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Swap Cube
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Five differently coloured 2x2x2 embedded in a strange mechanism which allows one to exchange the cubies between the individual cubes.

Swap Cube is a set of five 2x2x2 Rubik's Cubes in a pentagonal frame. You can not only scramble and solve each individual 2x2x2. You can also turn the big pentagon and swap pieces between the 2x2x2's. This makes it a much harder puzzle.

This puzzle has an interesting mathematical basis. How many ways are there to colour a corner piece with three different colours from a set of six? Selecting three colours out of a set of six can be done in "6 over 3" ways. There are 2 mirror images for each selection. So the answer is "2 times (6 over 3)", which equals to 40. Indeed, this puzzle has 40 pieces, one of each type. Fundamentally, there is only one way to build five solved 2x2x2's from this set (and its mirror image). However, there are many ways that you can build four solved 2x2x2's, but then the remaining 8 pieces cannot make the fifth one. This makes the puzzle very hard to solve, even if it were a put-together puzzle.

Edge length: 91 mm (pentagon)
Edge length: 28 mm (one cube)
Weight: 84 grams

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Contributors

Thank you to the following people for their assistance in helping collect the information on this page: Andreas Nortmann, Brandon Enright.

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