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A mechanical puzzle is a puzzle presented as a set of mechanically interlinked pieces. A puzzle is a problem or enigma that challenges ingenuity. ...
History The oldest known mechanical puzzle comes from Greece and appeared in the 3rd century BC. The game consists of a square divided into 14 parts, and the aim was to create different shapes from these pieces. This is not easy to do.
In Iran “puzzle-locks” were made as early as the 17th century AD.
The next known occurrence of puzzles is in Japan. In 1742 there is a mention of a game called “Sei Shona-gon Chie No-Ita” in a book. Around the year 1800 the Tangram puzzle from China became popular, and 20 years later it had spread through Europe and America.
The company Richter from Rudolstadt began producing large amounts of Tangram-like puzzles of different shapes, the so-called “Anker-puzzles”. Rudolstadt is a city in Germany. ...
 Puzzle design by W.Altekruse In 1893 professor Hoffman wrote a book called Puzzles; Old and New. It contained, amongst other things, more than 40 descriptions of puzzles with secret opening mechanisms. This book grew into a reference work for puzzle games and modern copies exist for those interested. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (978x1024, 142 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (978x1024, 142 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
The beginning of the 20th century was a time in which puzzles were greatly fashionable and the first patents for puzzles were recorded. The puzzle shown in the picture, made of 12 identical pieces by W. Altekruse in the year 1890, was an example of this.
With the invention of materials such as plastic, which were easy to shape, the range of puzzle possibilities grew. Arguably the most famous puzzle worldwide, Rubik's Cube, would not be possible without modern polymers. Variations of Rubiks Cubes (from left to right: Rubiks Revenge, Rubiks Cube, Professors Cube, & Pocket Cube). ...
A polymer (from Greek: πολυ, polu, many; and μÎÏος, meros, part) is a substance composed of molecules with large molecular mass composed of repeating structural units, or monomers, connected by covalent chemical bonds. ...
Categories
Assembly puzzles In this category, the puzzle is present in component form, and the aim is to produce a certain shape. The Soma cube made by Piet Hein, the Pentomino by Solomon Golomb and the aforementioned laying puzzles Tangram and “Anker-puzzles” are all examples of this type of puzzle. Furthermore, problems in which a number of pieces have to be arranged so as to fit into a (seemingly too small) box are also classed in this category. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1091x768, 148 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1091x768, 148 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
The pieces of a Soma cube (with extra coloring) The same puzzle, assembled into a cube The Soma cube is a solid dissection puzzle created by Piet Hein during a lecture on quantum mechanics by Werner Heisenberg. ...
Piet Hein (December 16, 1905 - April 18, 1996) was a scientist, mathematician, inventor, author, and poet, often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym Kumbel meaning tombstone. His short poems, gruks (or grooks), first started to appear in the daily newspaper Politiken shortly after the Nazi Occupation in April 1940 under...
A pentomino is a polyomino composed of five (Greek Ï€Îντε / pente) congruent squares, connected orthogonally. ...
This article is being considered for deletion in accordance with Wikipedias deletion policy. ...
A typical tangram construction Tangram (Chinese: ; Pinyin: ; literally seven boards of cunning) is a Dissection puzzle. ...
The image shows a variant of Hoffman's packing problem. The aim is to pack 27 cuboids with side lengths A, B, C into a box of side length A+B+C, subject to two constraints: In anatomy, the cuboid bone is a bone in the foot. ...
- 1) A, B, C must not be equal
- 2) The smallest of A, B, C must be larger than (A + B + C) / 4
One possibility would be A=18, B=20, C=22 – the box would then have to have the dimensions 60×60×60.
Modern tools such as laser cutters allow the creation of complex 2 dimensional puzzles made of wood or plexiglas. In recent times this has become predominant and puzzles of extraordinarily decorative geometry have been designed. This makes use of the multitude of ways of subdividing areas into repeating shapes. Laser cutting is a technology which uses a laser to cut materials, and is usually used in industrial manufacturing. ...
Structure of PMMA: (C5O2H8)n Structure of methyl methacrylate Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) or polymethyl-2-methylpropanoate is the synthetic polymer of methyl methacrylate. ...
