Message #29

From: David Vanderschel <DvdS@Austin.RR.com>
Subject: Fwd: Re: [MC4D] #17
Date: Fri, 01 Aug 2003 20:39:19 -0000

Date: Wed Jun 25, 2003 9:43 pm

— In MC4D@yahoogroups.com, Melinda Green <melinda@s…> wrote:
Don Hatch wrote:

> […] don did implement the 2^4 at one point. it was a bit of an
oddball because the
> UI
> > had to work differently from the other puzzles. the way it worked
was that it
> > depended upon which 2D face of the sticker you clicked on, and
twisted in that
> > plane. i don’t remember what became of that version though.
>
> It’s an option in the Linux version (and the java version).
> Isn’t it in the Windows version?

i don’t think so. i tried to get as much working in the time i had
(~2 weeks), and
multiple puzzles just gave me problems i wasn’t able to debug.

> > another interesting puzzle was suggested on the slashdot
discussions on the 4D
> > cube recently. that is, the 3^2. […]
> > there are 4 possible ways to twist this puzzle:
> > swap buttons 1 and 3,
> > swap buttons 1 and 7,
> > swap buttons 3 and 9,
> > swap buttons 7 and 9.
> […]

> This is rubik’s cube with each of the 9 columns of 3 glued
together, right?

it is? i guess so but i think you’d have to limit twists to 180
degrees. perhaps that’s
what it amounts to as the glued columns would lock out some other
legal moves until you
finished or backed off the 90 degree twist. even then you’d have to
introduce some
mysterious additional colors from the other 3D faces.

still, that’s a rather interesting idea. so does the same logic apply
which would turn
the 4D cube into the standard 3D? i think we long ago discussed
whether it might be
possible to put a fully scrambled cube into a configuration that
could then be solved
as a standard 3D cube. or was that a possible strategy for solving
the 4^3 and 5^3?

-melinda
— End forwarded message —