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SOMA Link's |
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http://www.geocities.com/abcmcfarren
abcmcfarren@sbcglobal.net
My good friend Courtney McFarren (of Ohio. U.S.A.)
The original author of a brilliant solution finder program.
Courtney made some 798 figures. He and I have made the
SOLVE figure editing and solution finder program.
http://www.fortunecity.co.uk/skyscraper/silicon/3/
Ross Channing
ross_canning@hotmail.com
From Canberra, Australia is presenting a Windows compatible
SOMA program (somasolver) on his homepage. This is a pretty
program, It allows you to interactively enter a Soma shape
and solve it. Operating is 3D it gives an extremely nice
image, but currently it will not save nor load any figure
files.
It seems that I have lost contact with Ross, and that his page is no longer active.
The links don't work). So I have taken the liberty of posting Ross SOMA solver
on my page. The following text and image is copied from Ross' page.
Note that the program need no installation, you just unzip it in any folder and then run it. It leaves no traces on your pc. and can simply be deleted if you don't want it any more. - Although I can't see why that would happen ;o) Ross - If you get this message, then please drop me a mail. Ross writes: All these games and puzzle programs are completely free. I wrote them purely for fun so feel free to download and distribute them. The only restrictions are the obvious ones - you can't charge money for them or claim them as your own work. If you're interested in the Soma Cube, you might find this program useful. It allows you to interactively enter a Soma shape - any shape made up of 27 cubes - and will solve it for you. It can give you the complete solution, or give you a hint, or just tell you whether the shape can be solved or not. It's also handy for creating new Soma puzzles interactively. The program can also load and save Soma shapes, using the format described at Thorlief Bundgaard's Soma web site Download & unzip Soma Solver V1.3 - I have included an old help file - for your reference. |
http://paxpuzzle.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=soma&x=0&y=0
Pax Puzzle
paxpuzzle@gmail.com
Looking for a supplier of pretty SOMA puzzles.??
It is a pleasure to point to the compagny Pax Puzzle. Stephanie Robinson
presents a number of very fine puzzles made from the finest materials.
The pricing range from $8.95 for a small version, through $11.95 opto $15.95
for the largest and finest version.
They even promote a $39.95 premium set of 3 puzzles (of which one is SOMA)
In addition to these fine SOMA's, Pax Puzzle also present a very large range
of premium puzzle types.
Besides SOMA (of course>) I was especially intrigued by the game 'Cathedral Travel'.
So do check their website.
http://www.styleseven.com
Aleksandr Sizenko
ms-7@styleseven.com
This web site is one of the most interesting game sites on the web.
On his site Style 7 from Russia, Aleksandr presents a very long
range of intriguing classic games, written with a nice and colorfull
user interface.
It's operation is in 3D, giving a very nice screen layout.
The SOMA game is avalable at only $9.95 which seem to be a
very good purchase for this game.
While you are here, please check the other games too. There are
a lot to any taste.
http://www.retina.de/mailing/games.html
http://www.mm-softtools.de/cube/somacube.html
Seldom do we see a new SOMA program, Here we even have one that can
be used directly on the web. - fantastic.
The user interface is unfortunately NOT straight forward, and the
placement of the pieces is difficult. But never the less, give it a
try, as this is the right direction to go.
Manfred Maass - Retina.
m.maass@retina.de
www.mindspring.com/~ckayw (It's down at the moment !)
ckaymarshall@netzero.net
http://www.johnrausch.com/PuzzleWorld/
Surely one of the BEST puzzle sites, describing
a huge number of pretty puzzles
Puzzle Talk. Present a long range of articles
relating to mechanical puzzles, including SOMA.
http://www.ctaz.com/~dmn1/soma.htm
helix@mailexcite.com - presents two beautiful photos of somas
together with more SOMA info
http://www.piethein.com/
A Piet Hein page, in its making.
http://users.ids.net/~salberg/soma/Soma.html
Soma Cube Java Applet
Play with a Soma Cube on your computer!
http://www.binaryarts.com
This is where I bought my Travel SOMA, a "Binary Arts"
"Block by Block", together with a set of 60 figures to
build (Most was known beforehand though)
Note that they use a different block number system
1234567 = BA:1324675
http://www.craftypuzzles.com
A Crafty Puzzle Company.
Handmade Teak Wood Collapsible Puzzles for the whole
family, which will test your IQ and lateral thinking.
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/C.Eggermont/Puzzels/Soma/overzicht.html
Christian Eggermont C.Eggermont@inter.NL.net
presents 56 somafigures, a couple of which I didnt know (#179-#186).
he created his page in 28 July 1997 and my check was based on his
1 Aug. 1997 version.
Also:(
http://web.inter.nl.net/users/C.Eggermont/Puzzels/Soma/index.html)
http://www.highland.madison.k12.il.us/jbasden/somacube/
http://www.basden.net/somacube/default.html
Jon Basden of "Highland Middle School" Highland, Illinois
jbasden@highland.madison.k12.il.us
Is using SOMA in education, teaching cubes, volumes etc.
in 7th Grade Math.