Computers aid in the design of new puzzles. A computer allows an exhaustive search for solution – with its help a puzzle may be designed in such a way that it has the fewest possible solutions and consequently becomes difficult.
The use of transparent materials enables the creation of puzzles, in which pieces have to be stacked on top of each other. The aim is to create a specific pattern, image or colour scheme in the solution. For example, one puzzle consists of several discs in which angular sections of varying sizes are differently coloured. The discs have to be stacked so as to create a colour circle (red->blue->green->red) around the discs.
Disassembly puzzles The puzzles in this category are usually solved by opening or dividing them into pieces. This includes those puzzles with secret opening mechanisms, which are to be opened by trial and error. Furthermore, puzzles consisting of several metal pieces linked together in some fashion are also considered part of this category. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1023x515, 114 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1023x515, 114 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Trial and error is a method for obtaining knowledge, both propositional knowledge and know-how. ...
The two puzzles shown in the picture are especially good for social gatherings, since they appear to be very easily taken apart, but in reality many people cannot solve this puzzle. The problem here lies in the shape of the interlocking pieces – they are conical and thus can only be removed in one direction. However, for each piece one direction is blocked by the own cog, because it would get stuck into the noose of the previous piece due to its form. The other direction is blocked because the own noose would get stuck in the cog of the next piece.
Boxes with secret opening mechanisms, extremely popular in Japan, are included in this category. These caskets contain more or less complex, usually invisible opening mechanisms which reveal a small hollow space on opening. There is a vast variety of opening mechanisms, such as hardly visible panels which need to be shifted, inclination mechanisms, magnetic locks, movable pins which need to be rotated into a certain position up and even time locks in which an object has to held in a given position until a liquid has filled up a certain container. A panel is a thing that blocks one area from another. ...
A time lock is a locking mechanism commonly found in bank vaults and other high-security containers. ...
Interlocking puzzles -
In an interlocking puzzle, one or more pieces hold the rest together, or the pieces are mutually self-sustaining. The aim is to completely disassemble and then reassemble the puzzle. Examples of these are the well-known Chinese wood knots. A burr puzzle in unsolved form The same puzzle, solved Historically, burr puzzles were made from wooden pieces but are now usually made from plastic. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x919, 79 KB) Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x919, 79 KB) Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Both assembly and disassembly can be difficult – contrary to assembly puzzles, these puzzles usually do not just fall apart easily.
The level of difficulty is usually assessed in terms of the number of moves required to remove the first piece from the initial puzzle.
The image shows one of the most notorious representatives of this category, the Chinese wood knot. In this particular version designed by Bill Cutler, 5 moves are needed before the first piece can be removed. William H. (Bill) Cutler is an American mathematician and systems analist, living in Illinois USA. His main interest and area of research is in burr puzzles and packing (box-filling) puzzles. ...
The known history of these puzzles reaches back to the beginning of the 18th century. In 1803 a catalog by “Bastelmeier” contained two puzzles of this type. Professor Hoffman's puzzle book mentioned above also contained two interlocking puzzles. 1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ...
At the beginning of the 19th century the Japanese took over the market for these puzzles. They developed a multitude of games in all kinds of different shapes – animals, houses and other objects - whereas the development in the western world revolved mainly around geometrical shapes.
With the help of computers, it has recently become possible to analyze complete sets of games played. This process was begun by Bill Cutler with his analysis of all the Chinese wood knots. From October 1987 to August 1990 all the 35 657 131 235 different variations were analyzed. The calculations were done by several computers in parallel and would have taken a total of 62.5 years on a single computer. Year 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday (link displays 1987 Gregorian calendar). ...
Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ...
With shapes different from the Chinese cross the level of difficulty lately reached levels of up to 100 moves for the first piece, a scale humans would struggle to grasp. The peak of this development is a puzzle in which the addition of a few pieces doubles the number of moves.
However, computer analysis also led to another trend: since the rotation of pieces cannot, with today's software, be analyzed by computers, there has been a trend to create puzzles whose solution must include at least one rotation. These then have to be solved by hand.
