Bedlam cube
The Bedlam cube is a solid dissection puzzle invented by British puzzle expert Bruce Bedlam.[1][2]
Design
The puzzle consists of thirteen polycubic pieces: twelve pentacubes and one tetracube. The objective is to assemble these pieces into a 4 x 4 x 4 cube. There are 19,186 distinct ways of doing so, up to rotations and reflections.
The Bedlam cube is one unit per side larger than the 3 x 3 x 3 Soma cube, and is much more difficult to solve.
History
Two of the BBC's 'Dragons' from Dragons' Den, Rachel Elnaugh and Theo Paphitis, were to invest in the Bedlam cube during the second series. They offered £100,000 for a 30% share of equity in Bedlam Puzzles. Danny Bamping (the entrepreneur behind Bedlam cube) finally chose a bank loan instead of their investment, as seen in the relevant "Where Are They Now" episode of Dragons' Den.[3]
Records
The official world record for assembling the Bedlam Cube is 7.77 seconds, and was set by Aleksander Iljasov (Norway) on 28 September 2007.[4]
External links
- The Official Site of Bedlam Puzzles
- Bedlam Cube solver
- All 19,186 Bedlam Cube Solutions
- Bedlam Cube Demonstration Software
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