From weber@src.dec.com Sat Aug 7 17:33:08 1993 Return-Path: Received: from inet-gw-2.pa.dec.com by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) for /com/archive/cube-lovers id AA04351; Sat, 7 Aug 93 17:33:08 EDT Received: by inet-gw-2.pa.dec.com; id AA19111; Sat, 7 Aug 93 14:33:02 -0700 Received: by chaucer; id AA01481; Sat, 7 Aug 93 14:32:53 -0700 Message-Id: <9308072132.AA01481@chaucer> To: "Dale I. Newfield" Cc: cube-lovers@life.ai.mit.edu Subject: Tangle (Was: Re: Square-1 Puzzle Party) In-Reply-To: Message of Fri, 6 Aug 1993 23:22:28 -0400 (EDT) from "Dale I. Newfield" Date: Sat, 07 Aug 93 14:32:53 -0700 From: weber@src.dec.com X-Mts: smtp >>>Bring your Square-1, your Rubik's Cube, and your other Rubik's puzzles that >>>you haven't been able to solve! >>Sorry, I don't have any. Except the 10x10 Rubik's Tangle. > >I only have one quarter of that puzzle...(section 4). > >I worked on it for a considerable amount of time, and concluded that the only >solution method was trial and error. I was thinking about the Rubik's Tangle, and what was puzzling me was WHY there should be only one solution (apart from the obvious symmetries). After all, all pieces are identical except for coloring, and a set consists of all 24 possible coloring, and 1 duplicate, and this doesn't sound like an artificial construction. Is there any mathematical reason for the uniqueness of the solution? What possible "Tangle-like" puzzles have unique solutions? -Sam