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Soma cube

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	Topics Soma cube Topic Home The Soma cube is a solid dissection puzzleMechanical puzzle A mechanical puzzle is a puzzle presented as a set of mechanically interlinked pieces.... invented by Piet HeinPiet Hein (Denmark) Piet Hein was a Danish scientist, mathematician, inventor, author, and poet, often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym "K... during a lecture on quantum mechanicsQuantum mechanics Quantum mechanics is a first quantized quantum theory that supersedes classical mechanics at the atomic and subatomic levels... conducted by Werner HeisenbergWerner Heisenberg Werner Karl Heisenberg was a celebrated German physicist and Nobel laureate, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, and ... . Seven pieces made out of unit cubes must be assembled into a 3x3x3 cube. The pieces can also be used to make a variety of other interesting 3DThree-dimensional space Though actual perceptible space-time is a 4-dimensional Minkowski space, human beings usually perceive space as a three-dimensi... shapes. The pieces of the Soma cube consist of all possible combinations of four or fewer unit cubes, excluding all convex shapes (i.e., the 1x1x1, 1x1x2, 1x1x3, 1x1x4 and 1x2x2 cuboidCuboid In anatomy, the cuboid bone is a bone in the foot.... s). This leaves just one three-block piece and six four-block pieces, of which two form an enantiomorphicChirality (mathematics) In geometry, a figure is chiral if it is not identical to its mirror image, or more particularly if it cannot be mapped to i... pair. A similar puzzle consisting solely of all eight four-block pieces (including the cuboids) would contain 32 unit cubes and, thus, could not be assembled into a cube. The Soma cube is often regarded as the 3D equivalent of polyominoPolyomino A polyomino is a polyform with the square as its base form.... s. There are interesting parity properties relating to solutions of the Soma puzzle. Soma has been discussed in detail by Martin GardnerMartin Gardner Summary Martin Gardner is a popular American mathematics and science writer specializing in recreational mathematics, but with inte... and John Horton ConwayJohn Horton Conway John Horton Conway is a prolific mathematician active in the theory of finite groups, knot theory, number theory, combinato... , and the book Winning Ways for your Mathematical PlaysFacts About Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays *Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays* by Elwyn R.... contains a detailed analysis of the Soma-cube problem. There are 240 distinct solutions of the Soma-cube puzzle, up toUp to In mathematics, the phrase "up to xxxx" indicates that members of an equivalence class are to be regarded as a single entity... rotations and reflections: these are easily generated by a simple recursiveRecursion In mathematics and computer science, recursion specifies a class of objects or methods by defining a few very simple base ... backtracking search computer program similar to that used for the eight queens puzzleEight queens puzzle The eight queens puzzle is the problem of putting eight chess queens on an 8×8 chessboard such that none of them is ab... . The seven Soma pieces are all polycubePolycube In recreational mathematics, a polycube is a polyform with a cube as the base form.... s of order three or four: The "L" tricube T tetracube: a row of three blocks with one added below the center L tetracube: a row of three blocks with one added below the left side S tetracube: bent triomino with block placed on outside of clockwise side Left screw tetracube: unit cube placed on top of anticlockwise side. ChiralChirality (mathematics) In geometry, a figure is chiral if it is not identical to its mirror image, or more particularly if it cannot be mapped to i... in 3D. Right screw tetracube: unit cube placed on top of clockwise side. Chiral in 3D. Branch tetracube: unit cube placed on bend. Not chiral in 3D. Trivia Similar to Soma cube is the 3D PentominoPentomino A pentomino is a polyomino composed of five congruent squares, connected orthogonally.... puzzle, which can fill boxes of 2×3×10, 2×5×6 and 3×4×5 units. See also Triomino TetrominoTetromino A tetromino, also spelled tetramino or tetrimino, is a geometric shape composed of four squares, connected orthogonally.... PentominoPentomino A pentomino is a polyomino composed of five congruent squares, connected orthogonally.... Bedlam cubeBedlam cube The Bedlam cube is a solid dissection puzzle invented by Bruce Bedlam.... polyominoPolyomino A polyomino is a polyform with the square as its base form.... tangramTangram Tangram is a Chinese puzzle, and a type of dissection puzzle.... External links