Rubik's Tangle

Background

There are several tangles out there, and they all share the same problem: I have none of them. Even worse, I have never been in the position to actually see, touch or sniff a Rubik's Tangle in real life myself. The tangles presented here were scanned and e-mailed to me by some kind people on the net, wondering if I had a solution. Well, I did not have a solution, but I hacked together a small program which simply tries all possible tile combinations, and ... voila!

Putting all tangles together

There are 24 possible configurations for each tile. Since it is a puzzle consisting of 25 tiles, that means that there are 2 identical tiles in the 25 tile lot, which therefore is true for each of the 4 tangles. So, technically, there are 4 solutions to each puzzle, where the two identical tiles are swapped between each of the 2 totally different solutions. Jim's solution is the "swapped" version of John's puzzle 4 #2 solution.

Also, when the puzzles were first released they were advertised as one huge 10x10 puzzle when all 4 tangles were put together. Unfortunately, the powers that be at Rubik headquarters made a mistake with tangle number 2 and made the "identical" tile the wrong one making the 10x10 solution impossible with 1 tile being out of sync. Here you can see the 10x10 "solution" for your frustrated enjoyment. The tile at the top right hand corner with the black border doesn't exist in the full collection but it was put there to make the solution look good.

Double sided 3x3 Tangle

Thanks to David Nail for sending me the images.

[Tangle 3X3 solution]

Single sided 5x5 Tangle (1)

The following tiles were drawn by hand on the computer. Thanks, Maarten.

[Tangle 5x5 solution (1)]

Single sided 5x5 Tangle (2)

I received the following tiles from Jim Kuypers, thanks!

[Tangle 5x5 solution (2)]

Single sided 5x5 Tangle (3)

David Norton sent in the following solution, great!

[Tangle 5x5 solution (3)]

Many more solutions

John Kunst was so kind to send me the following:

"[...]I thought you may like some more solutions to Rubik's Tangle. Each Tangle has 2 different solutions and I've attached them all.[...]"

Thanks, John! Here they are:

Disclaimer

The "Rubik's" mark, the puzzle and distinctive likenesess thereof are the properties of Seven Towns Limited ("Seven Towns"). This page is unofficial, not-for-profit and neither it nor this site is endorsed or related by Seven Towns in any way.