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    <title><![CDATA[Cool Math: toys for mathematically-minded adults and kids]]></title>
    <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958</link>
    <description><![CDATA[toys for adults, but not "adult toys"
]]></description>
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	<itunes:author>2004-2009 Paula E. Burch, Ph.D.</itunes:author>
	<itunes:subtitle>Cool Math: toys for mathematically-minded adults and kids</itunes:subtitle>
	<itunes:summary>toys for adults, but not "adult toys"
</itunes:summary>
	<itunes:owner>
		<itunes:name>2004-2009 Paula E. Burch, Ph.D.</itunes:name>
		<itunes:email>%77%65%62%70%61%67%65%6D%61%69%6C%40%70%62%75%72%63%68%2E%6E%65%74</itunes:email>
	</itunes:owner>
	<itunes:link rel="image" type="image/png" href="http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/podcastImage.png">Cool Math: toys for mathematically-minded adults and kids</itunes:link>
	<category>Arts &amp; Entertainment</category>
	<itunes:category text="Arts &amp; Entertainment"> <itunes:category text="Architecture"/> </itunes:category>
	
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Ice tetronimoes ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1550289285/E20090114073905/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ThinkGeek is selling an ice cube tray that makes all twelve tetronimoes!  The writers at ThinkGeek refer to the classic computer game Tetris, but these are also the very same shapes used in Blokus  and Katamino, as well. The twelve shapes in the ice cube tray include all of the possible ways that you can combine four squares to make a two-dimensional shape.  As the retailers say,  Everyone loves Tetris. And everyone has played all the different clones of it too. Well, this is a clone of a clone married after it has been hit by mutagenic radiation. What? It's the Iceblox Ice Cube Puzzle Tray - the only ice cube tray that makes special puzzle shaped pieces which you can use to play a chilly version of the old classic. Really the uses are endless.  You could use Iceblox to chill your drinks to have the geekiest parties around. You could use them to make tons of ice cubes and have one really cold, really melty game with your friends. Or, you could take them and someone you really care about and have one really naughty game of . . . well, you know. See, there's nothing these ice cubes can't make geekier! And we leave you with one final thought: Tetris Jello Shots. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 14 Jan 2009 07:39:05 -0600</pubDate>
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    </item>

    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Original Spirograph ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C386613327/E20081203084844/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The toy currently sold under the Spirograph name is not nearly as good as the old Spirograph of the 1960s. It's been dumbed-down, made less mathematical, and is harder to use.It's worth searching online auction sites for an original Spirograph.  Compare what you find to the picture at the lower left. There are two large circles with center holes, with gear teeth on both inside and out, plus two oblong bars with gear teeth on the outside, and eight solid circles with gear teeth on the outside edge. An old set may be missing map pens or the ball-point pens, but you can easily buy the map pins from a map store, and trial-and-error will turn up pens with points that are long enough to work for you.The mathematics of the geometric patterns you can make are obviously interesting. In the simplest example, if you have two circular gears of the same size, with the same number of teeth, you can draw a cardioid, the heart-shaped figure whose Cartesian equation is(x2 + y2 - 2ax)2 = 4a2(x2 + y2).The biggest drawback of plastic Spirograph toys is that the gears will slip when used carelessly, making it frustrating as a toy for children whose dexterity is not yet sufficiently mature. The static gear should be pinned down firmly, then, as you draw, the moving gear must be pressed toward the closest part of the static gear, so that it does not slip. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 03 Dec 2008 08:48:44 -0600</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Ball of Whacks ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1403008345/E20080510171730/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Roger von Oech's Ball of Whacks consists of thirty identical plastic pieces. Magnets  inside allow them to cling together, but also limit the geometric possibilities.Here on the left we have two sets put together, which works well, the result of a kind and indulgent grandma's giving one set to each of a pair of brothers, so that they would not have to share. Of course the two sets ended up being put together, for even more fun.  Billed as a "creativity workshop in a ball", the Ball of Whacks comes with a booklet giving 96 different ideas for building. Great claims are made for the thing. It's actually not that great as a building toy, because the possibilities are somewhat limited, compared to, say, Zome or Geomag; the same limitations make it a good desk toy for an adult, if matte finished plastic suits your decor.  It's pleasant to feel the magnetic pieces leap gently into place as they are placed together. You won't find nearly as many hours of play in this toy as a more open-ended building toy, but it stays neatly in place on your desk between uses.The magnets are weaker than those in Geomag and seem less likely to pose a risk to credit cards and video games. One drawback is the lack of spare parts: there are exactly enough of the identical building pieces to make the most satisfyingly symmetrical shapes, so even one missing piece is sorely felt. Every time one of my sons drops the pieces on the tile floor, as happens frequently, I cringe at the sound of what must surely be pieces shattering, but in fact we've had no breakages yet, only a couple of losses.The video below is provided by the makers of the Ball of Whacks....  ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 10 May 2008 17:17:30 -0500</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Rumis ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1550289285/E20060101165935/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The four sets of pearlescent  playing pieces in Rumis each contain eleven of the twelve possible different polycubes; only the single cube is missing. In addition to the seven pieces of the Soma and Block By Blocks puzzles, there is also a square piece consisting of four cubes, straight pieces consisting of three cubes and of four cubes, and a L-shaped tricube.The rules are blessedly easy to learn, without making the game play unchallenging. Choose one of the four playing boards, place it on the well-constructed turntable, then take turns placing pieces on the board. After the first move, at least one face of each piece    must touch an earlier-played piece of the same color. The maximum height of the structure built over each square of the playing board is pre-set for each board. The winner of the game is the player whose color covers the greatest number of squares, when viewed from above. There are also rules (or rather suggestions) for solitaire play, and the wise suggestion that two players should each play two colors. It's more challenging and fun that way. The game is supposed to mimic the elaborate stone buildings of the ancient Incas, so the four structures to be built reflect their architecture in shape. The pieces are well constructed, and the turntable is exceptionally steady, so that buildings do not fall as you turn it to get a better look. (We bought our Rumis game from Amazon.) ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 01 Jan 2006 16:59:35 -0600</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Katamino ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1550289285/E20050814124921/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Katamino is a colorful wooden game and puzzle made up of ten of the twelve pentominoes, which are all of the possible shapes that can be made from five squares. It lacks the I, which is five cubes long, and the T, which looks like a plus sign, but it includes extra one- and two-unit blocks to fill in leftover spaces.    One way to play is to place the divider bar between positions 6 and 7, so that it divides the board in half. Two players alternate choosing pieces until they each have half of them, then take turns placing their pieces on their half of the board. The winner is the player who manages to place the most pieces, leaving the fewest squares uncovered.For single-player use, the bar can be placed in each possible position on the board, the challenge being to exactly fill each size of space, ranging from 3x12 to 5x12 squares in size, with pentaminoes, with or without the small filler blocks.My son Peter loved this game from the age of six or seven. Discovering that two of the twelve pentominoes are not found in Katamino is what led us to obtaining Quintillions from Kadon Enterprises. The bar and frame in the Katamino puzzle makes alternative forms of play more obvious, though, so it is more suitable for younger children than the lovely Quintillions set. Katamino is also less expensive. The instructions include outlines of various shapes that can be constructed with the Katamino pieces.Advertisement:     Katamino  is a stimulating brain-teaser as a solitaire puzzle, and a fun strategy game as well. Ideal for children aged 6 through adult.       ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 14 Aug 2005 12:49:21 -0500</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[A Zome Tree ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C253336340/E1839689997/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Zome was reviewed in this space on May 25, 2004, but it's such a great toy that we are always finding new things to do with it. Peter nested a series of tetrahedrons to construct this tree.          Zome is made in the US.Advertisement:     Zome Tool - Creator Kit  is a powerful tool for serious builders in a neat attache. Create even more dazzling structures from 2, 3, and higher dimensions. Perfect for big projects and classroom use.      ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 17 Jan 2005 09:32:15 -0600</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Tensegritoy ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1928003530/E1995985198/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ This Tensegitoy kit contains thirty slotted and drilled wooden dowels, thirty brass tipped elastics, and sixty-four caps. It can be used to make an assortment of different polyhedrons and other shapes, according to the principles of tensegrity, with the sticks serving as compression elements, while the elastics provide the tension. For those who yearn to do more than this kit allows, there are extender and bulk kits, containing 60 and 180 sticks, respectively. The cost is rather high, at nearly a dollar per dowel. On the other hand, the kit's clearly-written and carefully illustrated instructions are invaluable, and making your own requires more initiative than most of us have. (George Hart has an easier tensegrity structure project using soda straws.) At the least, using the kit first gives you a better feel for how to work with tensegrity. The simplest model we made was an approximation of a simple tetrahedron, or perhaps we should say truncated tetrahedron, since the ends of the struts do not quite meet, but instead form triangles. The model pictured at the top is the tensegrity version of an icosahedron, with pentagonal spaces at the vertices.   