Someone just turned 60! But I promised my young (very young) wife that I wouldn’t say who it was. Over the years, as other distinguished family members received puzzles, 7T, 8T+, and 9T to commemorate significant milestones, she patiently waited to be bestowed the honor of yet another milestone puzzle. This year, I developed a 6T puzzle for her - for no specific reason. As my wife unwrapped her presents for yet another 29th birthday, she was delighted to finally receive her own milestone puzzle.
It may come as a surprise, but the 6T puzzle is comprised of 6 T-shaped pieces that have to be packed within a 3x3x3 box. The puzzle was 3D printed with each of the Ts in a different color and an open-top silver box with 6T debossed on the side. Immediately, you know there is some funny business going on if you are required to pack 6 Ts made with 5 cubes (that’s 30 altogether) into a box that can accommodate 27 cubes. It quickly becomes obvious that the triangular half-cubes of the pieces have to be leveraged to jam those Ts together.
Although practically a kid, my wife has been around puzzles for a long time and knows a thing or two about solving them. She tackled the puzzle and quickly demonstrated that the experience that comes with youth could be used to solve this puzzle in less than 30 minutes. She was very happy to discover that this was not one of those intractable designs (avoid celebrating 80!).
I should mention that Dr. Volker Latussek had designed a Six-T-Puzzle that was made by Rombol, but I don’t believe that it is currently being made. This puzzle was previously mentioned in the post,
Puzzle-A-Month Challenge.