Prior to the 2003 publication of the RD Design Project by Owen, Charnley and Strickland, puzzles without right angles could not be efficiently analyzed by computers. Stewart Coffin has been creating puzzles based upon the rhombic dodecahedron since the 1960s. These made use of strips with either six or three edges. These kinds of puzzles often have extremely irregular components, which come together in a regular shape only at the very last step. Furthermore, the 60° angles allow designs in which several objects have to be moved at the same time. The “Rosebud” puzzle is a prime example of this: in this puzzle 6 pieces have to be moved from one extreme position, in which they are only touching at the corners, to the center of the completed object. The rhombic dodecahedron is a convex polyhedron with 12 rhombic faces. ...
The 1960s decade refers to the years from 1960 to 1969, inclusive. ...
Disentanglement Puzzles -
 A disentanglement puzzle. The object is to remove the string with the two balls from the wire construction. For these kind of puzzles, the goal is to disentangle a metal or string loop from an object. Topology plays an important role with these puzzles. A ball-in-cage puzzle in unsolved form The same puzzle in solved form Disentanglement puzzles usually have two different tasks to be solved, namely first to disassemble the puzzle and then to put it together again. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1025x573, 56 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1025x573, 56 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
A Möbius strip, an object with only one surface and one edge; such shapes are an object of study in topology. ...
The image shows an easy version of this puzzle, which may still be solved by chance.
Vexiers are a different sort of disentanglement puzzle - two or more metal wires, which have been intertwined, are to be untangled. They, too, spread with the general puzzle craze at the end of the 19th century. A large number of the Vexiers still available today originate in this period.
So called ring puzzles, of which the Chinese rings are part, are a different type of Vexier. In these puzzles a long wire loop must be unsnarled from a mesh of rings and wires. The number of steps required for a solution often has an exponential relationship with the number of loops in the puzzle.
The Chinese rings are associated with the tale that in the Middle Ages, knights would give these to their wives as a present, so that in their absence they may fill their time. The Middle Ages formed the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history into three ages: the classical civilization of Antiquity, the Middle Ages, and modern times, beginning with the Renaissance. ...
The silver Anglia knight, commissioned as a trophy in 1850, intended to represent the Black Prince. ...
Niels Bohr used disentanglement puzzles called Tangloids to demonstrate the properties of spin to his students. Niels (Henrik David) Bohr (October 7, 1885 – November 18, 1962) was a Danish physicist who made fundamental contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum mechanics, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1922. ...
Tangloids is a mathematical game for two players created by Piet Hein to model the calculus of Spinors. ...
In physics, spin refers to the angular momentum intrinsic to a body, as opposed to orbital angular momentum, which is the motion of its center of mass about an external point. ...
Fold Puzzles The aim in this particular genre of puzzles is to fold a printed piece of paper in such a way as to obtain a target picture. In principle, Rubik's Magic could be counted in this category. A better example is shown in the picture. The task is to fold the square piece of paper so that the four squares with the numbers lie next to each other without any gaps and form a square. This puzzle is pretty complex already. Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x537, 21 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1024x537, 21 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Rubiks Magic Rubiks Magic, like Rubiks Cube, is a mechanical puzzle invented by the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik and first manufactured by Matchbox in the mid-1980s. ...
Another folding puzzle is one everybody probably has at home: folding prospectuses and city maps. Despite the often visible folding direction at the folding points it can be extraordinarily difficult to put the paper back into the form with which it originally came.
Lock puzzle -
These puzzles, also called trick locks, are locks (often padlocks) which have an unusual locking mechanism. The aim is to open the lock. If you are given a key, it will not open the lock in the conventional way. For some locks it may then be more difficult to restore the original situation. A lock puzzles is a type of mechanical puzzle. ...
Padlock A modern padlock. ...
Trick vessels
 Example of a trick vessel These are vessels “with a twist”. The aim is to either drink or pour from a container without spilling any of the liquid. Puzzle containers are an ancient form of game. The Greeks and Phoenicians made containers which had to be filled via an opening at the bottom. In the 9th century there a number of different containers were described in detail in a Turkish book. In the 18th century the Chinese also produced these kinds of drinking containers. Image File history File links TrickContainer. ...
Image File history File links TrickContainer. ...
Phoenicia was an ancient civilization in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal plain of what is now Lebanon and Syria. ...
