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.
My granddaughter enjoys these types of puzzles very much. Thanks
Does anyone have the solution to this puzzle yet we have been playing i for 2 days.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I wrote a computer program that shows this puzzle is unsolvable.
See http://musicplusplus.net/36puzzle/ for more details
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!
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.
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!!!
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….
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.
I meant keeps making puzzles like that.
ive actually solved the 36 cube. it took me a week but i got it
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!!!
Obviously there is a solution, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to market the puzzle. Just because people haven’t solved it doesnt mean there is no solution. An example of this logic is in magic, it looks like magic at first but once you know the gimmick, it’s no longer magic to you, but to someone else it still is. The same rule applies here, once you know the answer it’s no long a puzzle, but until you have that answer….”It has no solution”
I did it. It took me 8 hrs. I noticed the inside grooves of two of the tiers were different. I started with those two then placed in the rest of like colors. Yae-yahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!