Date started: October 2019
Leads: Arnaud Chéritat, Alexander Holroyd

Abstract

We designed a permutation puzzle by joining ideas.

The objective was to have a physical realization of the puzzle illustrated below, where the center circles can rotate by batches of 6 along either of the two circles. A key idea by Alex was to use rotating wheels on the front and on the back of the object. We designed together a first sketch of a functional model. It was refined and eventually constructed by Arnaud using laser-cutting, nuts and bolts, paper spacer and 3D-printing for the token. The colors are replaced by 10 different letters that one has to order to write a specific word. We still need to improve the model: we will replace wood by PMMA, which has much less friction. We are also pondering the possibility to use gears.

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