5 ms·

Physical 3x3x3x3 hypercube and other physical 4d twisty puzzles [video]

46 points by amichail 4y ago

tdba 4y ago
I understood 0% of what he was saying but I'm happy for him
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
gabcoh 4y ago
Context for anyone who like me was desperately lost: https://superliminal.com/cube/2x2x2x2/ https://superliminal.com/cube/2x2x2x2/
- gws4d 4y ago
  As the person who made that video and just discovered this post through youtube analytics, I can give more information if you would like.
animal_spirits 4y ago
Unbelievable. I used to be a collector of twisty puzzles and there was quite a few levels of challenging puzzles beyond my ability, but seeing this is just astounding! I only have barely a clue what each of the moves are doing but it makes me smile knowing someone cared enough to make this. Science has gone too far
- gws4d 4y ago
  (person who made that video and just found this post through youtube analytics here) Thank you! It means a lot! Especially because I am just a high schooler...
igmor 4y ago
gyro move kinds feel extremely artificial compared to the simplicity of all other canonical moves.
- jjnoakes 4y ago
  Yeah even though the moves are all the same in 4d space, some of them get complex in 3d space.
- gws4d 4y ago
  (person who made that video and just found this post through youtube analytics here) Yes, it is a lot more complicated this is because of the nature of what the gyro is doing. The gyros are effectively a 4 dimension rotation of the puzzle that actually doesn't change the state of the puzzle, but just the orientation. This doesn't work out to be very pretty in 3d.
ummonk 4y ago
Not exactly "physical" in the same sense as a normal Rubik's cube, since there isn't any physical restriction that makes illegal moves of taking it apart and putting it back together anymore difficult than performing legal moves.
- whatshisface 4y ago
  The magnets are pretty complex, I am not sure if that's true. (I can see the imprints of at least four magnets per side.)
  - gws4d 4y ago
    (person who made that video and just found this post through youtube analytics here) There are 8 magnets on each side of each cube, for a total of 48 per cube. The puzzle can be assembled to invalid states, so yes it does come to the user to ensure that only allowed or "canonical" moves are used.
rendall 4y ago
I don't understand how that's a 3x3x3x3. While there are some 3x3 elements, there are only 2 layers and 2 side by side. What am I missing?
- GoldenRacer 4y ago
  He starts out showing a 2x2x2x2 and doesn't get to the 3x3x3x3 until just after the 10 minute mark.
  - rendall 4y ago
    Oh yes, I see now. Thank you!
JKCalhoun 4y ago
I trust the math. I trust the manipulator. But it drives home the reason why I parted ways with advanced math. There just came a point when the math no longer resonated with the natural world that I was comfortable living in. Imaginary (and complex) numbers were the first real schism where my mind repelled the very idea. Nonetheless, decades later, I would be talking with a friend who is much smarter than me. We were talking about the lossy nature of converting audio from the time domain to the frequency domain and back. I understood that phase information was lost in the translation (I also thought it was curious that the human brain seemed to be phase-agnostic and so could not perceive the difference when audio was round-tripped through the frequency domain). "Oh," he said, "when you do a Fast Fourier transform to move audio into the frequency domain the phase information is represented by the imaginary part of a complex number." Wait, what? So complex numbers have a real-world analog in constructing an FFT — a "real" algorithm that does real work? I see now that the really smart people just understand the natural world much better than I do — or perhaps see it differently than I do.
- maxbond 4y ago
  I think it's less about some people being especially good at math than mathematics education being especially terrible and uninspiring. 3blue1brown's approach to math pedagogy had really changed how I'm able to see math and to understand it's profundity (as someone who didn't get any further than you, it sounds like, in formal math education [I never took calculus in school.]). https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFit... This is also a great series of videos about how, like it says on the tin, the imaginary numbers are real: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiaHhY2iBX9g6KIvZ_703G3KJXapKkNaF https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiaHhY2iBX9g6KIvZ_703G3KJ...
  - skupig 4y ago
    The second playlist is great, thank you! As someone with near zero math knowledge, it was very exciting learning that imaginary numbers are a beautiful and intuitive concept. Really makes me want to start playing with frequency domain stuff. Also, the reveal of the mapped video visualization... the whole series is worth watching just for that moment.
alkonaut 4y ago
Does the limitations of 3D physics just mean that the thing can't really be connected, and you are responsible for making a subset of the moves by free hand, and if you screw up you either cheated, or made the equivalent of a corner twist on a Rubik's cube, leaving the resulting configuration unsolvable?

