From xirion!jandr@relay.nl.net Fri Feb 18 08:45:09 1994 Return-Path: Received: from sun4nl.NL.net by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) for /com/archive/cube-lovers id AA17847; Fri, 18 Feb 94 08:45:09 EST Received: from xirion by sun4nl.NL.net via EUnet id AA26061 (5.65b/CWI-3.3); Fri, 18 Feb 1994 14:45:06 +0100 Received: by xirion.xirion.nl id AA02038 (5.61/UK-2.1); Fri, 18 Feb 94 14:43:52 +0100 From: Jan de Ruiter Date: Fri, 18 Feb 94 14:43:52 +0100 Message-Id: <2038.9402181343@xirion.xirion.nl> X-Organization: Xirion Unix Software & Consultancy bv Burgemeester Verderlaan 15 X 3454 PE De Meern The Netherlands X-Phone: +31 3406 61990 X-Fax: +31 3406 61981 To: cube-lovers@life.ai.mit.edu To: cube-lovers@life.ai.mit.edu Subject: Re: 10x10 Tangle Sorry about not reporting this earlier, but my search for solutions for Rubiks Tangle 10x10 confirms the finding of Don Woods: no solutions! Dik Winter writes: >As I wrote before, I have embedded in my memory that there is an easy >argument that the 10x10 is *not* solvable. I do not know whether I >found it myself (and ever did mail it to other people) or whether I >found it somewhere on the net; it is a long time ago. When I find the >time I will do a check. (I know very sure that I have had a program >running at that time but that I abandoned the search because it would >be fruitless.) I am beginning to get real curious about that 'easy argument'. Does this argument depend on the particular choice for the four duplicated pieces or not? If it does, there could exist a choice that does allow a solution, and we could re-define the puzzle as follows: find which four pieces to duplicate in order to find solutions for the 10x10. If the number of solutions varies depending on the choice, you could even add a restriction: find which four pieces to duplicate in order to find a set which has the minimum number of solutions for the 10x10. But if the easy argument does NOT depend on the choice, i.e.: any choice would lead to no solutions, then the above puzzles would be senseless as well. So if anyone at all knows this argument, please tell us and solve the mystery. Jan