Math Monday: Giant Burr Puzzles

Education Science
Math Monday: Giant Burr Puzzles
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Giant burr puzzles

By George Hart for the Museum of Mathematics

For the Math Midway exhibition, The Math Museum created a set of large geometric puzzles. The one seen here is a traditional six-piece burr puzzle in which the six notched pieces of wood interlock in a clever way. When assembled, there are two pieces each in the X, Y, and Z directions. Even if you’re familiar with this type of puzzle, it is an entirely different experience to solve it on a giant scale.

BurrPuzzle.jpg

Plans for the six pieces of this particular puzzle are shown below. Any woodworker can make these from 4-by-4 stock, which you can buy at any lumber yard. All cuts are 90 degrees and all dimensions are an integer multiple of half the width.

burr-parts.jpg

If you prefer, instead of cutting, you can simply glue together unit cubes. Here are the six parts assembled from 104 one-inch hardwood cubes. In this version, the ends are shorter, but the central interlocking portion is the same. (Add four more cubes to each end if you want the proportions of the colorful version shown in the opening image.)

burr-puzzle-parts.jpg

They assemble into this rather sculptural puzzle. Many other burr designs are possible—some easier and some harder than this. If you build this puzzle and then find you can’t solve it, try the applet by Jürg von Känel here, which will solve any burr puzzle in this family.

burr-puzzle.jpg

More:
Math Monday: Fractal polyhedra clusters
Math Monday: Giant SOMA puzzle
Math Monday: Tie your bagel in a knot!
Math Monday: Playing card constructions
Introducing “Math Monday”

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Gareth Branwyn is a freelance writer and the former Editorial Director of Maker Media. He is the author or editor of over a dozen books on technology, DIY, and geek culture. He is currently a contributor to Boing Boing, Wink Books, and Wink Fun. His free weekly-ish maker tips newsletter can be found at garstipsandtools.com.

View more articles by Gareth Branwyn

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