Does anybody know where to get a Rubik's Tangle that has 25 tiles at all? I know there are 4 different sets and if you have all 4 you can make a 10x10. First does anybody have the full set that they want to sell to me please?
Second does anybody have a solution for the 4 different sets of the Rubik's Tangle 25 tiles and for the 10x10 at all? It came out in the early 90's that's all I know

1- eBay (eBay UK have more than eBay US)

2- Tangle 1, Tangle 2, Tangle 3, Tangle 4, (25 tiles each.)
(The new one, has 9 double-sided plastic tiles check Hessport @ Rubik.com)

3-No one has yet proven that a 10 x 10 can be made !
(I read several old cube lovers digest, and no one had found a solution....yet)

4-I have the 4 sets, but I am not selling them, sorry.

5-I have a solution for one of them (Tangle 2), oneday if I ever i have more spare time, I'll play with them.)

6- Sold by Matchbox

For some odd reason, #3 is harder to come upon.

Good luck hunting down the 4 tangles, and trying to find a solution to the 10x10.

Michael

My girlfriend has a puzzle which i think is very similar. it is a 'wheres wally?' (australian for wheres waldo?) puzzle, where each square piece has, on each edge, either the head or feet of on of the four characters. you just have to join them up in the obvious way.

does anybody know of a clever mathematical (or nonmathematical - i dont care!) way of solving these puzzles????????

there are so MANY positions it makes me sick....

A quick overview of what kind of Rubik's Tangles there are:

Tangles 1-4:
Came out in 1990, made of cardboard, 25 tiles each. Aim is to make a 5x5 square, or combine all sets to make a 10x10 square.
There are 24 possible colour combinations for a tile, and each set has all those 24 plus one duplicate piece.
The 5x5 square has two solutions (and since all four tangle sets are essentially the same except for a rearrangement of the colours, all four sets have two solutions).
The 10x10 square is thought to be unsolvable.

Actually I think that there may have been two editions of these tangles. Some were sold in boxes, but I have one that is just a large sheet with perforated lines. I would have to tear along the lines to get all the tiles, but of course I won't do that.

MiniTangle:
This is a cardboard 3x3 tangle. It is actually just a 3x3 corner of one of the 5x5 tangle 1 solutions. As far as I know only sold in sheet form. Has one solution.

Tangle:
Current form, first sold in 1995. Nine plastic double sided tiles. Has one solution.


I've been working on a webpage, to be added to my site on the next update, but that will be at least 2 months from now.

Jaap

The 10x10 Tangle seems to be a major mistake by Rubik (or Matchbox who released the 4 Tangle sets). In CFF #41, Oct 1996, Eduard Baumann has an article that describes his (computer) search for a 10x10 solution. It took him over a year to reach the conclusion that there is NO solution. The only difference in the 4 Tangle sets is the 25th card - each set has 24 different cards and one duplicate. I cite the article: "For four cards out of 24 you have 10,626 choices, but only 9% (exactly 1008) of them show at least one solution for the 10x10 puzzle". Interesting isn't it?

BTW I first saw Tangle in 1991 and it took me 5 years to finally locate a copy. I now have Tangle #1 and #2 and the Oddzon version. And yes, they appear on eBay from time to time.

Philip

I found this web page about a year ago. It is all about the 10x10 tangle.

http://www2.vo.lu/homepages/phahn/puzzles/bigtang.htm

Does anyone remember a1970s game called something along the lines of "Psyche-paths"? It was a tile-based board game involving intersecting lines of three colors. The tiles were hexagonal, and nearly identical to those of Tantrix (and, in concept, to the Tangle). I vaguely recall it making the Games 100 list one year.

- Peter