SOMA News

24 July 2003 E-Mail.

The (Almost) Impossible Cube

From a puzzle player, Rob Hartmann, I heard about this funny view on cubes.
It goes like this:

From the two wooden pieces (SOMA Pieces 5 and 6 (A and B)) you have to assemble a cube - that sounds easy.
But you will find that the two parts don't like to be joined to a cube - something is wrong here.
How in the world can it be done ??

There's a trick of course, and my hint is - Not to get too fixed on the physical cubes forming a shape:

Now the solution to this trick is at the bottom of this page, so don't read it too quickly, but spend some time trying to figure it out first.

This special puzzle is sold by Karl Scherer: http://karl.kiwi.gen.nz/pzcube.html who also make a lot of other intriguing puzzles.

OK. It is sort of like a trick question, in that the solution is a bit different than most people imagine. Put the pieces on a table so that three of the cubes of each are flat on the table's surface. Looking from above they should look like the letter v, arrange them so the the opening of the v's are facing each other, now bring them together until they touch at the corners. You should now have an empty cube with four walls but no top or bottom.
I guess that is why they call it the "Almost Impossible Cube".