I recently acquired this puzzle to go with my ever growing collection of Alfons puzzles.
The following description is courtesy of the Puzzle Place Wiki:
“Dirty Dozen is a unique creation from the mind of Alfons Eyckmans. This is a burr puzzle within a burr puzzle. 12 exterior pieces conceal 4 more hidden pieces that lock the puzzle up. Many tricky moves are required to solve the puzzle.”
Level move count: 29.9.2.2
This is one very cool puzzle sculpture..kudos to Steve and Ali!
Here’s a description from Two Brass Monkeys:
“Heavy Hitter Brass Baseball Bat Sculpture six six inch plus brass bats interlock perfectly to form an intriguing and imposing brass sculpture puzzle. The sculpture weighs around 1.25 kilograms or almost three pounds. The last few pictures show the size of these puzzles. It comes disassembled in six brass bat shapes that interlock perfectly. The solid bat contains a sprung steel ball to help the sculpture stay together. The notches in this item are the same as for our Brass Monkey one puzzle. Assembly is a little trickier as it requires some dexterity to put the pieces together. The end result is imposing. Each brass bat has been modelled to be dimensionally accurate and has been precision CNC milled under our control within the UK. Adults and older children will definitely love this item. A fun sculpture where the "look, but not touch" rule definitely needs to be waived. It's a perfect gift for puzzlers, baseball fans, and lovers of fine objects. Definitely a perfect gift for those who have everything. Heavy Hitter is a future heirloom. Although not limited we do not see ourselves making many more runs of these. We (Ali & Steve) each wanted one for our own collections and decided to make a few extras....The machining time on these is just (understatement!) a little more than for our other puzzles. Let's play ball!”
It wasn’t until I googled this paradox that I realized how awesome this dissection is..the math behind it still puzzles me!
Here’s a description from Wolfram Mathworld:
“The Curry triangle, also sometimes called the missing square puzzle, is a dissection fallacy created by American neuropsychiatrist L. Vosburgh Lions as an example of a phenomenon discovered by Paul Curry.”
Further reading can be found at Cut The Knot:
“Paul Curry has observed that (for n = 5) a 5×3 rectangle can be cut into two shapes that after a rearrangement fill an 8×2 rectangle with one square left out. Curry himself has been interested in rearrangements that create holes entirely inside the resulting figure.”
These can be purchased at Laser Cut Creations:
30 Notched Sticks - George Hart by Stephanie Cervi
I recently received this puzzle and managed to get it assembled, thankfully it was printed because it’s unlikely to be assembled if made from wood and definitely could use a key piece. It’s a spectacular assembly and a very nice print from Stephanie.
Here’s a description from her Etsy Shop:
“This exceptionally challenging stick assembly puzzle is made up of 30 identical sticks, arranged along the edges of a dodecahedron. Getting started is easy enough, but the last few pieces will delight and confound even experienced puzzlers.”
3D printed from high quality, eco-friendly, industrially compostable PLA plastic.
Diameter once assembled: 4" (102mm)
Design attribution: George Hart
This cool puzzle uses a trick that was one that I first encountered when I first got into puzzles, however that will only get you started as there’s more to it than that..
Here’s a description from Puzzlemaster:
“As the name insinuates. the object of this puzzle is to free the captive Euro from its case. It is a beautiful, hand-sized puzzle that captures the attention!
Made in laser-cut wood by Siebenstein-Spiele. Based in Munster, Germany, Siebenstein-Spiele was founded in 1992. Although the company is mainly known for board games, Siebenstein-Spiele also makes many wooden puzzles, several of which have been designed by company founder Jürgen Reiche.”
Symmetry puzzles are quite the conundrum, I always eagerly await their arrival so I can attempt to solve them but that enthusiasm usually quickly dissipates as the solution seems unattainable. This one had me completely stumped, I highly recommend you grab a copy and try your hand at it..
Here’s a description from Puzzlemaster:
“Two crafted metal pieces that form one symmetrical image–is it a sign? A building? Perhaps it’s a person, you think, as you try another combination…but with limitless ways to join them, and only a single unique solution, you’ll find that this puzzle is a real headscratcher!”
I recently received this neat puzzle, it’s not a very difficult puzzle but it’s definitely not straightforward either..certainly worth picking up a copy!
Here’s description from Puzzlemaster:
“The goal of this new puzzle is to pack three square tetrominoes and three P-pentominoes into the circlular frame. A straightforward task. Five pieces are already in the circle, but ingenuity is required to insert the remaining tile.”
