Message #1596

From: Eduard <baumann@mcnet.ch>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Latch Cube
Date: Fri, 25 Mar 2011 20:10:35 -0000

The simulator is very beautiful. Thanks. I have two real "crazy" cubes and now the latch cube. I’m still searching a good solution description and analysis for the latch cube (both don’t existe I think).

— In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, "schuma" <mananself@…> wrote:
>
> Although Brandon has answered the question, I would like to show a photo of my Latch Cube, where the front face is locked because it has contradicting arrows:
> <http://att.newsmth.net/att.php?p.1157.21245.76244.JPG>
> Note that the top face has no arrow, and therefore it can be turned to either direction.
>
> I don’t think scrambling is as hard as Brandon described. It’s impossible to move it into a completely locked state (meaning no face can be turned). The face of the last move can always be turned again. And I haven’t run into a situation that only one face can be turned. I don’t know if such state is reachable or not.
>
> Like Brandon, I don’t enjoy solving the Latch Cube because it was full of embarrassment. I didn’t like the crazy 3x3x3 series in the beginning but later I found it interesting. Here is a simulator for it: <http://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=20285>.
>
> Nan
>
> — In 4D_Cubing@yahoogroups.com, Brandon Enright <bmenrigh@> wrote:
> >
> > —–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—–
> > Hash: SHA1
> >
> > On Fri, 25 Mar 2011 11:06:40 -0700 or thereabouts Melinda Green
> > <melinda@> wrote:
> >
> > > OK I’m going to embarrass myself here. I’ve only glanced at a couple
> > > photos and videos of the latch cube but I can’t see what makes it
> > > different from the normal 3^3. It looks like you can make any twist
> > > you like but to get some 90 degree twists you need just need to do a
> > > -270 degree twist. Can somebody tell me why it is interesting?
> > >
> > > Thanks,
> > > -Melinda
> >
> >
> > Hi Melinda,
> >
> > When I first saw the latch cube photos I came to the same conclusion.
> > What happens though is that if you do a 90 degree twist on a face, the
> > arrows along the side of those 4 edges will move through the 4 adjacent
> > faces and for each adjacent face, if the new edge’s arrow happens to be
> > pointing the opposite direction from the existing arrows on that face
> > then you can’t turn that face anymore.
> >
> > So while you can always undo a 90 degree twist by just doing another
> > 270 degrees of twisting, often the intermediate twist before you do a
> > full circle will block adjacent faces from moving.
> >
> > Even scrambling the latch cube seems hard. The puzzle easily ends up
> > in a bandaged face mess which makes analysis of it quite difficult.
> >
> > I really dislike this sort of bandaging. A lot of others seem
> > to really like the challenge though. The Crazy 3x3x3 and Megaminx
> > planet series puzzles are another such set of oddly bandaged puzzles.
> >
> > Brandon
> >
> > —–BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE—–
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> >
> > iEYEARECAAYFAk2M3WkACgkQqaGPzAsl94IMxwCgxZykcKZiNSoQ1VkKakUpoRDU
> > iVsAn19wxwNm6vmtruKAqD/OS93RygIb
> > =/Wxi
> > —–END PGP SIGNATURE—–
> >
>