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Brick Packing
In March 2004 at G4G6 in Atlanta, Bill Gosper distributed a brick packing puzzle. Note added 25 June 2004. Both Alan Schoen and Tom Rodgers told me that this puzzle was designed by John Conway. Alan wrote in an emailTakeYou'll find a detailed history of Conway's cube puzzle on pp. 75-80 of 'Mathematical Gems II', by Ross Honsberger, published by MAA (1976), Complete Set ISBN 0-88385-300-0, Vol. 2 ISBN 0-88385-319-1. Conway must have been inspired by the application of the so-called 'stained-glass window' technique by Slouthouber and Graatsma to the derivation of an earlier 9-block 3x3x3 cube puzzle, which is described by Honsberger. one 1 x 2 x 2 brick, and three 1 x 1 x 3 bricks, and pack them into a 5 x 5 x 5 box. The puzzle came with a convenient frame.  Cole took this puzzle into his 3rd grade class last Friday where it caused a sensation (almost all the kids took a turn trying to solve it, but no one did). He brought it back home over the weekend after promising to return with it to the classroom on Monday. Then today (Sunday 18 April 2004) I had just gotten started thinking about how the 1 x 1 x 3 bricks should be positioned when Cole found this solution:            More on brick packing. |