From cube-lovers-errors@curry.epilogue.com Wed Nov 27 16:05:13 1996 Return-Path: cube-lovers-errors@curry.epilogue.com Received: from curry.epilogue.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by curry.epilogue.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id QAA16084; Wed, 27 Nov 1996 16:05:12 -0500 Precedence: bulk Errors-To: cube-lovers-errors@curry.epilogue.com Date: Wed, 27 Nov 1996 12:56:20 -0800 From: Don Woods Message-Id: <199611272056.MAA21078@altum.com> To: cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Re: Rubik's Tangles Someone (I've deleted the message) recently asked about the Tangles. My recollection is that the four puzzles are all the same except for permutations of the colors. That is, each Tangle consists of the 24 possible distinct pieces, plus one duplicated piece. Which piece is duplicated varies, but the resulting puzzles are the same. (Oh yeah, the pattern of the crossing ropes on each tile is also the same for each puzzle.) Really disappointing, especially since I think there were two distinct solutions, and if they'd varied the mix a bit more they could've had unique solutions as well as having four truly different puzzles. Also, another fellow and I independently did some analyses about three years ago that proved that you cannot make a 10x10 using the four combined puzzles. Presumably the marketing blurb that suggests doing so was written by someone who had no clue whether it was possible or not. Again, if they'd varied the puzzles a bit I have no doubt they could've made the 10x10 achievable as well. -- Don.