24 March 2007

3x3 Illusion Pinwheel


The Illusion Pinwheel is a rather subtle pattern. At first it can be difficult to see, hence the 'illusion' part. The picture shows two views of the same cube so you can see all sides.

This pattern demonstrates that the 3x3 cube can conjure more interesting patterns than just the typical checkboards and squares you see so often.

Edge cubies are face-agnostic, meaning the edge piece serves different functions on two adjacent faces. For example, the green-yellow piece represents the background on the green face and part of the pinwheel on the blue face.

The cube itself is a cheap, shoddy Magic Keychain cube that retails for less than a dollar. The pieces are riddled with defects and it has one of the worst color combinations I've ever seen with pink, yellow, and two shades of orange. Yuck!

4 comments:

Patrick C said...

clever...Did you come up with it?


PKRTCN

Anonymous said...

Here is an optimal solution for this pattern:

3x3 Illusion Pinwheel
U2 L2 D F R' F' D' F' R' B2 L' U R2 D2 F2 U' (16 btm)

Anonymous said...

hey, i was just curious as to what the alg for the heart pattern on the 5x5 was... if you could maybe email it to me at jtjwsnake@aol.com, that would be great. thanks!

Anonymous said...

woops, i commented on the wrong post. sorry.