From news@nntp-server.caltech.edu Sun Sep 24 09:54:40 1995 Return-Path: Received: from chamber.cco.caltech.edu by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) for /com/archive/cube-lovers id AA15598; Sun, 24 Sep 95 09:54:40 EDT Received: from gap.cco.caltech.edu by chamber.cco.caltech.edu with ESMTP (8.6.12/DEI:4.41) id GAA19960; Sun, 24 Sep 1995 06:54:38 -0700 Received: by gap.cco.caltech.edu (8.6.7/DEI:4.41) id GAA27751; Sun, 24 Sep 1995 06:54:35 -0700 To: mlist-cube-lovers@nntp-server.caltech.edu Path: whuang From: whuang@cco.caltech.edu (Wei-Hwa Huang) Newsgroups: mlist.cube-lovers Subject: Re: Alexander's Star Date: 24 Sep 1995 13:54:34 GMT Organization: California Institute of Technology, Pasadena Lines: 42 Message-Id: <443nuq$r35@gap.cco.caltech.edu> References: <9509150340.AA15388@quark.geoworks.com> Nntp-Posting-Host: accord.cco.caltech.edu X-Newsreader: NN version 6.5.0 #12 (NOV) dlitwin@geoworks.com (David Litwin) writes: > While we are on the subject of the Alexander's star, I have never >been entirely satisfied with the arrangment of its solution. I've noticed >that most people who look at it don't even know it is solved and I have to >explain that the solution is that all the stickers of pieces laying in a >common plane around the points are the same color. Hard to say, but I can >point it out to people. > To this end I have spent some time trying to find a more satisfying >solution, one more visually clear and simple. I've only come up with one >alternative that I consider reasonable, and it isn't as pure as I would >like. > This solution involves grouping colors in the depressions of the >star. The main problem lies in the fact that the edges come together in >groups of three, but there are 10 stickers of each color so at some point >having all the depressions of the star a single color breaks down. For >this reason I choose one color (White is my preference) to be an exception >and have it remain in the original configuration, i.e. all in two parallel >planes. With the rest of the colors, I group them in groups of five: three >in one depression, and two in an adjacent depression with the third color >of this second depression being one of a white. The result of this is a >set of interlocking "diamonds" that group visually because the are of the >same color. Unrolled, the star would look like this (this should just fit >on a display of 80 columns): > I haven't found a nice way of having more solid depressions than this. > Has anyone else found any nice solutions? > Dave Litwin I came up with this solution independently. I also liked on that picked two opposite depressions on the star and made sure they contained one of each color. That allowed me to fill each of the other 18 depressions with homogenous colors. -- -- Wei-Hwa Huang (whuang@cco.caltech.edu) Homepage (under construction): http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~whuang/ Microsoft: small and limp.