Introducing the Radio Jam! This is the 8th in my series of increasingly deeper face turning icosahedron puzzles.

Just as the dodecahedron shape has some nice canonical face turning cut depths like the Megaminx, Pyraminx Crystal, Starminx and Pentultimate, the icosahedron has some cut depths that are well proportioned and elegant. For example the Radio Web - Radiolarian 6, should be simpler than the Radio Jewel - Radiolarian 7, since the Web has shallower cuts. But the Radio Jewel - Radiolarian 7 represents a moment where some pieces disappear, leaving a pleasant, simpler outward appearance. Even though it has a deeper cut than the Radio Web, the Radio Jewel is elegant both in outer appearance and the inner mechanism because some earlier complexity can finally be shed.

Puzzles between the elegant stopping points have been called "in-betweens".

The Radio Jam - Radiolarian 8 is one of these in-betweens. It has not let go of the complexity of the Radio Jewel -Radiolarian 7, but has also gained some new pieces: two very small trianges on each edge. This uncomfortable space between two more elegant puzzles reminds me of the region on a radio dial just between two stations, where you can get hints of both, but neither is totally comprehensible. This puzzle contains the pieces from the Radio Jewel, and the upcoming Radio Crystal, and the result is a puzzle stuck between two worlds.

I'll call movement on this one fair. I think this puzzle would need to be made larger to improve it. Breaking in was also a nightmare this time. On to the photos and video!

By the way-- a quick apology, these photos were taken with too high of an ISO, so they are grainy. On the bright side there's less depth of field. Next time should be an improvement.


Jumble 1

Jumble 2

This image is a comparison to Radiolarian 3. You can see how deep the cuts are now.

Video Here.

Ooh. So beautiful. The cut pattern and the proportions of all it's pieces blow my mind.

I know you're probably waiting for the whole series to be finished for this, but can you post a series picture sometime, with partial twists to show depth?

Whoa, that's crazy I count 302(?) external pieces. Very beautiful execution. This has to be way up there in terms of most complex twisty puzzles ever made!

It's somewhere between the depth of Gelatinbrain's 1.2.5 and 1.2.6. Solving this beast would be quite a marathon, even on a computer!

Hey Brandon. I used to know of a page on gelatinbrain where all the variations were listed with pictures, but I haven't been able to find it. I'd love to be able to look and see how my Radiolarians line up with GB.

Jared, I was tempted to show them all together. I got them all out last night for myself and they're pretty fun as a set. I'll do some photos like that when the series is complete!

Wow!!! Nothing short of astonishing. By far your coolest puzzle, and (almost) certainly my vote for puzzle of the year. Excellent stuff Jason, well done.

Wou, amazing !!

Jason, very nice work.

-Doug

Amazing, Jason! I've got to get my rear in gear making Radio Cubes! I have a lot of catching up to do!

Eitan

Yet another completionist at work.
Amazing.

Thanks very much you guys!



Oh man, I would love to see more Radio Cubes!


Yes Andreas, I have the same disease. Deeper and deeper we go...

Amazingly beautiful. Technically brilliant. Mind boggling mechanism. This could only be made using 3D printing and CAD. Vive la 21ème siècle!

i just felt a sharp pain imagining making it with steel mold, there could easily be more than 500 parts
anyway, it seems cuts are breaking through the final barrier, hold on.

Vive le 21ème siècle!

I've called these "hybrids" in the past but "in-betweens" may actually be a better name for them.I was looking for that myself a week or so ago and couldn't find it either. I think its been taken down... no idea why.Here is an animation I made back in 2009 I believe that attempts to name or atleast point out all the different corner turn dodecahedrons that uses the GB names. Note the corner turn dodecahedrons cover the same pieces found in the face turn icosahedron.

If you make ALL of them I count 19 possible if the corner turn dodecahedron had been used. That counts the isolated core with no cuts (not much of a puzzle) as the shallowest version all the way to the Chopasaurus as the deepest version. As you are using the face turn icosahedron I think you jump over the two shallowest verions after the core seen in the above animation. So that drops you to 17... and as the core by itself isn't interesting I think that means there are 16 different versions you could make. Unless the icosahedron geometry allows for a few new variations or maybe skips others from the dodecahedron. I'd need to make another animation applying these cuts to the icosahedron to be sure. But as this is your 8th version I'd guess you are about half way there. Congrats!! Making a puzzle this complex is a monumental feat. Its hard to even imagine this whole series actually being made into physical puzzles.

Carl

You can still see them on the leaderboard (which isn't being updated for now) although they are intermixed with scores so you don't see them all side by side.

I tried stepping through it with my program and counted 18 if you include the empty core and the Chopasaurus. 19 if you count a version where it just barely cuts an edge into two pieces on the surface. It'd be like having a shallow and deep cut megaminx where the edge is complete connect to itself vs the corners touching so they aren't visibly connected from the outside, but I wouldn't really consider that one build worthy.
Curvey cuts could definitely make this list larger.

Sorry. I've forgotten to answer your pm.
The list is moved here.
http://users.skynet.be/gelatinbrain/App ... Icosahedra
Just to prevent users to launch the applet inadvertently and possible freeze.

When I planned this project, I used the Japp Sphere and counted 19 possibilities, but I removed four from the list that I found too trivial. I removed 2 before Radiolarian 1, (call them 0 and 0.5) and I removed one between Radiolarian 1 and 2 (call that 1.5), and one between 4 and 5 (call that 4.5)
I'll dig up my chart jpeg and we can compare notes!

I'll be posting the Radio Crystal tonight or tomorrow!

Here's a link to my image. It's large so I won't inline it.
Link to the large image is here.
Moving from smaller numbers to higher, green means a part just appeared. Cyan means it is about to disappear in the next puzzle.

#14 reminds me of rubber bands on a ball... May I suggest the name "Radio Bands"?

To date noone has made the small stellated dodecahedron. That should be a reasonably straightforward shape mod of the radiolarian 9.

It's funny how much of this is a rehashing of stuff from 2004, after Jaap's applet was first posted.

I feel bad that I missed 2004 era discussions on this site. I think I joined in 2006 or 7?

Then I remember machining puzzle parts out of blocks of ABS and polycarbonate in 2008... each puzzle was a 3 month... or 6 month... or 9 month affair. This is definitely a fun time to rehash these discussions.