Flower String Puzzle

I got this puzzle from Henry Strout at IPP35 in Canada early this month. Not sure what is the name and should have asked but I didn't. I am terrible at string/wire puzzles and I am not sure why I even bought this but I guess the magenta flower-shaped piece attracted me. Its really thick, hefty and solid plastic (ABS resin?). If I couldn't solve it, I can always cut away the string and use the flower for something else right?

The goal of this flower string puzzle is to remove the wooden stick from the flower. Anyway it didn't look that complicated and it was very inexpensively priced so I picked up what appeared to be the last one on Henry's table. he had a few others but they looked much tougher, so I left them alone.

Last evening, I gave it a go while watching TV. I fumbled with this puzzle for a while trying to understand where the loops went. Even tho' at first glance, it looked impossible (like most string/wire puzzles), I knew there was a trick to it. I thought about it in a logical fashion and determined there was really only one way to untangle the lot...and it worked. Got it apart and even managed to get it back to together pretty fast. Finished my TV show and went to bed feeling satisfied.

Seven & A Panic Attack

The last couple of evenings I had the opportunity to play with two very different puzzles. Both while challenging, were not unduly difficult. Fun (not frustration) was the order of the day.

Seven
The last time I came across something entitled "Seven" was the thriller movie with Morgan Freeman and Brat Pitt. If you have not watched it, do so...you won't regret it.

Seven (the puzzle) is no less thrilling. It is a 2D packing puzzle by Minoru Abe, who is very well known for his cute and whimsical, colourful and some extremely difficult sliding block puzzles. Minoru Abe puzzles are retailed by Torito in Japan. Unfortunately they do not ship internationally. Your best bet is to buy from CU-Japan unless you happen to have a friend who lives in Japan who can get it for you. My copy came to me courtesy of puzzle blogger Roxanne Wong, who got me a copy while in Tokyo last year during IPP33. 

As far as I know, Minoru Abe designed only two packing puzzles, the "Seven" and the "9 Puzzle" (the latter which I will review another day). If anyone is aware to the contrary, please drop me a note, thanks.

The Seven consists of 7 pieces (all Hexominos; ie 2D or 3D shapes made from 6 square units) and the accompanying tray. Object is to fit the red piece outside of the tray into the tray with the rest. None of the pieces are identical. The pieces and tray appear to be made of pine with the pieces painted over to give them that colourful look. Very well made with both the tray and pieces really thick and chunky and nicely packaged in a blue cardboard box. One corner of the tray has been deliberately cut away to leave space in the packaging for the red piece that needs to go in.

It took me about 5 to 10 minutes of fiddling with the pieces to solve. Only one solution I think. A rather pretty and fun packing puzzle that is not too difficult.

Panic Attack
I am not a fan of wire or string type puzzles. In fact I have only a few in my collection, one of which, the "Tricky Dick" which I had blogged about quite while back and the others are several handmade jungle puzzles.

Panic Attack was loaned to me by puzzle designer Goh Pit Khiam. I had mentioned to Goh that I found wire puzzles too difficult and frustrating and he told me to give Panic Attack a shot. And I am very glad I did. And I also did not for a moment panic while playing with it.

Panic Attack (as marketed by PuzzleMaster) was designed by Kirill Grebnev and was entered for the IPP26 Puzzle Design Competition under the name of "Love Secret", which subsequently was changed to "Clear Heart". Check out the interesting reasons for the change on Kirill's site.

The object is to get the yellow loop completely off the wire heart. At first glance Panic Attack seems like its impossible to solve; no way out for the loop. But this "impossibility" is more illusory than anything else! I am not sure if readers here would agree with me, but wire and string puzzles are probably the biggest group of puzzles which resemble "impossible objects" (things that appear to defy physical laws)....at first sight.

The first evening playing with Panic Attack, I couldn't figure it out and left it. However the next night, out of nowhere I extracted the loop within minutes of trying! With a bit of practice I even managed to repeat solving it in seconds!

It is not too difficult as a puzzle, but pretty tricky. A nice a-ha moment when you solve it. What I like about it is that the design is relatively simple looking. You know its probably hard, but It doesn't intimidate and put you off....unlike the wood and rope puzzles where the rope is so long, it entangles even before you start to seriously work on the solve. And certainly Panic Attack is also nowhere near the difficulty of a puzzle like Tricky Dick.. I am now even seriously considering other similar type wire puzzles to buy!

Both Kevin Sadler and Gabriel Fernandes have reviewed the Panic Attack on their blogs so you may wish to check out their comments.

Jungle Puzzles

I absolutely could not believe my eyes when this married couple, close friends of my wife and I brought over to my home last weekend three string puzzles (classification: disentanglement) that were fashioned out of raw bamboo and cheap comms cord.