On Jon's page, he has produced a whole study manual
in cubic spheres, including a description on, how to make
the pieces.(15.5.1998)
Jon gives a fair amount of links on his page.
http://www.jimd.demon.co.uk/frconten.htm
Jim.Dorrington. present a short but colorfull list of 14 soma
figures, but no further links.
http://www.netpower.no/~ranveig
Ranveig present an excellent historic life description of Piet Hein,
and include some Grooks.
http://www.ahs.uwaterloo.ca/~museum/vexhibit/puzzles/soma/soma.html
University of Waterloo's Museum of Games, present a
one page article about the Soma cube. Featuring very nice photos of
the Soma cube.
http://www.balmoralsoftware.com/soma/index.htm
a site, presenting some 60 figures and a Java viewer.
http://www.claremont.victoria.bc.ca/Staff/Osborne/m_pro9.htm
http://www.claremont.victoria.bc.ca/Staff/Osborne/mathpro.htm
Bill Osborne, Claremont Secondary School, Victoria, B.C. presents
Project # 9 - The Soma Cube, how to build the pieces.
Bill_Osborne@fc-sbo.sd63.bc.ca
http://www.puzzles.force9.co.uk
Trevor Wood
trevorwood@puzzles.force9.co.uk
Produces all sorts of wooden puzzles.
http://myhome.shinbiro.com/~Edison1/soma/somacube.htm
SOMA page - in Korean! (Thanks to Changmock Shin for telling me)
http://www.cs.ust.hk/~philipl/omino/omino3.html
Fine but small page in a large collection of Polycube pages.
http://www.srl.rmit.edu.au/mav/PSTC/cc/soma.htm
Mathematics Task Centre Project (Soma Cube 2).
http://www.treasure-troves.com/math/CubeDissection.html
http://www.treasure-troves.com/math/Cube.html
http://www.treasure-troves.com/author.html
Eric W. Weisstein show the marvellous rotating pieces, on his
site, together with a large number of other interesting pages about
Cube mathematics.
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2643/index.html
The soma cube search ring (Not the best).
http://www.woodpuzzles.com/puzzles/soma.html
Jürg von Känel's World of Wooden Puzzles - Beautifull web site.
jvk@woodpuzzles.com
http://home.wxs.nl/~winke159/03/soma.htm
A Duch page by Hein van Winkel (teacher of mathematics at the middle
scool)
hj.winkel@wxs.nl
Last update 8.8.1999, the single page is personal, and all in Dutch.
http://shareware.gamespot.com/puzzle/000dvr.html
Michael J. Belczynski presents a program 'Soma3D' that
will allow you to play SOMA on your PC.(Pentium + Windows 95)
The program is great, but the maneuvering interface of
the pieces is (Unfortunately) poor.
NO - NO - NO !!! I Just discovered
That this program have a short temporary shareware
licence, whereafter you can't use it anymore (Unless you PAY !)
OK the price is only 11$ (~10 EURO), but its not worth it, and
I NEVER - EVER RECOMMEND PROGRAMS WITH TIMEOUTS !!
http://sue.csc.uvic.ca/~cos/inf/misc/Soma.html
The Combinatorial Object Server (COS).
You specify a type of combinatorial object, together with
specific parameter values, and COS will return to you a
list of all such objects.
COS can among a lot of things, also do pentomino puzzle
solutions.
http://www1.zetosa.com.pl/~burczyk/origami/g2-01-en.htm
A beautifull Polish homepage, showing how SOMA pieces
may be made from folded Origami paper.
This grouping of pieces is shown /..6.../.66.../.37.../.77... /....../.6..../.3.44./.37144 /....../2...../23..../2211.. /....../....../.5..../.55... /....../....../....../..5...
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~rb/projects/soma/
A SOMA Software Project
Roger Bailey searches programmers for a SOMA program.
Updated Jan 2005.
http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/somacube.htm
Jürgen Köller mail:jkoeller (at) gmx.de
A very interesting, SOMA homepage. Holding a lot of information.
Remember to also visit Jürgen's mainpage at
http://www.mathematische-basteleien.de/index.htm
to see many other interesting puzzles in both German and English.
http://web.missouri.edu/~c701177/soma.html
A Soma program. in OpenGL by:
Steve Copeland:
c701177@showme.missouri.edu
http://www.dstoys.com/SA.html
Selling SOMA.
http://members.aol.com/jeadams1/soma.html
Jim Adams. of Rochester, New York, USA.
