Puzzle Cube Reflection

This is my cube. As you can probably see, it is three cubes by three cubes. The cubes themselves are roughly 3/4 of an inch, and have been glued together with wood glue. The part drawings I have for each of the parts in the puzzle are enclosed below.

I had four people solve my puzzle, and with the outlier of Chloe, all of the data suggested a solving range in between 60 and 90 minutes. If I have more time, I will collect more data and update this post accordingly.

It was important to model my ideas using multi-view sketches or Inventor before making my final prototype in order to resolve issues that may arise when envisioning the puzzle, such as it being too hard or too easy. To segue into what I liked and what I would change, I both rejoice and lament at the apparent difficulty of the puzzle. Although I feel very happy when people struggle to solve my puzzle, it is frustrating to gather data for time spent solving it.

Puzzle Cube Design Process

Brainstorming: Going through all the possible puzzle pieces with 4, 5, and 6 parts was a long process, but it gave me a sense of how many possibilities there really were. The colored parts on the right are my multi-view sketches, through which I attempted to describe the nature and configuration of each of the parts used in my final design.

Out of both of these designs, I chose the bottom one because it was composed of more interlocking parts, and was much harder to solve(my partner Diana took nearly the entire school day to put it together!).

Afterwards, I created all of my parts in Inventor, which was fairly simple. What is more complicated, though, is fitting them together in an assembly, which I have yet to figure out.

Puzzle Cube Quality Analysis

My data seems to have large statistical variance across 0.74-0.78 inches, as evidenced by my histogram.