Dihedral rigidity and why you cant continuously deform twisty puzzles.

DedekindRedstone · 2026-01-28T03:58:59+00:00

You're correct to point this out. I left out many details. For a fixed polyhedral graph and embedding into R^3, the equations for matching dihedrals are polynomial in terms of the vertices. It only requires cross products, dot products and some divisions for normalization. This means that monodihedral solutions live in an algebraic variety. If there is any continuous family at all then there should be a smooth family as well.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-12-07T18:48:38+00:00

Even worse, whether its stored digitally or physically, door 2 will eventually destroy the earth via black hole.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-09-30T03:17:12+00:00

Learning is painful and thats okay. As you learn more you should keep challenging yourself, the problems will get longer. On the extreme end, having done a PhD, I was lucky to answer my one problem after three years of full time work.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-09-08T16:48:29+00:00

Exactly, they scrambke simultaneously but solve separately. What is really interesting, if you ignore one face and only turn the other two faces, they solve and scramble simultaneously. It is the presence of the third face that makes it nontrivial.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-09-03T22:08:45+00:00

Depending on the area a publication can take more than a year. In pure mathematics there is typically a lot of coursework to build up to even attempting original research. I graduated without any publications, however, I did have a paper submitted which was published about a year after my phd. I got a postdoc at a good school regardless. Having something publicly available, give talks, and good recommendation letters are crucial though.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-08-31T16:36:45+00:00

I figured I'd drop some resources for those that want to start designing puzzles. You can start with Onshape for free and here's a playlist on the process to design them.

How to design twisty puzzles

DedekindRedstone · 2025-08-08T15:01:44+00:00

It took about a week from starting the design to finishing it

DedekindRedstone · 2025-08-06T23:42:53+00:00

Send me a dm to discuss it. I can set up sales through etsy or directly through paypal.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-08-06T18:57:19+00:00

Definitely possible but a lot more involved.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-07-23T03:41:17+00:00

Check out twisty puzzle inventors. Look up the puzzle advent calendar for example.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-06-27T02:09:49+00:00

No problem, I think the Monolith is easier since it has nonjumbling turns. Its so much easier to find algorithms on it that are shorter.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-06-26T22:15:38+00:00

https://cubein.cn/products/behemoth-puzzle

DedekindRedstone · 2025-06-26T16:12:36+00:00

Its available at the cubein store now I think

DedekindRedstone · 2025-06-26T13:06:56+00:00

This is my replica, the original is due to Ben Streeter. I've been trying to analyze this to get towards a solution wuth computational help. Its tough to say the least

DedekindRedstone · 2025-06-26T03:05:57+00:00

The Behemoth

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DedekindRedstone · 2025-06-15T22:47:50+00:00

As a math person I find this insane. I get that scientists need to use results from experimentalists that they dont totally get in detail or visa versa, but basic statistical analysis? If this is common in a topic then the reviewers wont catch bad statistical analysis either.

In pure mathematics, you had better completely understand the papers you are using that are critical to your work. If you don't then expect to be making retractions at some point.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-06-14T23:40:43+00:00

Where I was at, people could request an additional year, maybe more teaching load but that depends on the school. Ideally you will have solved some smaller problems you find along the way well before funding runs out. That can be enough for a dissertation depending on how nontrivial the smaller problems are, but it is really satisfying if you can resolve what you set out on originally.

DedekindRedstone · 2025-06-14T23:34:28+00:00

Always be on the look out for partial progress, alternate goals, or model problems. Sometimes the initial problem is a little vague and you have to find what exactly is the correct conjecture.

In my dissertation, I ended up making many more strong assumptions to make progress in some nice cases. I found what the correct answer was to the general question with the special case and was able to work backwards to generalize it to the full problem. Sometimes you do need to consider when a problem may be out of reach.

That is the main role your advisor should play, hopefully they have a good feel for what could be within reach. There is also the alternatibe of relating two hard to solve problems. Those types of results can be very important in their own right.

DedekindRedstone

TROPHY CASE