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Date: Tue, 15 Jul 1997 17:57:11 +0200
From: Rob Hegge <R.F.Hegge@MP.TUDelft.NL>
Subject: Description of hockey puck puzzle
To: cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu
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The hockey puck puzzle is a flat disk with a diameter of about 9 cm
or 3.5 inches and a thickness of about 2.5 cm or 1 inch. It basically
consists of a circle (the hart) and a "ring" surrounding the circle.
The circle is cut into two equal halves like "(|)". The two halves are
connected so that you can turn one half upside down, while holding the
other half. The ring is cut (from front to back) into 12 equal wedges,
each of which is attached to the circle by a dovetail so that the ring
with the wedges can be moved around the circle. One can also flip six
wedges including one half of the circle around so that afterwards those
6 wedges and the half circle face backwards. Thus the puzzle is similar
to a puzzle called saturn (which has only 8 wedges ?). The type of moves
reminds me of moves possible on square-1.

In the puzzle I own the 12 wedges on the front are numbered from 1 to 12
and on the back with the letters of "hockeypuzzle", while the left half
circle contains the letters "pu" and right half circle the letters "ck"
as shown below. I do not have it here so this was straight from memory.

    front:        back:

     12 1             c k
   11     2         o     e
 10    |    3     h    |    y
       |             pu|ck
  9    |    4     p    |    e
    8     5         u     l
      7 6             z z

The three "|" denote the cut through the circle.
A flip as described above would give for instance

     12 k             c 1      
   11     e         o     2   
 10    |    y     h    |    3   
       |ck           pu|    
  9    |    e     p    |    4  
    8     l         u     5       
      7 z             z 6


while then a clockwise turn of the ring for one wedge would give:

     11 12            1 2
   10     k         c     3
  9    |    e     o    |    4
       |ck           pu|    
  8    |    y     h    |    5
    7     e         p     6
      z l             u z

For a rotational puzzle it is not that difficult.

Rob