Pentominyes

Description

Pentomiyes is a pattern puzzle with magnetic marbles and a magnetic board. The object of the puzzle is to place the pentomino pieces such that they spell NO. The second challenge is to make them spell YES. That is, from "pentomino" to "pentomiyes".

A whopping 55 magnets were embedded in the board during 3D-printing, with specific up-down (north-south) orientations. Another 55 magnets were glued into the black-white marbles. These 55 magnetic marbles were glued into 11 white domino pieces. The puzzle was designed by asking Burrtools for two random 5x11 pentomino designs. Next I used Excel to keep administrative track of which square moves where, when going from NO to YES. By rotating and flipping some of the symmetric pieces, I found a consistent magnet placement. Note that the puzzle has a parity challenge. Whenever two balls are swapped, then either both change color, or neither. Therefore, NO is spelled at the front side of the board, and YES at the back side. 

All magnets have 5-mm-diameter. The 25 magnets for the balls are 8.5-mm long (https://www.supermagnete.de/eng/rod-magnets-neodymium/rod-magnet-5mm-8.47mm_S-05-08-N). The 25 for the board are 5-mm long (https://www.supermagnete.de/eng/disc-magnets-neodymium/disc-magnet-5mm-5mm_S-05-05-N). 

Watch the YouTube video.

Read at the iMaterialise Forum.

Read more at the Non-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.