From gls@think.com Mon May 13 12:04:08 1991 Received: from mail.think.com by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA05129; Mon, 13 May 91 12:04:08 EDT Return-Path: Received: from Berlin.Think.COM by mail.think.com; Mon, 13 May 91 12:03:40 -0400 Received: from Ukko.Think.COM by berlin.think.com; Mon, 13 May 91 12:04:01 -0400 From: Guy Steele Received: by ukko.think.com; Mon, 13 May 91 12:03:50 EDT Date: Mon, 13 May 91 12:03:50 EDT Message-Id: <9105131603.AA01148@ukko.think.com> To: latto@lucid.com Cc: mindcrf!ronnie@peabody.mindcraft.com, Cube-Lovers@life.ai.mit.edu In-Reply-To: Andy Latto's message of Fri, 10 May 91 22:58:29 EDT <9105110258.AA29787@boston-harbor> Subject: 5by cubes Date: Fri, 10 May 91 22:58:29 EDT From: Andy Latto > On the other hand, I would be willing to pay a fair amount of money for > an order 21 cube. :-) You can't make an order 21 cube, or any cube of order 7 or higher. When you turn the top layer of such a cube by 45 degrees, the corner cubie will not touch the other layers at all, so there's no way to keep it attached, and it will fall off. Assuming the current technology, anyway. But imagine a less passive approach. Suppose each cubie had a cheap microprocessor, and some little latches. Normally cubies hang onto their neighbors, but when they notice you are applying torque, they let go of their neighbors in just that one direction and hang on for dear life in the other two directions. The latches can also be conducting in order to convey the necessary actuating power from a centrally placed battery. --Wild and Crazy Guy