Goal: Separate the "ring" from the rest of the stem

Goal: Move either the left or right ring so that both rings are on the same loop

Goal: Remove the ring

They had acquired these puzzles during a trekking holiday in the Endau Rompin National Park in Malaysia. These puzzles were bought for a total of about US$3/- from the indigenous tribal peoples of Peninsular Malaysia known as Orang Asli that reside within the forests of the park. The Orang Asli make these puzzles for sale to tourists and hikers to supplement their income.

While all three do not bear any of the quality and refinement hall marks of Eric Fuller, Brian Young or Pelikan (although hand-made no doubt), nonetheless these were just as challenging as any string puzzle can be. In fact even harder than a "modern" string puzzle because the comms cord would not keep still and kept twisting on its own all over the place. 

My friends and I spent part of the evening trying to solve the three. I am lousy at string puzzles, so I was happy to just fiddle a bit with them (but hardly got anywhere) My friend's wife figured out two out of the three. Kudos for a non-puzzler! The one in the middle photo was still not solved by the time they left my home. 

I did a Google image search of "string puzzles" and found only one puzzle made of exotic hardwood (although this puzzle is available under the guise of different names) that matched the puzzle in the middle photo. I couldn't seem to find similar puzzles for the first and third puzzles. Kevin, any thoughts? (For expert advice on string and entanglement puzzles, you may wish to contact fellow puzzle blogger Kevin Sadler). If anyone else knows of these two I am referring to, please feel free to leave me a comment.

One thing's for sure...a challenging puzzle experience can be had with a darn super cheap puzzle. And also since bamboo has a circular cross section, I wonder if the Orang Asli can fashion a puzzle similar to Stewart Coffin's Double Cross?

However something still puzzles me (no pun intended)...now, who came up first with these string puzzles? The Orang Asli? Did the modern puzzle makers follow the Orang Asli's designs or is it the other way round? Anyone knows?

Update 9 January 2014 : 

Puzzle collector Rob Stegmann has kindly sent me a very detailed and comprehensive comment to this post, which I will include in full text below regarding the three string puzzles above. Makes for very interesting reading and information. (Thank you very much Rob):-

Hi Jerry,

The puzzle with the horizontal bar and two loops of cord hanging from it is called "Solomon's Seal" or more commonly the "Ox Yoke" puzzle - a Google search for the latter will turn up many examples.
According to Professor David Singmaster, it was described by Pacioli in his "De Viribus" circa 1500.Here are examples from Jerry Slocum's collection:


http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/item.htm?id=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/slocum/LL-SLO-005104&scope=lilly/slocum


http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/item.htm?id=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/slocum/LL-SLO-005073&scope=lilly/slocum

The puzzle where the cord goes in and out of a tube via some holes in the tube looks like an example of a "follow the cord" type tanglement. It is tough to tell from your photo since the precise topology of the left end of the cord is obscured in shadow. But if my assumption about it is correct, and the cord is a continuous loop, then you cannot remove the ring from the cord - you can only remove the cord and ring together from the tube. Just grab the loop end and pull it along the cord, in and out of the holes as the cord goes, until you can get it to the end with the ring - pass it around the ring then unwind it back on itself - you should then be able to remove the cord. This principle has been used in many topologically equivalent tanglement puzzles and is also described in Pacioli. Stewart Coffin used this principle in his "Super Sleeper Stopper" puzzle.

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/item.htm?id=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/slocum/LL-SLO-001950&scope=lilly/slocum


Another example called "Delivrez Mon Couer" from Slocum's collection:


http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/item.htm?id=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/slocum/LL-SLO-009488&scope=lilly/slocum

The U-shaped puzzle looks like the U should flex a bit and put slack into the cross-string - does it? If so, this is topologically equivalent to the "Key on Envelope" puzzle patented in 1902 by J. Kellogg (# 695059) and even earlier in 1884 by S. Mount (#295665).

Flex the U so you can pull the cross-string down through the ring and over one of the end blocks, then back through - the cord should now be free of the U and cross-string. Here is an example from Slocum's collection:

http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/images/item.htm?id=http://purl.dlib.indiana.edu/iudl/lilly/slocum/LL-SLO-019242&scope=lilly/slocum

All of the designs were well-known in the western world as far back as the late 19th and early 20th centuries or even earlier, though their ultimate origins are lost. However, I think it more probable that the Orang Asli learned about them relatively recently from outside and decided they would make good tourist trinkets, rather than that western explorers somehow discovered and brought the designs back from the Orang Asli prior to the 1500s while failing to mention their "primitive" origins. 

Note that it was very common for puzzle vendors to ascribe fanciful/ancient/exotic origins to puzzles, so had the designs really originated with the Orang Asli I have no doubt that the explorers who found them and the merchants who subsequently popularized them would have capitalized on the story of their origin.

I hope these comments make sense and are helpful - tanglement solutions are tough to describe in words alone! For future reference, you might wish to check out my tanglments page:


http://robspuzzlepage.com/tanglement.htm