Message #3624

From: Melinda Green <melinda@superliminal.com>
Subject: Physical 4D puzzle achieved
Date: Wed, 08 Feb 2017 21:38:32 -0800

Dear cubists,

I am excited to announce that I’ve been able to implement a working 2^4 in the real world! It uses a design I had described <https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/4D_Cubing/conversations/messages/3207> a little over a year ago. The key was a clever arrangement of magnets that the Mathologer came up with for implementing a 2^3 puzzle. I realized that it could be extended to give me a mechanism to support my design. I then prototyped it and it works quite well. Here is a quick video I made just for you:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Asx653BGDWA

Please do not share this link because it is unpublished and I intend to delete and replace it with a proper video. It is mainly meant for getting your feedback and advice. Please reply here, or privately to melinda@superliminal.com if you’re shy. Feel free to comment on all aspects of the video, and not just on the mathematics. For instance, feel free to comment on the video and audio quality, or anything else that strikes you.

Many of us have dreamed about such a puzzle for a long time and it’s become something of a holy grail. It’s always seemed almost impossible to create any sort of 4D puzzle in the real world, but there was never any clear reason why it couldn’t be done. The real holy grail would be a physical 3^4, so maybe this is just the baby grail. Of course maybe this design can be extended to implement a 3^4. What do you think?

Happy puzzling!
-Melinda