Message #1950

From: Melinda Green <melinda@superliminal.com>
Subject: Re: [MC4D] Another {7,3} puzzle
Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2011 19:41:03 -0800

Wow! That’s amazing, Roice!!

Here’s the link to the puzzle, just to make it easier for everyone to get:

http://www.gravitation3d.com/magictile/downloads/MagicTile_v2_Preview.zip
Note that there isn’t even an install involved. Just unpack the zip file
and run the executable. The new puzzle is found in the menus here:
Puzzle > Hyperbolic > Klein’s Quartic > {7,3} FEV Turning.

You know it’s funny but I don’t think I had even considered the idea of
a hyperbolic puzzle with more than one type of twist. I have to say that
I *really* like the way they work together. It’s funny that the edge
pieces can’t be moved, they can only be flipped. Of course the face
centers can’t move either but all the other types can freely roam the
whole surface.

Looking closely I now see that you already support a {6,3} with two
types of twists. I didn’t recall discussing it on the list. Looking at
it now, it seems like such a frightening crazy-quilt. Somehow this new
{7,3} with many more colors and three types of twists seems much more
tractable to me and much more elegant. Might there be other similarly
{6,3} or perhaps even {5,3} puzzles that are as elegant as this new gem?

Some minor suggestions:
* Even with the maximum scramble of 5,000 twists it still doesn’t look
quite fully scrambled. You might consider adding a "Full" scramble item
for all of your puzzles and use David’s Goldilocks function at least as
a starting point to select a good number. One nice thing about a "Full"
option is that the solver is then assured that that it counts as fully
solved it they manage to solve it.
* It seems to need different twisting speeds for the different element
types.
* It seems to want a more fitting name. I can’t think what though so
maybe someone else on the list can suggest one.

This thing is really huge! I’m noticing that when I twist something it
is hard to see other copies also twisting. So will this be much harder
than the other KQ puzzles? What do you think, Nan?

Tremendous job, Roice! I love it.
-Melinda

On 12/11/2011 3:43 PM, Roice Nelson wrote:
>
>
> I added a fun version of the {7,3} which has all three types of
> twisting. The cuts are shallow, so the puzzle is relatively easy.
> The vertex-centered and face-centered circles are all tangent to each
> other. If the puzzle only had these two types of twists, there would
> only be trivial tips to solve, and face turning twists would scramble
> nothing. Adding edge-centered twisting makes things much more
> interesting.
>
> With all the tangencies and mutual intersections, the pattern of cuts
> is quite nice. A picture is here
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/4D_Cubing/photos/album/1694853720/pic/2077514421/view?picmode=original&mode=tn&order=ordinal&start=1&dir=asc>.