Alexander's Star

We can't enough of mechanical puzzles so we bring you yet another one of those, this time it's Alexander's Star.

It seems like a rubik's cube, except for the cube part, but it also looks a little bit more complex due to it's shape.
Invented in 1982 by Adam Alexander, an American mathematician it was comercialized by Ideal Toy Corp.


General view:

Objective:

Simple enough, you have 30 movable pieces that rotate in a star formation, you have to move them by rotating the "stars" until you have a single color star in each side, surrounded by a single other color, which in turn will be in reverse on the opposite side.


Difficulty:

Much like the Rubik's Cube the main difficulty comes from the fact that moving a piece has effects on other sides besides the one we are working on, so you have to take into account other faces of the puzzle when moving it around. And as well as the cube, if you find the right algorithm which to follow to solve the Star your life gets easier.


Variations:
Well, look's like due to its unique shape this puzzle doesn't seem to have variations as the puzzle itself seems like a very odd variation of Rubik's Cube on its own!

Benefits of the Alexander's Star:

Logical thinking and hand eye coordination seem to be the biggest benefits you get out of this one, apart from well having fun of course.





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Soma Cube

Seems like we can't get enough of cubes apparently. This time a different kind of cube, one that needs to be dissected.

Piet Hein is the man that invented it 1933. It's formed by 7 wooden pieces, all uniquely shaped, made of unit cubes that must be assembled in a 3x3x3 cube.

The pieces are not randomly made, instead they represent every possible conbination of 4 or fewer units (no convex shapes).


General view:

Objective:

As said earlier the objective is simple, assemble all the 7 pieces in a perfectly all balanced 3x3x3 cube.


Difficulty:

There's not much to say about the Soma Cube when it comes to difficulty because it's pretty straight forward the only thing that can hinder you is your own ability to solve it.

Variations:

There are none although it is considered to be the 3D equivalent to polyominoes which we talk about in another post.


Benefits of the Soma Cube:

Plain and simple it's good for spatial thinking and awareness as well as entertaining.



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Rubik's Cube

Another classic puzzle that we couldn't ignore this time a mechanical one.
in the year 1974 a professor of architecture in Hungary name Emõ Rubik invented the Rubik's Cube, originally called Magic Cube, it licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. Wins the Best Puzzle Game Award in Germany in 1980.

It is to this day the top-selling puzzle game ever made and its considered to be the world's best selling toy as well.

General View:

Objective:

The objective seems pretty straight forward, by means of spining the faces of the cube you must complete each face with a single color. A puvot mechanism inside grants the possibility of such spins to occur and thus the scramble of the colors.


Difficulty:

The difficulty in solving this puzzle is the fact that changing a face's smaller cube, alters other faces as well, meaning that when you think you got a face completed you have to check if you didn't change something you need back on that position. Duo to the nature of the puzzle its possible to follow a solution that works everytime by simply paying attention to corners and other details. Fun thing is you can try out many other "solutions" like crosses in the faces for instance.


Variations:

Variations of the original cube come in the form of bigger and more "sliced" cubes or even a smaller 2x2x2 one. The bigger ones are for example:

• 4x4x4 - Master Cube
• 5x5x5 - Professor Cube
• 6x6x6 - V-Cube 6
• 7x7x7 - V-Cube 7

And even other forms such as tetrahedrons  and octahedron.



Benefits of the Rubik's Cube:

Keeping the brain exercised and improving hand eye coordination and keeping your mind sharp at problem solving.





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