ThinkFun is having a contest to see who can solve their 36 Cube puzzle. The 36 cube puzzle requires you to arrange a collection of “towers” in a 6X6 block. Each tower is a different color and a different height, which leads us to the two rules you need to follow. The first is that a color may appear only one in each row or column. The second is that all of the towers must be placed so that they are all a uniform height. The places for the towers in the cube are already at varying elevtions, such that each row or column will have only have one tower of a particular height. The completed puzzle will then be a cube.
The first 36 contestants who can prove that they solved the puzzle will win a ThinkFun Game Club kit for the school of their choice.
Tags: puzzles,thinkfun
My granddaughter enjoys these types of puzzles very much. Thanks
Comment by Monster Mazes — December 4, 2008 @ 9:01 am
Does anyone have the solution to this puzzle yet we have been playing i for 2 days.
Comment by shannon — December 26, 2008 @ 11:03 pm
The puzzle is essentially a 6 x 6 graeco latin square. It has been proven such a square has no solution. Hence the puzzle is unsolvable.
Comment by AJ — December 28, 2008 @ 11:51 pm
I can tell you that the puzzle has a solution, because I have solved it. Here’s a clue — there are less than 240 solutions. At one point I had also concluded, and had even mathematically proven, that there were no solutions.
Comment by Brad — January 2, 2009 @ 11:05 pm
This puzzle is indeed related to a classical problem posed by Euler. In fact this was key for me towards finding a solution. Has anyone actually solved this puzzle by hand? As a programmer I am tempted to write a program to solve it, but this would be too easy. But I don’t see any other way to get it quickly.
Too bad the contest has ended. I wonder if ThinkFun has 36 winners? Seems to me a very tough puzzle.
Comment by George Bell — January 5, 2009 @ 1:59 pm
Fun puzzle. Received for xmas. Solved about an hour ago. Do to seasonal job I have had alot of time to work on. Dear George jan 5th post. No computer can solve this puzzle it can only be done buy hand. As there are irregularities a computer can’t account for. I can’t count how many times I got 34 towers aaaaarrrrrrggggggg.
Took about 50 hours. Sent into contest anway. 5 days to late for deadline will see what happens.
Comment by Jay Chatterton — January 5, 2009 @ 10:48 pm
I wrote a computer program that shows this puzzle is unsolvable.
Comment by Christopher Raphael — January 7, 2009 @ 10:52 am
See http://musicplusplus.net/36puzzle/ for more details
Comment by Christopher Raphael — January 7, 2009 @ 10:53 am
This can be solved.
The 6 tier orange tower fits onto a 5 tier space and the 5 tier yellow tower fits onto a 6 tier space.
booyah!
Comment by Luke — January 7, 2009 @ 10:51 pm
This is a very solvable puzzle. If you will just take any one of the colors and pick one uniform size and put those 6 in….at that point, you begin the game. Every piece you put in at this point can colide with your next decision. I won’t take you any further, bacause it is a fantastic journey. But if you don’t think a computer program can solve this, tell your boss I’ll take your job.
I solved this puzzle in a very short amount of time. With eight completions, two away, before I corrected my error.
Have Fun!
And thank you Thinkfun.
Comment by David Harrod — January 8, 2009 @ 5:59 pm
Hello all who are writing about the 36 cube – we are thrilled you like it – are intrigued by it and esp that some of you think it can’t be solved – because it can – this is problem solving at its best – Keep at it and if you have questions just write to us – we will answer you!!!
Comment by Andrea Barthello — January 20, 2009 @ 8:06 pm
i got puzzle for christmas 12/25/08 just solved it 1/31 /09. have my grandkids every day so didn’t get to work it as much as i would have liked . it is a great puzzle….
Comment by tammy — February 1, 2009 @ 1:24 am
This puzzle is stupid. The trick is that one tower can fit on a different sized holder. The problem is that there were too many possible tricks to use. If think fun starts puzzle I will stop getting their puzzles.
Comment by AJ — February 3, 2009 @ 2:26 am
I meant keeps making puzzles like that.
Comment by AJ — February 3, 2009 @ 2:27 am
ive actually solved the 36 cube. it took me a week but i got it
Comment by Caitlin — April 3, 2009 @ 10:19 pm
Great Puzzle and yes, there is a solution which I just completed. I did not notice (or need) the two puzzle pieces fitting different towers, but finally (after a couple weeks) solved it placing all of one color at a time. It took me several starts but YIPEE!!!
Comment by Tishweaver — May 16, 2009 @ 1:17 am