Think Like It's String

But Sometimes That Doesn't Work

Summer on the Xiaoshang Bridge

You all know that I can't resist a good disentanglement puzzle (actually, I can't resist a puzzle!) and the king of good wire and string puzzles is Aaron Wang. Every year he sends out a nice new list of impossible challenges which I spend several years failing to solve. I have learned that I need to focus on the ones that don't have string if I am to have any chance at all but some of the releases every year are clearly ultra-complex N-ary puzzles and nobody can resist owning at least 1 (or 50-100) N-ary puzzles. I can't afford to buy the whole set but I always buy a good selection.

This release had four lovely looking challenges based on the Xiaoshang bridge and I bought the Summer version thinking that I might actually understand it and be able to solve one for once. In this version there is a fish swimming under the bridge that has been caught up and needs to be brought in to dry land. It didn't look that hard to me and so I started early on it.

The fish has a very particular shape to its' mouth and this provides the clue for how to proceed. The first thing that you notice is that there is very little wiggle room with all the links of the chain and the fish. The moves will need to be quite precise. After a little play it quickly became apparent that this was actually a string puzzle! The way to solve it is to think like the chain is made of string - if you can see how the string version would solve then the chain version is going to be the same....with a little bit extra. It needs a little fancy manoeuvring to get the fake string into position and then it does the required move. Unlike with the string version, the fish is not released in a single move - it just moves the fish to another part of the puzzle and then it's quite simple to remove the fish for a photograph:

I'm better at fishing than puzzling!

I was feeling really good about myself - I would have a subject for the blog today! Time to throw the fish back in the pond as you are supposed to. Just reverse the sequence that I did earlier. Move one hooks the fish onto part of the chain and then fancy reorganisation and unhook and...

Tadaaaaaa!

The fish is back on the bank of the river! Huh! How did that happen? It's very odd, I could have sworn that I did the exact reverse of the initial set of moves and it didn't put the puzzle back to the beginning. I tried again and again with the same result. Very odd! This was a cue for a minor panic. I couldn't possibly fall down on the very first puzzle in the batch! Aaron had rated this a level 10 and, after the disassembly, I did wonder how he came to that conclusion. When I failed multiple times at the reassembly, I realised that there was more to the puzzle than I had initially thought. Great fun. Time for some think©ing.

After another 15 minutes or so, I realised that the disassembly requires a very specific positioning of several parts of that chain and it's really important that the same positioning is repeated when doing the reverse. Once realised, I had it back together. The fun thing here is that I have repeated the disassembly and reassembly a number of times and the initial false start in the reassembly happens to me every single time! Maybe you will be better than me?

Trumpet - design by Shuai Chi and made by Mr Gao

There are a few puzzles in this year's release that are musical instrument themed. This one, Trumpet, looks very compelling and not terribly tough with no string and a shuttle to be removed from a relatively simple shape.

It's "only" a level 8 on Aaron's scale so maybe actually achievable? I think in all the years I have been buying from him, he has never released anything simpler than level 8. I thought that PuzzleMaster had a very odd difficulty scale of 5 to 10 but Aaron only has a scale of 8 to 10! If you missed out on buying his puzzles direct then a huge number are available from PuzzleMaster here.

There are a couple of very obvious things to do with the shuttle straight away and they do look like they are going in the right direction. The only trouble is that when you perform one or other of those "obvious" moves then nothing further seems to be possible. Literally, each time you do it you can do one sequence and then are stopped in your tracks! Level 8? Lord help me!

The Einsteinian approach of doing the same thing many dozens (hundreds?) of times doesn't work as usual and I was stuck. I took it to work with me and failed there, much to the amusement of a few colleagues. I didn't let any orthopaedic surgeons near a wire puzzle as they have access to bolt cutters and power saws! Eventually I tried something silly combined with what I had done before and suddenly the shuttle was somewhere new. That was unexpected. A few moves later and I had my solved puzzle:

I can solve a level 8 puzzle!

I was on a roll! I now had 2 puzzles solved - was I going to get a lucky third? Sob! The answer to that is a resounding NO! 

I continued with the musical theme with Double-barre

 

Double-barre - design by Shuai Chi and made by Mr Gao

My first issue with this one was that it's not actually terribly clear which pieces get removed. I think that it splits into 2 halves but I cannot actually completely certain. It's a level 8 and supposedly simple.

Just as with the Trumpet, there are a couple of obvious moves to try which moves the double shuttle to link up with another part of the chain of rings. After that, I cannot seem to find anything to do that doesn't get things either very badly tangled (even without string) or need to force the wire to bend which is not right.

After a few days of doing the same thing multiple times, I saw a post on FB that had olved this puzzle. I reached out for a clue and received a nice photograph of a partway state and a comment that I should solve it like the Chinese Lantern 1 puzzle. The only problem is that I have singularly failed on that one too.

I have tried to get my version into the same configuration as my advisor and nope, I cannot do it. I have put it down for a while and will come back to it when I have some new ideas. Or maybe get some more hints. Sigh - I am rubbish at puzzles!

Whilst you are here, I have to tell you that most of the puzzles from Pelikan's latest release are still available. Don't miss out... they are really good.