This is Alpha, the first-born, when he was 2YO.
This is Beta, the second-born, when he was about 2YO.
This is Gamma, the third-born, when he was about 18MO.
World Cube Puzzle
Jun
8
2010
I subscribe to World Magazine. The cover a few issues ago had an advertisement that tried to get my attention.
I ignored the ad until I had finished the issue. Then I looked at the Rubik’s-like puzzle that they used as the centerpiece of the ad. And, being the good engineer that I am, I tried to solve it
But I couldn’t solve it because it was wrong. I found 8 and a half things wrong with it.
Centers
The first thing I saw was that there were two centers with the same color.
Since a cube puzzle is supposed to have one color per side, and there is only one center per side, there should be only one color per center piece.
Edges
The next thing I saw was that there were pieces with the same color on two sides.
How are we supposed to get all the grays on one side? Or all the oranges? It’s impossible!
Sides
Another thing I saw was duplication of pieces. This is where it starts to get hazy because I had to assume that the solved puzzle would have text facing all the same way (as they have it in the ad even though it is not solved. If I had made the ad I would have at least put the text in different directions).
Just like there is only one center piece per side, there is also only one upper-left piece or one bottom-center piece. I found four duplicates of those.
Color
Astute readers will have counted 8 items and may be wondering about the 9th (or 8.5th as I indicated). It is color. The cube has 6 sides, which implies there should be 6 different colors. But the cube shows only 5 colors. So either a color is duplicated (bad) or there is one face that is already solved (impressive). Or the other option is that they forgot a color.
Conclusion
The ad was effective. In the course of trying to solve the puzzle (and figure out everything that was wrong), I learned all about the offer. I suppose this post fits in the “there’s no such thing as bad publicity” category.
But I personally have heard about you, that you are able to give interpretations and solve difficult problems. Now if you are able to read the inscription and make its interpretation known to me, you will be clothed with purple and wear a necklace of gold around your neck, and you will have authority as the third ruler in the kingdom.
Daniel 5:16
This little article thingy was written by Some Guy sometime around 6:14 am and has been carefully placed in the Marketing category.
June 8th, 2010 at 7:37 am
I’m guessing you’re the only person in the world who tried to solve that advertisement.
June 8th, 2010 at 5:38 pm
I agree with pp.