One example is the puzzle jug: the neck of the container has many holes which make it possible to pour liquid into the container, but not out of it. Hidden to the puzzler's eye, there is a small tubular conduit all the way through the grip and along the upper rim of the container up to the nozzle. If one then blocks the opening at the upper end of the grip with one finger, it is possible to drink liquid from the container by sucking on the nozzle. Puzzle jug. ...
Other examples include Fuddling cup and Pot crown. Fuddling cups. ...
Impossible Objects -
Impossible objects are objects which at first sight do not seem possible. The most well known impossible object is the ship in the bottle. The goal is to discover how these objects are made. Another well known puzzle is a one consisting of a cube made of two pieces interlocked in 4 places by seemingly inseparable links (example). The solutions to these are to be found in different places. There are all kinds of objects which fit this description – bottles in which there are objects that are far too large (see impossible bottles), Japanese hole coins with wooden arrows and rings through them, wooden spheres in a wooden frame with far too small openings and many more. Two famous undecidable figures, the Penrose triangle and devils pitchfork. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x621, 71 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x621, 71 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Cards in a bottle An impossible bottle is a type of mechanical puzzle. ...
The apple and arrow in the picture are made of one piece of wood each. The hole is in effect too small to fit the arrow through it and there are no signs of gluing. How was it made?
Dexterity puzzles
 By tilting the box, one must try to lead the ball along the line and to the goal without dropping it in one of the many strategically-placed holes. The games listed in this category are not strictly puzzles as such, as dexterity and endurance are of more importance here. Often, the aim is to incline a box fitted with a transparent cover in just the right way as to cause a small ball to fall into a hole. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x750, 114 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x750, 114 KB) Summary Taken from the German Wikipedia article at http://de. ...
Sequential movement puzzle
 A puzzle with the name Skewb The puzzles in this category require a repeated manipulation of the puzzle to get the puzzle to a certain target condition. Well known puzzles of this sort are Rubik's Cube and the Tower of Hanoi. This category also includes those puzzles in which one or more pieces have to be slid into the right position, of which the N-puzzle is the best known. Rush Hour or Sokoban are other examples. Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x1024, 113 KB) Summary Description: Skewb Source: photographed from own collection (originally at de:Bild:Skewb. ...
Image File history File linksMetadata Download high resolution version (1024x1024, 113 KB) Summary Description: Skewb Source: photographed from own collection (originally at de:Bild:Skewb. ...
The Skewb in unscrambled state The Skewb is a magic polyhedron—that is, a mechanical puzzle in the style of Rubiks Cube—invented and marketed by Uwe Mèffert. ...
Variations of Rubiks Cubes (from left to right: Rubiks Revenge, Rubiks Cube, Professors Cube, & Pocket Cube). ...
A model set of the Towers of Hanoi An animated solution of the Tower of Hanoi puzzle for T(4,3). ...
A solved 15-puzzle The n-puzzle is known in various versions, including the 8 puzzle, the 15 puzzle, and with various names. ...
Rush Hour is a rearrangement puzzle invented by Nob Yoshigahara and manufactured by ThinkFun (formerly Binary Arts). ...
KSokoban, an implementation of Sokoban for GNU/Linux. ...
Rubik's cube caused an unprecedented boom of this category. The sheer number of variants is staggering. Cubes of dimensions 2×2×2, 3×3×3, 4×4×4 and 5×5×5 have been made, as well as tetrahedral and dodecahedral variants and even some based on different types of cylinders. With a varying orientation of the axis of rotation a variety of puzzles with the same basic shape can be created. Furthermore, one can obtain further cuboidal puzzles by removing one layer from a cube. These cuboidal puzzles take irregular shapes when they are manipulated. Variations of Rubiks Cubes (from left to right: Rubiks Revenge, Rubiks Cube, Professors Cube, & Pocket Cube). ...
Solved Pocket Cube Scrambled Pocket Cube Pocket Cube with one side tilted The Pocket Cube is the 2×2×2 equivalent of a Rubiks cube. ...
Variations of Rubiks Cubes (from left to right: Rubiks Revenge, Rubiks Cube, Professors Cube, & Pocket Cube). ...
Rubiks Revenge in solved state The Rubiks Revenge is the 4×4×4 version of Rubiks Cube. ...
