Minima(lly) Effective - So Others Try It

Minima Fibonacci series

I apologise for last week...I appear to have had Covid for the second time and it's just as nasty as ever! The only difference for me this time is that I had to obey the government's instructions and continue working with it if I was physically able. So having been poleaxed on Sat/Sun, I continued to go to my usual Monday meetings via Teams and then back to the operating theatre after that. I was told on a few occasions by colleagues that I looked shocking (and even once by a patient) but I soldiered on wearing my mask to protect others - not really sure how effective that will have been but that's the instructions. I'm currently on day 8 and still feeling pretty hellish but am at least more functional. Mrs S, on the other hand is convinced that I am trying to murder her with the virus. Only another week to go before we feel a bit better. Stay safe out there guys, it's still not a trivial thing.

On to the puzzling...

It has reached the point now that my friend Tye Stahly, knows what sort of puzzling I like and contacts me with news of things he is making that I will want to buy when they are released. He is a savage businessman as my PayPal keeps emptying into his bank account! Having fallen for the Minima challenge set by Allard and Frederic Boucher a few weeks ago, I couldn't resist it when Tye showed me that another renowned puzzle designer had jumped on the bandwagon with the Minima series and found some other wonderful challenges. One of the best designers in the world, Laszlo Molnar had decided that this was a good format. I have raved about many of Laszlo's puzzles over the years and been encouraged about them by my sadly missed friend, Felix, who saw the incredible talent and encouraged me to try them and even made me a whole load of them himself. 

The Fibonacci name could only mean one thing:

Fibonacci 1 pieces

Fibonacci 2 pieces

Yep! The Fibonacci series - polyomino sizes 1, 1, 2, 3, 5 all to be fitted into the 2x2x3 box to ensure that all the holes are covered (in fact the box is packed tight). Having said that the name makes sense, I am a little mystified about number 3:

Fibonacci 3 pieces
Still has 12 voxels but it just doesn't add up!

Tye has made them using his usual multicoloured wooden blocks and beautifully cut acrylic sheets - I am informed that it is actually Tye's own Mrs S who makes these and for that he is a very lucky man. I couldn't resist playing with them as soon as I was physically fit enough to concentrate on anything other than my chest. They are just as confusing as ever with the requirement to assemble shapes outside the box first being important and then gradually working out how to get the bigger pieces inside and what constraints they would have on fitting in the small ones. Just because there were single and dual voxel pieces does not necessarily make these easier - the 5 voxel shapes are very restricting and take up a lot of space inside. The requirement for rotations makes for a lovely challenge and interestingly, one of these is solved using linear movements only. I won't spoil it for you by saying which one.

Not to be outdone, the original Minima designer, Frederic Boucher, has extended his design prowess into flat (2D) versions - except the solution is most definitely not restricted to 2 dimensions. Not content with making me rotate blocks around in a box, Frederic has designed a tray packing puzzle - Flat Minima which is still available:

Flat Minima

In this wonderful little challenge the aim is to fit all the pieces inside the tray. Again, there is a limited entry way (in fact there are 2) and rotations are required. The end result is to achieve a 2D image of a 2x2x3 block inside the "box". 

How hard can it be? Well, I know that I am awful at tray packing puzzles and this has the added challenge of restricted entry and rotations as well as a viral infection - I figured I was buggered!

The first thing to do as usual is make your shape and that wasn't actually too hard. Next, work out a possible order of piece insertion. Finally, insert the bloody things. Erm! It's not quite that simple. The hole in the front and the side is not big enough to actually insert the pieces. This is why it's not really a 2D puzzle. The insertion of at least 2 requires rotational moves in the third dimension and can be quite confusing for am an of my limitations. Having achieved that, I worked on the remaining pieces and noticed that there is not a lot of room left after the first couple are in for the remainder to move about. The Aha! moment with this one is lovely. It probably only took me about a ½ hour but it was a delightful voyage. There's not much of a clue in the solved picture but look at your own risk.

Solved it. Looks like a 2x2x3

Finally, another of Laszlo's amazing designs was thrown in as a gift for me from Tye. The Hardcore puzzle is a sphere packing puzzle:

Hardcore
Pack these 3 shapes in the sphere with no force to close and a snug fit

This is one that Tye had asked me whether I had heard of it and might have the exact dimensions of the pieces. I searched my database and pictures for Hardcore and pronounced that I had no knowledge of it. When this duly arrived, I had a sneaky suspicion that I had seen it before but another search of my database did not reveal that name. I worked on this for a day and solved it with another lovely Aha! moment before realising that I had definitely seen it. In fact, Laszlo had used me as a guinea pig for it before he had come up with the name (hence I had come up blank) - I showed it off back in 2017.

Laszlo's prototype (he called it the Spherical packing puzzle)

I have to apologise to Tye for not realising and helping more - I had seen it before it was named. 

It is currently for sale here and is well worth your attention. It is not impossibly hard...it is just lovely and nice to show to non-puzzling friends as a gentle challenge.

No post this week

Sorry guys, I’m too sick to write anything today. Caught a nasty viral thing at work and am spending as much time in bed feeling sorry for myself as I can get away with.

Sniff, sniff, cough, sneeze!