SOMA News

27 April 2008 E-Mail.

A week ago I received a mail from Theo Geerinck.
"In a sale I bought a SOMA like puzzle in the sense that the seven pieces have the shape of the standard soma pieces but they are spotted with red and white dots on all sides of the unit-cubes of which they are build. It is made from black plastic and there are 66 red, and 56 white spots."
Apparently he had a SOMA with colored dots on the cubes. At first I imagined something like pieces made from dice, or spot colors alternating, like the twocolored wood SOMA's we know. But a pair of fotos soon revealed that this was indeed something special.

One side

Other side

The thing is - None of us have ever seen this version before. And we dont know the challenge involved.

BUT - the way the dots are placed, makes me feel that it should be possible to assemble the SOMA 3x3x3 cube having it all red, or with sides of same colors. So I imagine that this is the purpose of these dots.

Why then.?

Lets see. http://www.fam-bundgaard.dk/SOMA/NEWS/N990201.HTM
Scroll it down to the color drawing in the middle.
There you see some pieces, and their position in the box.
This diagram shows the ONLY possible positions that each piece can have.
(No other positions are possible, if you want to assemble the cube)(( Except mirror versions !!!!))

Now, look at the 'L' shaped piece, you see that it will always show its left side to the public.
Looking at the spotted cube I see that the 'L' piece show the 'right' side as 'ALL RED'
Not the same side as my drawing - but remember, mirror versions also exist.
OK so the 'L' is not 'same color' on its back, so this would mean that the ONLY position for the 'L' is the diagrams position "Y=2 Deficient"

Then look at the 'T' piece, according to the diagram, this can "Only" be a "G=3 Normal" requiring it to be the same color on one of its sides, AND, same color at the ends and its back.
Alas, I cannot see its end colors, nor its 'back' color - But - If it is red, then all sides assembles to red.
However - IF the ends are white, then I would assume the finished cube to have some sides all red and the rest to be all white.
[by the way I just noticed that the 'L' has a white top, so this speaks for a cube with alternating side colors.]

I use the figure diagram to establish that piece 'T' have only ONE possible position, and that 'L' and 'Z' is limited to one of two places, this is helpfull when assembling, because the number of triels are reduced this way.

If YOU have any experience with this, or own a SOMA like this, then please let me know.