Sunday, December 11, 2022

My One and Only - Stewart Coffin Design #178-A by John Devost



I didn’t keep accurate records of my early puzzle builds so I can’t seem to recall having made any copies of this design.  In Stewart’s 2003 printed edition (by John Rausch) this particular puzzle was not named but now has been.

I decided I should probably make a few with some nice 3/4” cubes I had on hand.


Here’s a description from Stewart:




“I include this seemingly mundane puzzle design to show that there is still room for discovery within even this most common category of dissecting the plane - what I call ‘graph paper’ puzzles. The problem here was to find a combination using the five non-symmetrical pentominoes (made of five joined squares) plus one other pentomino that fit into a rectangular tray one way only. After a long search, this goal was finally achieved.

Then, using an amazing computer program called PuzzleSolver3D, I had the satisfaction of confirming that I had discovered the one and only combination that met all of my requirements. Try to top that if you can.

But there is more. Pleased with this lucky discovery, I generated a catalog of about 20 other symmetrical problem shapes, some with unique solution. Three are shown here, and the others are left to be rediscovered or improved upon.”


 




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