Tensegrity models are more difficult to construct than most designs from the geometrical modeling kits reviewed in this weblog. This kit is marked for ages ten through adult, but might be questionable for the lower end of that range.Check out this link to the Needle Tower, which is a wonderful example (shown only partially in the family snapshot on the right) of a tensegrity tower at the Hirshhorn museum in Washington, DC. It looks as though about 36 enormous aluminum sticks of gradually decreasing size were required to build it. It is wonderful to stand under the tower and look up at the regularities of the structure. This sculpture was created by Kenneth Snelson, who first invented tensegrity structures in 1948. (The word tensegrity was coined by Buckminster Fuller.) The nature of elastic means that our toy will age and lose its stretch within a few years, but the stainless steel cables used by Snelson last far longer.    ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 03 Jan 2005 20:19:57 -0600</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[No Ends ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C253336340/E169077108/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[No Ends, a construction toy manufactured in Maine by Sagoma Plastics, is fairly limited in its geometric possibilities; it is a building toy consisting of straight beams, hinge pieces, curved beams, and six-direction 90 degree angle connectors, allowing the construction of spheres and rectangular solids.  The one really great thing about No Ends is its size, which allows the construction of shapes large enough, in some cases, for even adults to climb inside. It can be fun once or twice as a party toy for adults, but is longer-lasting fun for a child who likes to toss a sheet over a framework to make a private little hut. There are also flimsy cardboard square panels which fit between the bars to make a solid wall. We have the large set which is marketed with instructions for building a large T. rex, but my eight-year-old still clamors for more, hoping to be able to build larger huts. The parts will not support much weight, so they cannot be sat upon, nor climbed upon.     Advertisement:     No Ends  is as much fun as it is big! Build large structures with foot-long pieces. Beams and connectors link together to create real-life items or abstract forms. Contains 150 curved and straight beams and connectors in 4 bright colors.        ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 10 Nov 2004 21:41:39 -0600</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Trifolia ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C522364530/E566755503/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ Trifolia is a gamepuzzle, produced from lasercut acrylic, by Kadon Enterprises; it contains one of each of the possible triangular shapes made from four types of edges: 'straight', 'hills', 'valleys', or 'waves'.  It rather resembles one of Escher's famous prints, Day and Night.As a puzzle, Trifolia challenges you to find multiple ways of fitting the pieces into the frame, a puzzle much more suitable for adults than children, due to its difficulty. You can, for example, try to alternate colors, as in the configuration in which the game arrives from its makers, or try to keep all of one color adjacent, etc. As a game, we found that it works well for children, as well; my two sons, aged seven and twelve at the time, enjoyed playing it together. There are rules for several different games; we played one in which players take turns placing pieces, trying to be the last one able to place a piece so that all edges that touch fit together.     ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 09 Oct 2004 09:37:37 -0500</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Blokus game ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1550289285/E788638767/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ The game Blokus fits equally well under Games or Polyominoes, in this weblog, but the otherwise convenient iBlog software requires it to be placed under only one of the two categories.The pieces are the twenty-one free polyominoes: twelve pentominoes (shapes made of five adjacent squares), five tetrominoes (four adjacent squares), two trominoes (three adjacent squares), a domino (two adjacent squares), and a monomino (single square). The rules are simple: you may place a piece only if its corner, but no edge, abuts one or more of your pieces already placed, with the first piece touching your corner. For two players, each player takes two colors, in effect playing as two individuals in the four-player game. (We haven't tried the three-player option yet.) This is quite different from other polyomino games, such as Quintillions or Katamino. The game board is nicely designed to keep the pieces in place.Friends tell me that one of the great things about Blokus is the fact that children can compete well with adults, once they get the hang of it. I'm afraid that, for now, I still always beat my eight-year-old son unless I advise him on strategy as we go along. It's fun that way, too, though: the puzzle is sufficiently interesting that competition is not required to make it fun. The manufacturer's suggested age ranges is five to twelve years, but there's nothing wrong with it as a game for adults.  One of many sources for Blokus is Amazon. Amazon also sells a Travel Blokus   game! You can also play Blokus online, but I never find playing on the computer to be nearly as much fun as physically manipulating the pieces, plus, of course, it's a lot more fun to play with people I know than with a computer program. