Bedlam cube


[Image:Bedlam cube.JPG|thumb|Bedlam cube]
[Image:Bedlam elements.JPG|thumb|Bedlam cube elements]
[Image:Bedlam_cube_solution.svg|thumb|240px|A solution to the Bedlam cube puzzle]
The Bedlam cube is a solid dissection puzzle invented by British puzzle expert Bruce Bedlam.

Design

The puzzle consists of thirteen polycubic pieces: twelve pentacubes and one tetracube. The objective is to assemble these pieces into a 4 x 4 x 4 cube. There are 19,186 distinct ways of doing so, up to rotations and reflections.
The Bedlam cube is one unit per side larger than the 3 x 3 x 3 Soma cube, and is much more difficult to solve.

History

Two of the BBC's 'Dragons' from Dragons' Den, Rachel Elnaugh and Theo Paphitis, were to invest in the Bedlam cube during the 2005 series. They offered £100,000 for a 30% share of equity in Bedlam Puzzles. Danny Bamping finally chose a bank loan instead of their investment, as seen in the relevant "Where Are They Now" episode of Dragons' Den.

Records

According to Guinness World Records, the uncontested world record for assembling the Bedlam Cube is 11.03 seconds by Danny Bamping on 9 November 2006. The blindfolded record is 27.21 seconds by Aleksandr Iljasov on 25 February 2008.