On Understanding Disentanglement Puzzles
Xinya Zhang, Paul Kry, and Etienne Vouga

Proceedings of Bridges 2023: Mathematics, Art, Music, Architecture, Culture
Pages 353–360
Regular Papers

Abstract

What makes a disentanglement puzzle a puzzle? In this paper, we explore this question from a geometric perspective. We study a set of wire puzzles—disentanglement puzzles consisting of two pieces formed by bending thick metal wire—and wire non-puzzles, contrast their geometric properties both in 3D space and in their 6D configuration space, and propose several qualitative and quantitative measures of how “puzzly” a wire puzzle is.

Files