From cube-lovers-errors@curry.epilogue.com Sun Nov 3 21:44:47 1996 Return-Path: cube-lovers-errors@curry.epilogue.com Received: from curry.epilogue.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by curry.epilogue.com (8.6.12/8.6.12) with SMTP id VAA11881; Sun, 3 Nov 1996 21:44:46 -0500 Precedence: bulk Errors-To: cube-lovers-errors@curry.epilogue.com From: Stan Isaacs Message-Id: <199611040235.AA111104943@hpcc01.corp.hp.com> Subject: Book on Bandaged Cubes To: cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu Date: Sun, 3 Nov 96 18:35:43 PST Mailer: Elm [revision: 70.85.2.1] I just got a book that might be very interesting to cube lovers. It's called "Bandaged Cubes", by Dieter Gebhardt. Some cube lovers may already know Dieter and about bandaged cubes, from articles in the CFF magazine; this is all about bandaging in one place. He presents notation and classification, and discusses many types, the group-theory of them, and how to solve them. It even has color pictures of some of the variations. One type is the C-block cube (also called "Rigit Edge Cube"), which is just half of the Siamese cube recently discussed here. For those who haven't seen articles on this, bandaged cubes are regular Rubik's cubes with some edges taped together. If you tape 2 cubies, one corner and one edge, that is an "A-block". If you tape an edge and a center, that's a "B-block". 2 corners and an edge (3 cubies) is a "C-block. And so on - he has notation for all the bandage possibilities, and discusses (as far as I can tell) all the interesting variations in a 3x3x3. (He leaves 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 bandaged cubes for a later time.) Anyway, if you get tired of Rubik's cube itself, these offer dozens of variations, each with its own quirks and limitations, and many chances for new discoveries. According to CFF, the booklet can be bought from Dieter for $24 (DM 36) (including postage) at: Dieter Gebhardt Norikerstrasse, 23, D-90402 Nurnberg, GERMANY Its 100 pages, with 74 figures and 4 color plates. I highly recommend it. Every Cube-lover should have a copy. (Of course, now I need a cheap source of blank cubes to tape.) -- Stan Isaacs