36 Cube facts for kids
The 36 Cube is a cool three-dimensional puzzle made by a company called ThinkFun. Imagine a gray base that looks like a city skyline. On this base, you place 36 colorful towers. These towers come in six different colors and six different heights.
The main goal of the puzzle is to fit all the towers onto the base. When you're done, the top of the puzzle should be flat, like a perfect cube. The tricky part is that in every single row and every single column, each of the six colors must appear exactly once. It's a bit like a sudoku puzzle, but in 3D!
The 36 Cube was invented by Dr. Derrick Niederman. He's a smart guy who got his PhD from MIT. He got the idea while writing a book about numbers. He found an old math problem from the 1700s called the 36 officer problem.
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What is the 36 Officer Problem?
The 36 officer problem is a brain challenge. It asks you to imagine 36 officers. They belong to six different groups (like regiments) and each group has officers of six different ranks. The problem is to arrange them in a 6-by-6 square. The rule is that no two officers in the same row or column can be from the same group or have the same rank.
A famous mathematician named Leonhard Euler thought there was no way to solve this problem. He was right! It wasn't until 1901 that another mathematician, Gaston Tarry, proved for sure that there's no solution. This kind of arrangement is called a Graeco-Latin square.
How the 36 Cube is Different
The original 36 officer problem is a mental puzzle you can do in your head or on paper. But the 36 Cube is a real, physical puzzle you play with actual pieces on a board. So, it needs you to think in a special way and use your spatial skills.
There's a cool secret about the 36 Cube. If you look closely at the pieces, you'll find that two of the towers are a bit special. These two towers fit onto the base in a unique way compared to other towers of the same height. Because of this small change, the 36 Cube actually has 96 different ways to be solved! That's a lot of solutions to discover!
Awards for the 36 Cube
The 36 Cube has won some cool awards because it's such a great puzzle:
- ASTRA Best Toy for Kids List - 2009
- Parents' Choice Gold Award - 2009
- iParenting Media Awards Best Products of 2009
Related Links
- Derrick Niederman (36 Cube inventor)
