Object Details
Description
This object is named The Diamond but other photographs of what appear to be the same puzzle show packaging labeled Dream Puzzler and Wonderful Puzzler.
The Diamond is in the shape of a cuboctahedron, a fourteen sided solid figure formed from a cube by slicing off each corner along the lines that connect the midpoints of the edges of the cube that meet at the corner. A cuboctahedron is a special case of a truncated cube (see puzzle 2006.0061.13). In its solved position, The Diamond has six square faces where the truncated cube puzzle has six octagonal faces.
The square faces of the cuboctahedron are colored the same as a traditional Rubik's cube, yellow, orange, green, red, blue and white. The eight remaining faces are equilateral triangles that are colored using two different shades of pink, two different shades of purple, gold, silver, turquoise, and light green.
Unlike the Rubik’s Cube, whose six square faces are made up of nine small squares, the nine shapes that make up the square faces of The Diamond include one small square, four pentagons, and four very small right triangles. The eight triangular faces of The Diamond is made up of three equilateral triangles and one hexagon. It uses the same mechanism as the Rubik’s Cube to rotate the square faces
This puzzle was made in about 1981. It is among Rubik’s Cube related items from the Cube Museum, which operated in Grand Junction, Colorado, from 1988 to 1991. For more information about about the Rubik’s Cube and other twisting puzzles that use the same or similar mechanisms see 1987.0805.01.
Reference:
TwistyPuzzles [Cuboctahedron (AKA: Diamond Cube)] website.
Location
Currently not on view
Credit Line
Gift of Cecil Smith
Date made
1981
ID Number
2006.0061.09
catalog number
2006.0061.09
accession number
2006.0061
Object Name
puzzle
Physical Description
paper (overall material)
plastic (overall material)
Measurements
overall: 5.5 cm x 8.5 cm x 8.5 cm; 2 5/32 in x 3 11/32 in x 3 11/32 in
See more items in
Medicine and Science: Mathematics
Science & Mathematics
Twisting Puzzles
Data Source
National Museum of American History
Subject
Mathematical Recreations
Mathematics
Link to Original Record
Record ID
nmah_1301122