Jeadams1@aol.com
A very nice, small, SOMA homepage. Jim is
mostly fascinated with multiple set figures.
http://home.t-online.de/home/skirsch/SKirsch-Soma_Cube_Pieces.html
ftp://ftp.rug.nl/origami/models/puzzles/index.htm
the diagrams.
A nice, small, SOMA page. showing a picture
of a complete origami SOMA set.
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/7773/somacube.html
A nice, small, SOMA page. showing various (known) SOMA figures.
http://www.tomaatnet.nl/~lavrijsen/kappen/B.htm
Jan Kappen. of the Udens College, Holland, Europe.
j.kappen@hccnet.nl
Jan has made the worlds largest SOMA puzzle to
be used in his College. Check out his homepage for
A LOT of pictures of the puzzle and some of the pupils.
Read the Newsletter for more information.
NEWS/N001129.HTM
http://jesweb.free.fr/critique/somacube/somacube.html
A pretty French SOMA page
http://puzzles.zzlevo.net/soma.html
Andreas Gunnarsson one more solution, build in a box.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/SomaCube.html
Rotating SOMA pieces.
England
Wood'n'Things have a very pretty website, showing an
abundance of nice wood'en toys.
Including "PU010 Cube Puzzle" which
is a very pretty SOMA puzzle in a box.
http://www.wooden-games.co.uk
The puzzle can be purchased for 9.95 UK-Pound plus packaging.
Australia
Mr Puzzle Australia is a wonderfull producer, making a LOT
of different and facinating puzzles. Check out their Homepage
syoung@mrpuzzle.com.au
http://www.mrpuzzle.com.au/index.htm
And the special SOMA page, where a pretty SOMA may be purchased for only 28 Australian Dollar.
http://www.mrpuzzle.com.au/prod56.htm
Serious puzzles produce a wonderfull SOMA - Classic Wooden Puzzle at $15.95
This Soma have added visual appeal using dark and light hardwoods to create
a checkerboard design. There are 240 different ways to make a cube, but we
believe only four in the checkerboard design.
This puzzle comes with an illustrated insert which shows forms that can be made.
info@seriousshops.com
http://www.seriouspuzzles.com
And the SOMA page.
http://www.seriouspuzzles.com/soma.html
Germany
JOEPA by Jörg Werner
mail@joepa.de
http://www.joepa.de
http://www.joepa.de/en/index.php?f=spiel&r=soma
JOEPA manufactures a very beautifull SOMA puzzle made of the finest walnut.
This exclusive gift costs 84 EUR
Russian
http://www.yavsoft.com
14.95$ SOMA Game.
Non-violent and educational games for the entire family
"Yav Games Developers Team"
wb@yav.ru is a Russian compagny presenting
a number of family games, one of which is a SOMA puzzle game.
The game is available on their web site, it is not
freeware, ufortunately, but it seem to be nice to play with.
Do note though, that it has a limited run time, without purchase.
But those helping the producers might get a free registration.
England
http://www.gamesandpuzzles.co.uk
15GBP. (app. 20$) SOMA.
Chiltern Games & Puzzles by Tim Dixon.
chiltern@gamesandpuzzles.co.uk
Presents a VERY large collection of beautiful wood puzzles,
The puzzles are more expensive than other producers, but
absolutely the money worth.
This is also where you can buy the HEX puzzle.
http://www.0-0-0checkmate.com/DesignScienceToys/Soma.html 12.5$ SOMA.
http://www.dstoys.com/SA.html 14$ SOMA.
http://www.24hours7days.com/DesignScienceToys/Soma.html 12.5$ SOMA.
http://www.brightworld.com/Puzzles/Soma.html 12.5$ SOMA.
Germany
Bernhard Schweitzer's SOMA's
B.Schweitzer@t-online.de
http://www.puzzlewood.de
10$ SOMA. for a nice wood puzzle in a wooden box.
Here you can buy a lot of nice wood games, including puzzles and SOMA.
This firm get a lot of puzzles from the compagny
http://www.philosspiele.de
who manufactures only for wholesalers.
Check out this site for all Bernhard's cube puzzles.
http://www.cleverwood.com
Holland
http://www.arabesk.nl
http://www.arabesk.nl/english/philos.html
??$ SOMA. for a puzzle.
I have no experience with these people, but check them out yourself.
Denmark
http://www.koala-reklame.dk
The Super Ellipse / Drink cooler can be obtained from the
Danish compagny Koala Reklame A/S, Lejrvej 7,
DK-3500 Værlœse, Denmark. (It means Koala advertising)
The super egg products are:
No 221455 "Super egg in leather bag" Price DKK 99.75 (~15$)
No 227340 "Piet Hein DrinkCooler Polished steel" Price DKK 99.75 (~15$)
The compagny quotes minimum orders of 12 pieces. Maybe you could
round up some friends and make a combined order. OR maybe - if
you argue your case, they might be persuaded to sell these eggs
in single quantities.
