Puzzled 2
Friday, June 30, 2023
Wednesday, June 28, 2023
Summer 2023 Puzzle Adventures
Last summer I had fun doing twisty puzzles with the Czech kiddos at my house. Some of the puzzles even got to leave with them and travel around the world. The yellow Bump Cube and the Carbon Fiber 3x3x3 went with Annie. The Redi Cube and a Six Spot Cube went with Alex. A 2x2 Cube and the Rediminx went with David. Annie and Alex each mastered the ones they took along with them. David is great at the 2x2 using the 3-step method Solution Guide we made together. And we played a little with the Rediminx and I'm confident that he will be able to figure it out.
Well... the Carbon Fiber 3x3x3 got trashed. Some of the stickers got pealed off and pealed back. I am going to take it home with me and resticker it with normal stickers. Maybe make a sticker mod of some sort. Maybe give the kiddos some sticker mod options and see what they want. Or see if they can come up with one of their own. One corner of the 2x2x2 I sent home last summer also got trashed. Two of the three pieces were missing. We went through two toy drawers and found one of the missing pieces but not the other one. David did not keep working on the 2x2 after he went home last summer so is relearning how to solve it this summer. He did not figure out the Rediminx either although he could get it partly solved.
A short time ago Breann bought a 4x4 cube with Carbon Fiber stickers and a set of puzzles consisting of a 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and Pyraminx. Alex wanted to learn the 4x4 so I prepared some lessons. The method I taught him to solve the corners is the same one used to solve the 2x2, so he is also learning to solve a 2x2. And of course he will be able to solve a 3x3 after he masters the 4x4.
I hope that after David can solve the 2x2 that he will learn how to solve the 2x2 blindfolded. We shall see.
What about Annie? I brought the Penrose cube. She solved it color-wise but needed a double swap to get the sticker stripes correct. I did it for her and showed her.
The last time we solved the Rediminx we got creative with it.
Sunday, October 23, 2022
Random Puzzle Info
I can't find any notes on flipping a center piece. Usually when solving a puzzle that might need a center flipped I find a way to avoid the situation, but what if I don't? Will I remember? I mean it doesn't really happen often enough to keep it fresh. So here it is: (LRU LiRiU2) x 2
When solving corners first and I have to 3-cycle edges at the end I always have to stop and think and sometimes experiment. To 3-cycle middle layer edges including UB to UF, with the correct one at FD: Mv U2 M^ U2.
Let's document here the basic steps of solving a 3x3 cube Corners First.
1. Corners using 2x2 Cube technique.
2. Yellow and White edges.
3. Middle Layer Edges.
Tuesday, October 11, 2022
Speaking of Frisbee Golf...
Thursday, October 6, 2022
Old Treasures and Blasts From The Past
Calendar Maker was a program I wrote to print out calendars on a dot matrix printer for Dad. He was really into birhtday calendars.
I had a program published on Softdisk! Loose Change. They totally reworked the graphics and I didn't even feel like it was mine any more, but the idea was mine for sure. When I taught algebra at FLCS we had some word problems that gave a given amount of money made from an known number of coins. The object was to use two equations with two unknowns to figure out how many of each coin there is. I had left a problem on the board one day and after school Rory, when he was 12 give or take, quickly figured it out in his head, no algebra required. I started giving him problems like this for fun and programmed a computer game for him based on these problems.
IO Silver was a game we liked published by Beagle Bros. Software in 1984. All I remember is using 4 keys on the keyboard to make the little guy run around the screen collecting things.
The Rory and Raymond disks were... hmmm... I seem to recall making a game disk for each boy. When you booted it up it ran a math practice thing or something that they had to pass in order to get to the fun games. I think that is how it worked.
Loderunner. Ahhh. Loderunner. How many hours I spent playing the 150 levels and making levels of my own. A quick online search uncovered an online version so I can play the Apple //e version on my Chromebook! Lode Runner Web Game
Dino Eggs. One of the games that came on Softdisk. I think we played it quite a bit but I have no recollection of the details. Good news. Some guy made a video on YouTube. Dino Eggs And in the description there is a comment by the original creator and a link to his story about making the game.
Super Boulder Dash. Did it come from Softdisk too? Don't recall. It was fun and engaging enough to have and keep but I do not remember it either. Again, it can be found on YouTube.
Championship Lode Runner. This added another 50 levels to the original 150. I was so pleased that I could pass them all I documented it on the label.
AppleWorks 4. Oh oh oh. AppleWorks on the //e. Fond memories.
Math Blaster. This was the best version of Math Blaster in my opinion. The Mac version did not appeal to me at all. I loved the Apple //e Math Blaster game. Rory was the Math Blaster Champion.
Tuesday, September 13, 2022
Big Cube Designs
Roark and I had fun with patterns during a recent visit. He also shared with me how one magician who does Rubik's Cube magic does one of his tricks by setting the cube up so 3 sides are scrambled while the other 3 look solved. Gave me an idea...
The above pictures are one and the same cube seen from two angles. Half the cube looks solved with a nice design on it; the other half is scrambled. I got to thinking though. What if instead of using orange, green, and white for the design, I used red, blue, and yellow? Then I should be able to solve the other half of the cube. I didn't want to start over with the 8x8x8, so I got out the 6x6x6. See below.
Now I'm thinking about doing a matching pattern on the Orange, Green, White side.
Monday, August 29, 2022
A Puzzling August
I had a lot of fun puzzling with the kiddos (and Rory!) in the summer of 2022. We mainly did 3x3x3 cubing in Washington, then had fun with the bright yellow Bump Cube, the Redi Cube, and 2x2x2 puzzles here. After everyone was home again I decided it was time to brush up on solving various puzzles.
Clover Cube Plus |
Skewb Xtreme |
Double Circle Cube |
Square-1 |
Tangram Cube |
Fisher Time Wheel |
Clover Pyraminx (it is really a 3x3x3) |
3x3x2 and 2x2x3 |
2x3x4 & 3x3x1 |
I'm having trouble with the 2x3x4. I've looked at past solution strategies and well, nothing feels right. Oh, I've been able to solve it several times over the last few days but I don't really have a strategy I am settled in on. I have not been using reduction. Solving the inner 2x2x3 is always part of it.
On the way to solving the 2x2x3 if you need to solve centers after the whites and yellows are solved, there is a 4 move sequence that 3-cycles them. With a 2x3 in front and a 3x4 on top M down U2 M up U2 3-cycles the M layer center-edge pairs from UF to UB to DB. So say you have red up and an orange center at UB and a red center at DB. M down U2 M up U2 solves the centers.
To swap the blue orange and blue red edges use a setup sequence so they are opposite one another on a 3x4 side then use (R2 U2) x 3 to swap them along with two phantom edges.
To cycle URF to DRB to DLF do (U L2 U' R2) x 2 (R2 F2) (U L2 U' R2) x 2 (F2 R2).
To cycle ULF to DLB to DRF do (U' R2 U L2) x 2 (L2 F2) (U' R2 U L2) x 2 (F2 L2).
To double swap ULF with URB and DLF with DRB do R2 F2 R2.
To double swap ULF with DLB and DLF with ULB do L2 then swap the white and yellow edges back using a double swap with phantom edges.
(F2 D2 F2 D2) = (URF 3-cycle) + (ULF 3-cycle)
I have scrambled and solved this puzzle multiple times now without much trouble at all. No major issues.