Message #1511

From: Melinda Green <melinda@superliminal.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] new hemi-cube and hemi-dodecahedron puzzles
Date: Sun, 06 Mar 2011 15:34:26 -0800

On 3/6/2011 12:46 PM, Roice Nelson wrote:
>
>
> Greetings,
>
> I added two new sets of puzzles to MagicTile, the first non-orientable
> puzzles which appear so visually in the program.

Neat!

>
> The hemi-cube puzzles are combinatorially the same as the 3-colored
> puzzles, which Andrey has pointed out. At first I thought the
> even-length ones might be different, but those end up behaving like
> odd-length puzzles anyway.
>
> The 6-color hemi-dodecahedron puzzles are something new to
> investigate. If you discover unusual behaviors during a solve, please
> do share :) I have the feeling the length-3 puzzle will turn out to
> be a favorite for me.

I get a lot of flashing colors on the right side. Maybe due to my
settings. It’s distracting but I don’t think the puzzle is broken. I
suggest adding a reset-all option for user settings. Or is there a
properties file somewhere I can simply delete?

I especially like the the length-5 version. Watching it solve a fully
scrambled state is especially trippy. Reminds me of Peter Max’s
psychedelic style art.

A could of small suggestions:
* Make sure that no scrambling twists undo the previous twist. It
happens enough to be noticeable.
* Put the full name of the puzzle & length in the title.

> These both have the topology of the real projective plane
> <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real_projective_plane>, so now we just
> need a Boy’s surface <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boy%27s_surface>
> display of them :D
>
> I think with the right mechanism, these puzzles might be candidates
> for actual physical variants. Perhaps I should write experts like
> Oskar or Bram about this.

It would be awesome if possible! All you need to do is couple the
spindles of opposite sides with some sort of flexible linkage that would
allow them to bend past each other at the very center.

I keep thinking there must be some way to make a functional physical
3^4, possibly with a restricted set of twists & rotations but I can
never quite see how.

-Melinda