From anandrao@hk.super.net Tue Dec 14 03:18:49 1993 Return-Path: Received: from hk.super.net by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) for /com/archive/cube-lovers id AA10381; Tue, 14 Dec 93 03:18:49 EST Received: by hk.super.net id AA15191 (5.65c/IDA-1.4.4 for Cube Lovers ); Tue, 14 Dec 1993 16:18:36 +0800 Date: Tue, 14 Dec 1993 16:11:47 +0800 (HKT) From: Mr Anand Rao Subject: Tangle To: Cube Lovers Message-Id: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII I managed to pick up all four Tangle puzzles in an obscure shop in Jakarta, Indonesia. The puzzles are similar, except that the extra(25th) piece is different in each. The solutions for each puzzle are very different and I could not see any pattern. I solved all 4 using 'intelligent brute force', i.e. made the search as efficient as I could. But the 10*10 puzzle seems intractable. The 5*5 could be solved using a 486DX2-66 PC in about 20 minutes. The 10*10 will take several months using my algorithm. Does anyone have a more intelligent, or a more brute method? Once this puzzle has been put in the public domain, we MUST find a solution. So, any ideas are welcome! Thanks