?Puzzle? Traditional Cache
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Difficulty:
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Terrain:
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Size: 
(small)
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Mankind has been fascinated with puzzles of one type or another since antiquity. Puzzles have been around for a long time. For example, David Singmaster, one of the authorities on the history of such puzzles, gives a reference that suggests the Chinese rings puzzle may have originated in China as early as the second century AD. However, it appears to be unknown when they were discovered or even in what country.
Around 1550 Cardan, an Italian mathematician specializing in the theory of algebraic equations (he discovered the cubic analog of the quadratic formula for the roots of apolynomial), described the Chinese ring puzzle (called Cardan's rings in [USA]):
In 1857 W.Hamilton (1805-1865) , an Irish mathematician perhaps best known for his discovery of the quaternion numbers, invented the Icosian puzzle. The idea of this puzzle is to find a tour of the 12 vertices of an icosahedron which visits each vertex exactly once.
In the early 1870's there appeared the famous 15 puzzle. Though some accounts state that this puzzle was discovered by Sam Loyd, the American problem and puzzle inventor, other authorities dispute this. However, there is less dispute that he invented the "14-15 puzzle":
This puzzle was extremely popular around the early 1900's.
In 1883 É.Lucas (1843-1891) , a French mathematician specializing in the theory of numbers, invented the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. This puzzle has three pegs and a numberof disks of increasing size with a hole drilled in the center so they may be placed over any one of the pegs:
In the early 1920's P.MacMahon (1854-1929) , a British mathematician and Naval Officer specializing in combinatorics, invented the 30 colored cube puzzle – marketed under the name Mayblox. One can color a cube with 6 colors in 30 ways (not counting rotations of course). These 30 cubes are all that's given. There are several puzzles one can formulate regarding these blocks. One is to try to make a 3x3x3 cube where two cubes can touch at a face only if the faces have the same color.
In the early 1970's Uwe Meffert, an engineer and inventor, invented the Pyraminx (a"Rubik's tetrahedron") Mechanism and his patent covers all puzzles using 4 or more non eorthogonal axis. This includes the Tetraminx, Skewb, and Megaminx Puzzle Balls.
In the mid 1970's E.Rubik, a Professor in the Department of Graphics Design at the University of Budapest, invented the Rubik's cube. During the Rubik's cube craze in the1980's close to 100 million cubes were sold. The solution of this puzzle has a very interesting mathematical explanation.
In the 1980's a puzzle called Merlin's magic square was invented. In this puzzle, played on a square grid of points, a "move" is to pick a vertex on the grid. Once a point is picked, it has the effect of "turning on" all the neighboring points joined to it by a single edge in the grid graph. The object is to "turn on" all the points. The solution of this has an interesting mathematical description.
In the 1990's a puzzle called The Orbix, an analog of the Merlin's magic square, was invented. The square grid used in Merlin's magic square is replaced by the graph of the vertices and edges of an icosahedron.
One of the most interesting recently invented puzzles is the Masterball. It was invented by Dr. Geza Gyovai, a 46 year old Hungarian-born engineer and lawyer now living in Zurich, Switzerland. It seems to be related to the "hockey puck" invented by A.Vegh, but is more complicated in several ways.
The Cache:
An easy roadside cache witch will bring you to the “Plett Puzzle Park” next to the N2, giving you a change to stretch the legs and get a coffee or puzzle for the rest of the trip.
The cache is placed on the property with the permission of the owner (Colin).
Business hours;
Open daily 09h30 – 17h00 (Except Mondays)
Open All Holidays
As this cache is on the inside of the property and it’s available only during business hours.
Additional Hints
(No hints available.)
Treasures
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