This is a puzzle, essentially a kind of jigsaw puzzle, but with only 7 pieces. The idea is to fit the pieces onto the 5*5 space board so that they all fit without overlapping or spilling over the edges. To try to do this manually you can click on one of the pieces and then move it using the cursor keys. You can also rotate it by pressing the "r" key, or, for the other direction, the "c" key. Once you've positioned one piece to your liking you can click on another and similarly move that into position. Additionally, for the red and green pieces only, you can use the "f" key to flip them over. (There's no point in flipping the other pieces as their symmetries mean that nothing can be achieved that can't equally well be achieved by rotation). There's a catch though. At various nodes the pieces have white cog wheels attached. For a valid solution the pieces must also be arranged in such a way that a continuous chain of meshed cogs exists between the grey cog on the left, and the other grey cog at the bottom. If you get stuck the "h" hint key will make a helpful move for you. There's also the "a" key, which animates the cog wheels, just for fun. Unfortunately I've failed to do this perfectly as ALL the cogs move, when really only those connected to the grey cogs should move. For future work! There's also the "d" key, which demonstrates just how many different ways there are of solving the puzzle, many hundreds. If you find a solution that is not recognised by my project, please let me know. I _think_ I found them all? ==== Update: I've made some modifications so that this project can be controlled from a mobile phone. You can now move pieces into position simply by dragging them. Just remember to click the piece or the backdrop after doing so to register the change in the project memory, and to precisely position the pieces on the grid. Rotating can be achieved by double clicking a piece. Sorry no counter-rotate, just have to rotate thrice! Flip by triple clicking. Double clicking the backdrop will give a hint. Double clicking the left grey cog will start demo mode. Double clicking the bottom grey cog will animate all the cogs.
This project is based on the physical puzzle by SMART nv and designed by Raf Peeters. Their rights in the puzzle are acknowledged with apologies.
