Message #601

From: Roice Nelson <roice3@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Magic 120 Cell Solve
Date: Sat, 13 Dec 2008 22:51:32 -0600

Hi Noel,

Wow, amazing! This first solution happened much sooner than I guessed
(which was that this puzzle would resist for at least a year). Great job,
and I would love to hear about your experience and any feedback it may have
generated. 33k moves didn’t outnumber your 26k move solution of the 5^5 by
too much ;) What was your overall approach, solving in order by piece type
or tackling it cell-by-cell?

I just got into Houston for a short trip, but will be back in Austin
tomorrow night. I will be sure to get the web site updated with this result
then!

All the best,
Roice
On Sat, Dec 13, 2008 at 8:38 PM, Noel Chalmers <ltd.dv8r@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello again,
>
> Well, in keeping with my tradition of solving one of these puzzles during
> my exam time I’ve solved the Magic 120 Cell. I have to say it wasn’t as
> difficult as its large number of permutaions would suggest, just time
> consuming. I must say thank you for the piece finding feature since without
> it there is no way that I could have solved this monster.
>
> 2.3 x 108126 combinations? Sounds like a lot of fun to me!
> Noel
>