Germany
http://www.gemanigames.com
Gemani Games & Puzzles sell 2 sizes of the Soma cube, it is sold
from their web site at http://www.gemanigames.com/html/cubes.html
You may mail to Roger Mustoe
roger@gemanigames.com
Sweden
TC Import by Christer Magnusson
christer.magnusson@skolan.eslov.se
http://www.tcimport.nu at "Spel och Pussel"
TC Import sell various puzzles and games, and also include
a very fine boxed SOMA puzzle.
The price is 100 SKR. about 14 EUR
China
http://www.doubletreetoys.com
DoubleTree Wooden Toys Manfacturing Co.,Ltd is a
Chinese manufacturer of the most wonderfull wooden toys.
One of the leading wooden toys manufacturer and exporter in China,
specializing in producing various wooden toys and handicrafts.
The products variety include wooden educational toys,wooden cube
puzzles,wooden music box,wooden building blocks,wooden vehicles,
wooden numbered train,wooden painting crafts,wooden carving animals
etc. with great quality at competitive pricing.
Martin Gardner, The Second Scientific American Book of
Mathematical Puzzles and Diversions,
University of Chicago Press, Chicago, IL, 1987.
Martin Gardner, Knotted Doughnuts and Other Mathematical
Entertainments,
W. H. Freeman and Company, New York, NY, 1986.
Winning Ways for your mathematical plays
Volume 2: Games in particular
Elwyn R. Berlekamp, John H. Conway, Richard K. Guy
Academic Press. ISBN: 0-12-091102-7
Chapter 24 (Page 735) Pursuing Puzzles Purposefully
Reprinted with permission at Newsletter 1999.02.01.
Christoph Peter-Orth, All Solutions of the Soma Cube Puzzle, Discrete Mathematics, 57 (1985), 105-121.
Sivy Farhi, SOMA WORLD the complete soma cube"
Canberra Publishing & Printing Co. (1982),
ISBN 0-949538-00-0
The very small booklet used to cost $4.99, but I
don't know where it can be bought anymore.
http://www.virtu-software.com/products/PentoMania.asp
Virtu Software by Douglas Twitchell presents a pretty
PENTOMINOES page here.
dtwitchell@virtu-software.com.
http://www.mathematik.uni-bielefeld.de/~sillke/results.html
The best page with A LOT of mathematics about Cubes.
Tiling and Packing results of Torsten Sillke.
http://lonestar.texas.net/~jenicek/
PENTOMINOES
jenicek@texas.net
Jay Jenicek (from San Antonio, Texas - U.S.A.) have one
of the most inspiring pages about Pentominoes.
The familiarities to Soma is close.
http://www.club.innet.be/~rsmw0015/index.html
Dirk Laureyssens is the Inventor of Happy Cube 3D-Puzzles
the first squishy 3D-Puzzle + 2D-puzzle made of foam,
Dirk lives in Belgium (Europe). and he is the Owner of
over 50 patents in various fields like. toys, premium,
electronics, household products and industrial products.
His 'Happy Cube' page is definitely worth a visit.
http://www.calmplexpuzzles.com/
An extremely challenging puzzle in which checkerboards of
varying dimensions and a 4x4x4 cube are to be made in a
tessellated fashion.
Never ending puzzle fun, trust me!
Site email address is: andy.s@calmplexpuzzles.com
http://myrberger.iwarp.com
A text file by Johan Myrberger,
johan.myrberger@bigfoot.com
showing various cube type puzzles.
Link no longer works
http://www02.u-page.so-net.ne.jp/momo/wolf/puzzle_e/index.html
A nice page by Yoshiya Shindo. the creator of the Neo-Diabolical
Cube puzzle.
shindo@tk.hudson.co.jp
showing various cube type puzzles.
(This puzzle is also described by Jim Adams at
http://members.aol.com/jeadams1/neo.html )
(A link to jim is also found earlier on this page)
http://www.utyx.com/math/
Math Resources, math related news, books and web resources
math@utyx.com
by Paul Cabay.
http://www.danieltebbutt.com/bedlam.html
Daniel Tebbutt
danieltebbutt@hotmail.com
have produced a simply marvellous program, to solve the "Bedlam cube", try it
out from his homepage.
Daniel stated (nov.24.2003) about the program, that "It's not very versatile,
nor is it particularly fast (it averages a little less than 1 second per
solution on a P4 2GHz, compared with 6 solutions per second for my C implementation), but it is written as a Java applet and it is nice and
graphical (I spent about twice as long on the graphics as I did on the algorithm)."
I (Thorleif) disagree, it's a really fine program.
The sourcecode is even available.!
For the record, if you click 'next' 19,186 times, it will find each solution once,
and only once.