Date: 16 Dec 1981 1057-PST From: ISAACS at SRI-KL Subject: inclusion for previous message To: cube-lovers at MIT-MC PUZZLES I. LIFE A. Technical (science, social science, etc) B. Psychological (ie, people problems) II. CREATED A. Mental 1. Language (word) puzzles Crosswords, Acrostics, word squares, etc. 2. Logical puzzles Bridge crossing, truth tellers, etc,etc -- all those pencil and paper puzzles that appear in most non-word puzzle books. Mostly mathematical. B. Physical (Also sometimes called "Mechanical Puzzles") (THESE ARE THE KINDS I AM MOST INTERESTED IN, AND PROPOSE GOING INTO MORE DETAIL ABOUT.) 1. Geometrical (including 2 and 3 dimensions; jig-saws; things like that.) 2. Topological (rope and string puzzles, that involve deformation. Possibly including wire puzzles.) 3. Combinatorial (box filling puzzles; Rubics Cube) 4. Manipulation (dexterity?) (mazes, rolling balls, ballance puzzles) 5. Physical? Miscellaneous? (Other types, like puzzle jugs; optical puzzles, centrifical force.) I'll try to expand on this classification at a later time - I just want to get something started now. You can see that there are many problems in this - a lot of puzzles don't fit easily in any of these, and others fit clearly into more than one. The trouble is that you can look at puzzles by their form, or by how they are constucted, or how they are solved. And no one way seems satisfactory for all. Anyway, following is another classification, just of Mechanical (Physical) puzzles, by Jerry Slocum, who has one of the biggest puzzle collections in the world. 1. PUT-TOGETHER PUZZLES - Putting the object together is the puzzle Tangrams, jigsaw, soma, instant insanity, magic squares, puzzle rings 2. TAKE-APART PUZZLES - Taking the object apart or open is the puzzle Trick or secret opening 3. INTERLOCKING SOLID PUZZLES - Disassembly and Assembly is the puzzle Burrs, 3-D jigsaws, keychain, geometric object and figures (the Japenese wooden puzzles) 4. DISENTANGLEMENT PUZZLES - Disentanglement and entanglement is the puzzle Wire puzzles, nails, string and rope puzzles 5. SEQUENTIAL MOVEMENT PUZZLES - Moving Parts of the Object to a Goal While Following Rules is the Puzzle Solitaire, sliding block puzzles, rotating cube (Rubik) puzzles, maze and route. 6. DEXTERITY PUZZLES Rolling Ball, cup and ball, etc 7. MISCELLANEOUS Puzzle jugs, folding, paper and card, matchstick, trick, vanish puzzles, optical puzzles, find-the-object, rebus, reversibles, etc. -------