Alexander's Star

Alexander's Star is a puzzle similar to the Rubik's Cube, in the shape of a great dodecahedron.

History

Alexander's Star was invented by Adam Alexander, an American mathematician, in 1982. It was patented on 26 March 1985, with US patent number 4,506,891, and sold by the Ideal Toy Corporation.

Description

The puzzle has 30 moving pieces, which rotate in star-shaped groups of five around its outermost vertices. The purpose of the puzzle is to rearrange the moving pieces so that each star is surrounded by five faces of the same color, and opposite stars are surrounded by the same color. This is equivalent to solving just the edges of a six-color Megaminx.

Number of combinations

There are 29!×2¹³ = 7.2×10³⁴ possible positions.

ee also

*Rubik's Cube
*Combination puzzles
*Mechanical puzzles

External links

* [http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/alexandr.htm Description and solution]