Hey forum,

This is my latest puzzles "Alaina's cube"

The geometry that this puzzle is based off of is not obvious! Just to have a little fun, I want to see if anyone can guess what this puzzle is based off of. I will only give one hint as to what it is: every turn (besides the first) is a jumbling turn!

After someone guesses what it is, I will post many more details about it!

Video

Purchase at Shapeways





Let the guessing begin!

It looks really nice, even with only two colours. I going to guess a Tetragonal trapezohedron? (I really have no Idea )

It appears, simply by looking at the puzzle, that it is already jumbled in it's solved state, as I can see numerous cuts within the puzzle which are blocked off. In other words, a few of the cut lines terminate in a "T" formation.

Look's pretty nice.

Cubic antiprism? Tetragonal dypiramid?

EDIT: I think I really do notice a corner turning square antiprism symetry in the turning !! In other words, it's a face turning tetragonal trapezohedron shape modded into a cube !

And that would also explain the jumbling! Maybe you unbandaged it too but i don't know

I just saw this on your shop very cool.

First of all: Why just two colors? Probably because it would be immensely difficult in just one color...

I also think this is based on a tetragonal trapezohedron. It seems to have 8 centers, which are all connected to four other centers by a connecting edge-type piece. And the top and bottom faces have a square symmetry.

Also the angles of the faces of the tetragonal trapezohedron are pretty colse to those of a regular pentagon, and the faces look a bit like a hexaminx, but that's just speculation. However it could tell you something about the cut depth, which would be similar to a megaminx. Unmodded, it would have centers, edges and corners (probably multiple types).

Cool puzzle

Looks like a Vertex-turning square Antiprism shape modified into a cube. Nice!

-Mark-

The people who guessed square antiprism/tetragonal trapezohedron are correct!

I will update the thread tomorrow with a bit more information.

Nice work. This puzzle looks very confusing. I like it a lot!

Slightly off topic, I like how you've redone your Shapeways shop.

Looks really good.

I have two pleas regarding the images:
1. Can you redo the images and give the puzzle more space in it? It has less then 350*350 pixels in an image of 1024*800.
2. Can you post an image showing just a single move in midturn.

Thank you in advance.

Andreas I’m pretty sure he’ll post more pictures today. The original ones and the video were for us to figure out what shape this was based off of.

looks nice but very hard. Will they ever become for sale on your shop?

Thank you for the pics.

It’s already for sale.

O sorry I just read the "Not for sale" underneth the price and did not go in and read the whole thing.

Sorry for the bump!

The puzzle is indeed based on the geometry of a tetragonal trapezohedron/square antiprism. Alaina's cube is actually a shop mod of [url]Oskar's Asteroid attack puzzle[/url]. The person who commissioned me to make the puzzle wanted a pink and baby blue puzzle, hence the color scheme.

The solving experience for this puzzle is extreme; even scrambling this beast if difficult. In addition to the blocked moves present on the asteroid attack, this puzzle exhibits overhang bandaging as well.



and as requested, here are some better pictures:

Very Nice