The Professors Cube (also known as Rubiks Professor) is a mechanical puzzle invented by Udo Krell. ...
The picture shows another, less well-known example of this kind of puzzle. It is just easy enough that it can still be solved with a bit of trial and error, and a few notes, as opposed to Rubik's Cube which is too difficult to just solve by trial.
Simulated mechanical puzzles While many computer games and computer puzzles simulate mechanical puzzles, these simulated mechanical puzzles are usually not strictly classified as mechanical puzzles.
A few notable mechanical puzzles Nintendo Company, Limited (ä»»å¤©å ‚ or ニンテンドー NintendÅ; NASDAQ: NTDOY, TYO: 7974 usually referred to as simply Nintendo, or Big N ) is a multinational corporation founded on September 23, 1889[1] in Kyoto, Japan by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce handmade hanafuda cards. ...
The Nintendo tumbler puzzle, also known as the Ten Billion Barrel, is a mathematical puzzle in the style of Rubiks Cube. ...
Pyraminx in its solved state The Pyraminx (aka Pyramix) is a tetrahedron-shaped puzzle similar to the Rubiks Cube. ...
Variations of Rubiks Cubes (from left to right: Rubiks Revenge, Rubiks Cube, Professors Cube, & Pocket Cube). ...
References - Puzzles Old & New, by Professor Hoffmann, 1893
- Puzzles Old and New, by Jerry Slocum & Jack Botermans, 1986
- New Book of Puzzles, by Jerry Slocum & Jack Botermans, 1992
- Ingenious & Diabolical Puzzles, by Jerry Slocum & Jack Botermans, 1994
- The Tangram Book, by Jerry Slocum, 2003
- The 15 Puzzle, by Jerry Slocum & Dic Sonneveld, 2006
This article draws heavily on the corresponding article in the German wikipedia.
External links - Puzzleworld Website by Andreas Vahldieck (German)
- This site contains a well-illustrated puzzle collection, Java applets concerning various puzzles, solutions for desperate puzzle owners and an exhaustive list of links concerning the topics of logical puzzles and Vexiers
- Website of John Rausch's puzzle collection
- This site contains, next to a well-illustrated puzzle collection, numerous Java applets of sliding puzzles. Stewart Coffin's (one of the most important puzzle designers) books may be obtained, too.
- Rob's Puzzle Page
- Photos of a very large collection of all types of puzzles, plus analysis, commentary, and links to many other sites of interest to puzzlers
- Puzzle designs prepared by ISHINO Keiichiro
- This site contains a huge collection of accurate descriptions for assembly and interlocking puzzles. Those skilled enough can create their own creation with the designs presented.
- Puzzle iT web site by Dr. Florian Radut
- Here you can find a British-Romanian puzzle collection: mechanical puzzles, 2D puzzles, 3D puzzles, logic games and anagram puzzles, some of them used in TV Game-Shows, SMS contests and online contests.
- Oskar van Deventer
- A prolific inventor of highly innovative mechanical and other puzzles.
- Archimedes' Lab Puzzle Website
- This site contains a huge quantity of puzzles to make and to solve along with various educational activities.
- Wood, metal and secret boxes
- You can buy many reproduction puzzles here by inventors like Kamei and van Deventer
- Wooden, metal brain teasers and puzzle boxes
- Here you can buy many unique wooden and metal puzzles of all kind and many puzzle boxes
- The Jerry Slocum Mechanical Puzzle Collection
- Highlights from Jerry Slocum's extensive puzzle collection, including many puzzles of historical significance.
- Impossibottle - the impossible bottle website
- Showcasing the arcane art of making impossible bottles. With a gallery of impossible bottles and other objects from many different makers.
- Sam Loyd's Office - includes biography and his mechanical puzzles
- Take a look at Sam Loyd's most famous mechanical puzzles, such as Get Off the Earth, Trick Donkeys and The Pony Puzzle.
See also TOM CUTROFELLO, QUEENS, NY. PUZZLE DESIGNER The Bedlam cube is a solid dissection puzzle invented by Bruce Bedlam. ...
A puzzle is a problem or enigma that challenges ingenuity. ...
A Puzzle ring consists of four, six, or eight interconnected rings that, when correctly aligned, can be an impressive finger ring. ...
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