Here is the Sphericube...
made of tiles of course! Making it was almost impossible as I had to
string it using some interesting angles. I will never make another one
as it was too hard, but it is definitely a landmark build for people
The stringing is standard and the string always alternates from front to back. It would be quite complex to provide a diagram, but the technique is the same to normal flat magic stringing, so it should be easy to understand for anyone who has little experience. But even if you know where the strings go, placing them is another (tricky) story! The Sphericube is based on a 9-tile (i.e. 3d state) magic structure. It is indeed possible to make a mini sphericube based on a 3d state 6-tile magic. But that would mean that the stringing will not be consistent (I prefer to call those bandaged magics), making the already rigid structure even more rigid! Making one of those 18-tile magics (which will have to be "bandaged" on at least six spots) would be extremely beautiful as its rigid state will not require any manual balancing. Stringing it though, would be much more difficult than the Sphericube! In the case of the Sphericube where some parts intersect, the stringing orientation (in both sides) will remain exactly the same. And that means there will be no blockage during the exchange of strings (which is how the magic tiles move with respect to each other). In the case of the mini Sphericube though, some tiles will be forced to be stringed in both ways, which will result in the magic being blocked on those parts. |
To build this puzzle you will need some strings, plastic tiles, and some nice
paper tiles.
For information of how to connect/number the tiles and the strings, visit
two brilliant articles here
and here,
(courtesy of Twisty Puzzles
articles).
Please let me know of any comments or suggestions. Thanks! :-)