Rubik's Snake
Rubik's Snake, (or Rubik's Twist), is a folding puzzle. The Snake was one of the most popular twisty puzzles in the 1980s.
There are many different variations of the snake, including the shapes of the pieces, number of pieces, size, and color. But the most common type of snake has 24 pieces. Snake puzzles, especially the larger ones, can be used to create interesting shapes and figures, such as animal shapes. In Speedsolving a 24-piece snake, typically the goal is to go from a straight bar to the 'ball' shape (rhombicuboctahedron). Advanced solvers do this in 3-4 grips.
Out of the box they don't turn very well. For speedsolving purposes, sanding can help. However, the snake will become loose on its own after breaking in and eventually will not stay in shape when put on a surface.
While snake puzzles have never been especially popular in the speedcubing community, some cube brands have released their own versions, including QiYi and MoYu, the QiYi snakes are available in multiple different colours and are also available in 24,36,48 and 72 piece lengths. MoYu snakes are multicoloured with a cycle of 5 different colours, the MoYu snake is also available in 24,36,48,60 and 72 piece sizes. DianSheng have also released a giant snake under their Googol series, the DianSheng Googol snake is 91CM long. These modern snakes turn a lot better than older models.
Notation
In a series of exchanged emails in 2006, James Straughan and Johannes Laire created a notation for Rubik's Snake. The pieces of the puzzle can be turned 90 degrees clockwise or counter-clockwise and 180 degrees either direction. For the notation, each piece from left to right is given a number from 1-24. A "+" sign after a number means to turn that numbered piece clockwise, "-" means counter-clockwise, and "x" means to turn that piece 180 degrees. If there is a sequence of numbers in order, the numbers after the first in the sequence can be omitted and only the "+", "-", and "x" modifiers written. Below is James Straughan's speed solution for forming the ball shape:
2- 3- 4+ 6+ 7+ 5- 8- 9+ 11- 10- 12+ 14+ 15+ 13- 16- 17+ 19- 20+ 21- 18- 23+ 24- 22+
See also
External links
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