Quadratum Cubicum - 4in1 Puzzle Adaptation by vaper

Last crawled date: 3 years, 4 months ago

This is an adaptation of part of the Quadratum Cubicum series of puzzles, more info available at QuCub.com. This adaptation features 4 individual puzzles, detailed below, and a case that fits all 4 in the 'smaller' solved state pictured in this post. Each 'series' consists of three squares that have been chopped up into pieces that fit together into a square of exactly 3 times the area. The 'larger' solved state for 3 of the 4 puzzles should range in the difficulty scale from 6-9/10 depending on experience with series 4 coming in much easier at a 3-4/10.
Series 1 (series1.stl) - Nobuyuki Yoshigahara 2003 - Pictured Red
Difficulty 9/10 - If printing the Series1.stl, it has already been scaled to increase tolerances. If printing from individual pieces, scale x/y only to 99%. You will need 3 copies of each piece, or one print of the series file. This one is difficult to solve.
Series 2 (series2.stl) - Edouard Lucas 1883 - Pictured Green
Difficulty 8/10 - If printing the Series2.stl, it has already been scaled to increase tolerances. If printing from individual pieces, scale x/y only to 98.5%. You will need 1 copy of each piece, or one print of the series file. This one is difficult to solve as well.
Series 3 (series3.stl) - Christian Blanvillain 2010 - Pictured Blue
Difficulty 6-9/10 - I have not received feedback about this puzzle's difficulty, but I would guess around 7/10. If printing the Series3.stl, it has already been scaled to increase tolerances. If printing from individual pieces, scale x/y only to 98%. You will need 1 copy of pieces 1 and 2, and two copies of pieces 3 and 4, or one print of the series file. Light sanding might be required on the jagged corners of pieces 1 and 2 to remove any imperfections in the print. This will ensure a good final solution that doesn't require any force.
Series 4 (series4.stl) - Abu Bakr al-Khalil 9 - Pictured Orange
Difficulty 4/10 - If printing the Series4.stl, it has already been scaled to increase tolerances. If printing from individual pieces, scale x/y only to 98.75%. You will need 2 copies of each piece, or one print of the series file. This one is simpler to solve because of the 2 large pieces having only one way to fit in the frame.
Individual Pieces are titled sxpx.stl where s means series, followed by the number, and p means piece, followed by the number again.
There are 5 other puzzles in this set which I will add to a bigger project later that will contain all 9 series as well as additional challenges involving combinations of different series. Link here: (Link will be added here on upload for the next project)
Solutions are in a zip called, aptly, "Solutions.zip", please avoid using them if you can, as that would ruin the fun for you. :) They are included as reference in case tolerance issues arise that make you question the solutions. In general they will not be necessary as the solutions are beautiful and clearly intentional.
AFTERWARD: These puzzles are based upon a centuries old mathematical challenge to slice a square into pieces that can be reassembled into 3 smaller squares, using as few pieces as possible. There are no 5 piece solutions to this problem, and while mathematicians are not sure that Christian Blanvillain(series3.stl) has found the ONLY 6 piece solution, he is the only one to have found one so far. Each of the series in this puzzle have attributed names of the Mathematician who is credited with the discovery of the particular cut methodology used. All credit for the idea to use them as puzzles goes to Quadratum Cubicum (QuCub.com - no author name noted) and this was already licensed under Creative Commons Attributable before I modeled the pieces and the base/lid.