46 points by amichail 4y ago

tdba 4y ago

I understood 0% of what he was saying but I'm happy for him

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

gabcoh 4y ago

Context for anyone who like me was desperately lost: https://superliminal.com/cube/2x2x2x2/ https://superliminal.com/cube/2x2x2x2/

gws4d 4y ago
As the person who made that video and just discovered this post through youtube analytics, I can give more information if you would like.

animal_spirits 4y ago

Unbelievable. I used to be a collector of twisty puzzles and there was quite a few levels of challenging puzzles beyond my ability, but seeing this is just astounding! I only have barely a clue what each of the moves are doing but it makes me smile knowing someone cared enough to make this. Science has gone too far

gws4d 4y ago
(person who made that video and just found this post through youtube analytics here) Thank you! It means a lot! Especially because I am just a high schooler...

igmor 4y ago

gyro move kinds feel extremely artificial compared to the simplicity of all other canonical moves.

jjnoakes 4y ago
Yeah even though the moves are all the same in 4d space, some of them get complex in 3d space.
gws4d 4y ago
(person who made that video and just found this post through youtube analytics here) Yes, it is a lot more complicated this is because of the nature of what the gyro is doing. The gyros are effectively a 4 dimension rotation of the puzzle that actually doesn't change the state of the puzzle, but just the orientation. This doesn't work out to be very pretty in 3d.

ummonk 4y ago

Not exactly "physical" in the same sense as a normal Rubik's cube, since there isn't any physical restriction that makes illegal moves of taking it apart and putting it back together anymore difficult than performing legal moves.

whatshisface 4y ago
The magnets are pretty complex, I am not sure if that's true. (I can see the imprints of at least four magnets per side.)
- gws4d 4y ago
  (person who made that video and just found this post through youtube analytics here) There are 8 magnets on each side of each cube, for a total of 48 per cube. The puzzle can be assembled to invalid states, so yes it does come to the user to ensure that only allowed or "canonical" moves are used.

rendall 4y ago

I don't understand how that's a 3x3x3x3. While there are some 3x3 elements, there are only 2 layers and 2 side by side. What am I missing?

GoldenRacer 4y ago
He starts out showing a 2x2x2x2 and doesn't get to the 3x3x3x3 until just after the 10 minute mark.
- rendall 4y ago
  Oh yes, I see now. Thank you!

JKCalhoun 4y ago

I trust the math. I trust the manipulator. But it drives home the reason why I parted ways with advanced math. There just came a point when the math no longer resonated with the natural world that I was comfortable living in. Imaginary (and complex) numbers were the first real schism where my mind repelled the very idea. Nonetheless, decades later, I would be talking with a friend who is much smarter than me. We were talking about the lossy nature of converting audio from the time domain to the frequency domain and back. I understood that phase information was lost in the translation (I also thought it was curious that the human brain seemed to be phase-agnostic and so could not perceive the difference when audio was round-tripped through the frequency domain). "Oh," he said, "when you do a Fast Fourier transform to move audio into the frequency domain the phase information is represented by the imaginary part of a complex number." Wait, what? So complex numbers have a real-world analog in constructing an FFT — a "real" algorithm that does real work? I see now that the really smart people just understand the natural world much better than I do — or perhaps see it differently than I do.

maxbond 4y ago
I think it's less about some people being especially good at math than mathematics education being especially terrible and uninspiring. 3blue1brown's approach to math pedagogy had really changed how I'm able to see math and to understand it's profundity (as someone who didn't get any further than you, it sounds like, in formal math education [I never took calculus in school.]). https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFitgF8hE_ab https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZHQObOWTQDPD3MizzM2xVFit... This is also a great series of videos about how, like it says on the tin, the imaginary numbers are real: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiaHhY2iBX9g6KIvZ_703G3KJXapKkNaF https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLiaHhY2iBX9g6KIvZ_703G3KJ...
- skupig 4y ago
  The second playlist is great, thank you! As someone with near zero math knowledge, it was very exciting learning that imaginary numbers are a beautiful and intuitive concept. Really makes me want to start playing with frequency domain stuff. Also, the reveal of the mapped video visualization... the whole series is worth watching just for that moment.

alkonaut 4y ago

Does the limitations of 3D physics just mean that the thing can't really be connected, and you are responsible for making a subset of the moves by free hand, and if you screw up you either cheated, or made the equivalent of a corner twist on a Rubik's cube, leaving the resulting configuration unsolvable?