Twisty Puzzles

2022-01-16

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Twisty puzzles are puzzle toys and other objects with "twisting" moving parts. The most well-known example of a twisty puzzle is the Rubik's Cube, but several other kinds of puzzles exist, and in puzzle communities even sliding puzzles or disassembly puzzles often fall under the broad term.

I've had an on-and-off obsession with twisty puzzles since around 2005, when I learned how to solve the Rubik's Cube for the first time. Sometimes the focus of my interest is speedsolving; sometimes the focus is collecting; sometimes the focus is the mathematics behind the puzzles' solutions. Regardless of the day's passion, twisty puzzles have provided an endless source of fascination for me.

Last week I purchased five new puzzles online. Some are copies of puzzles I already own, but they turn more easily and are thus more amenable to speedsolving. Others are puzzles I wanted to own many years ago but were not mass-produced until recently. I already know how to solve three of them, but I only have a guess at a solution to the fourth and I have no idea how to solve the fifth.

I also pulled out and sorted my box of puzzles while doing some housecleaning today. Of course I couldn't resist taking a photo of some of them, which can be seen in "Files" section of my capsule.

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[Last updated: 2022-01-17]