Gearu

Description

Gearu was inspired by a suggestion by Jared McComb: "Imagine you have a ring of knobs all sticking out of a flat plane.  If you turn one knob, in either direction, the next knob counter-clockwise also turns with it, but the one clockwise does not.  So A turns with B, B turns with C, C turns with D, etc. but more than 2 knobs never turn at once". Through some reasoning, we discovered that such mechanism would not be easily built. In our discussions, we rephrased the question as: "If you turn a knob clockwise, then its clockwise neighbor is turned as well. Ditto for counter-clockwise".

The result is a puzzle with four knobs. The object of the puzzle is to restore the cross in the center. The gears have 12, 18, 15 and 20 teeth, respectively. Whereas it is trivial to restore three of the four gears, some serious analysis is needed to restore the fourth as well.

Watch the YouTube video.

Read at the iMaterialise Forum.

Read more at the Twisty Puzzles Forum.

Please order a 3D-printed do-it-yourself puzzle kit from iMaterialise at this page (check with Oskar about screws and stickers), or contact Oskar directly if you are interested in obtaining a fully colored, stickered and assembled sample of this puzzle.