appeared in many world puzzle championships.

I’m not sure who invented this type of puzzle, or when. I think I have seen it around for a few decades.

In a 4×4 square grid, every row and column contains the letters ABC and one empty space. Along the edges of the grid, some cells are filled with the first letter seen from that cell.

1) 4×4
The following puzzle has an A, B, C and empty space in every row and column.

2) 5×5
This puzzle has A, B, C and two empty spaces in every row and column:

3) 6×6
There are an A, B, C, D and two empty spaces in every row and column:

If you solved it, we have the solution to 1, solution to 2 solution to 3for you.

Cubes

Cubes are wonderful things. With six side surfaces, eight vertices and 12 edges, they are highly symmetrical. There are 11 ways to flatten a cube into a plane by cutting the edges. Here are 6 of the 11 ways:

Can you tell which cube is different? You can ignore the orientation of the letters – they are merely for identification. The symbols have been added for those readers who are colourblind.

If you are puzzled, we have a solution for you.

Did you know?
The subiculum plays a role in spatial navigation, mnemonic (symbol) processing. You probably already understood that this puzzle challenges the 3D representation facilities of your brain.

patterns – ballpoints

ballpoints
Which code goes to the question mark?

You can look up hint here.