From hirsh@cs.rutgers.edu Wed Nov 4 15:18:42 1992 Return-Path: Received: from pei.rutgers.edu by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) id AA20102; Wed, 4 Nov 92 15:18:42 EST Received: by pei.rutgers.edu (5.59/SMI4.0/RU1.5/3.08) id AA09079; Wed, 4 Nov 92 15:18:38 EST Sender: Haym Hirsh Date: Wed, 4 Nov 92 15:18:37 EST From: Haym Hirsh Reply-To: Haym Hirsh To: cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: masterball Cc: Haym Hirsh Message-Id: A friend just sent me email about a new (to him and to me) puzzle called "masterball". Anyone know anything about it? Is it worth getting? Haym > I saw a Rubik's cube variant today called "Masterball." Have you > seen it? It is a sphere with 32 faces. If you consider the sphere > to be a world globe, there are 8 longitudinal slices each going > through the axis of the globe, dividing the sphere into 8 segments > like a sliced orange (sorry for starting to mix my metaphors [actually, > I guess I was mixing similes, but I know *you* wouldn't bring up > such a trivial point]). > > Oooops I guess there are only 4 longitudinal slices, each through > the axis, to divide the globe into 8 segments. > > There are also 3 slices of latitude, one through the equator one > each in the northern and the southern hemisphere parallel to > the equator. > > Resultant 32 faces. Mechanism has some similarities to Square One. > > Two different versions of Masterball are available. One has eight > different colors, corresponding to 8 segments. The other has only > black and white. I don't remember the home pattern of the black > and white sphere, I presume it is a degenerate case of the 8 color > sphere with black and white alternating slices. > > Cost: $24.95 each. My source is the same store in San Francisco > (Stonestown mall) that provided the Rubiks Tangle, Rubiks Dice, etc.