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 20 Aug 2004 10:14:57 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[Penrose Kites &amp; Darts ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C522364530/E1218854721/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[You can print your own Penrose kite &amp; dart tiles on card stock for almost no money at all, but playing with them can be more irritating than fun. The pieces seem to want to overlap, and the slightest draft blows laboriously-constructed arrangements awry. Far more entertaining are the Lucite Penrose Kites &amp; Darts sold by Kadon Enterprises, shown here. The thickness and heft of the tiny tiles (one and a quarter inches long on the longer sides) make them a great pleasure to handle. If you order a large set, there is a gameboard for playing what appears to be a quite satisfying game, but there is a lot of fun to be had in solitary play, as well, building creative new layouts, or reproducing one of the named layouts such as the Infinite Star Pattern, the Infinite Sun Pattern, or the Cartwheel pattern ("in some ways the most important Penrose Tiling"), which are nicely illustrated on an interesting page on tilings at the University of Wisconsin. There are many possibilities. This is my favorite of all the tiling toys with which I have had the opportunity to play. Here are a few of the designs we've constructed. The huge variety that is possible makes this more fun than any other tiling toy, in my opinion, and the mathematics of it is extremely interesting, at least if you like that sort of thing. Martin Gardner's book Penrose Tiles to Trapdoor Ciphers makes fascinating reading (an excerpt has been posted online).Here are an Infinite Star tiling and something close to an Infinite Sun tiling:The five-color design below on the left is the Cartwheel design. Notice how the "spokes" of the wheel, constructed here with blue or black pieces, are made of two different "bowtie" constructions, the longer type near the center, and the shorter type next out. The two types of bow ties alternate outward to infinity. The spaces in between the spokes are constructed here with yellow, green, or red tiles. The red center is a decagon, in this case with the odd figure known as the "batman" figure shown in black in the center. It's a very complicated design to construct, and makes me wish I could have hundreds of dollars' worth of Kites &amp; Darts to keep on expanding it.The design made with green and black Kites &amp; Darts, below, is another aperiodic tiling, which has the same center as the Infinite Sun pattern. Designs with radial symmetry are aperiodic.The tiling of blue Kites &amp; yellow Darts, below, is the only one shown here that is periodic, and it is quite obviously so. It's an extremely easy pattern to build. A periodic tiling repeats again and again, with the same design found again whether you shift to the left or right, top or bottom. See also the entries under Tilings  for Pentarose  (June 16, 2004) and DekaStar  (May 24, 2004), which are composed of shapes from Penrose's two other classes of tilings. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 13 Aug 2004 16:02:09 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[Zen Blocks ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1542293592/E387717285/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Zen Blocks, made by Family Pastimes, is a three-dimensional edge-matching puzzle in the form of a cooperative game. The twenty-seven wooden cubes have the Chinese characters for sun, rain, heaven, earth, lion, and lamb, as well as a yin/yang symbol for a wild card, printed on their faces in different combinations. There are three sets of rules, of varying levels of difficulty; the easiest, supposedly for ages six and up, requires only that the tops of the blocks must be the same as the bottoms of the blocks that are on top of them, and a block that is beside another one must having the same symbols on both top and bottom, with the goal being to construct a 3x3x3 cube. Even this relatively easy puzzle seems to me likely to be beyond the capabilities and/or enthusiasm of most six-year-olds. My eight-year-old son's grandmother expressed a great deal of frustration the first time they tried to play this game.Family Pastimes is known for their cooperative games, which saved me many hours of suffering when I had to play game after game with my son before he was old enough to be able to bear losing any game at all. It was much more pleasant to play Max the Cat or Snowstorm than to endure the weeping that followed the inevitable losses at the game of Sorry, when he was very young. The way in which they have turned this puzzle into a cooperative game is simply to have all of the pieces dealt out evenly among the players, after which the players take turns adding one piece to the puzzle, with as much discussion as seems helpful; everyone wins if the cube is successfully constructed. These same rules could be applied as well to most of the puzzles we own.I don't know if there is any interesting cultural significance to the fact that both of the first two games reviewed in this weblog were named after Zen Buddhism.The Chinese characters used to distinguish the seven types of faces are pretty, and the puzzle is nicely challenging - especially with the most advanced rule, requiring that all faces match the faces that they touch - but I'd find the game a lot more appealing if the different sides were marked by different colors, instead, so as to make it easier to determine which is which at a glance, or when only a portion of a face is visible. I also find it a bit disturbing to match these characters, which are meaningful only when turned right-side up, when they are tumbled all around in every orientation, even though I am the sort of person who finds it nearly as easy to read text that is upside down as that which is right side up. Perhaps this is just because of the unfamiliarity of the symbols, to someone who does not read Chinese. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 03 Aug 2004 19:44:13 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[Snowflake Square ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C522364530/E1722158452/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Snowflake Square is another Gamepuzzle by Kadon Enterprises. I gave it to my brother, who allowed me to take these pictures. As you can see, there is more than one possible solution, but it can be a challenge, at first, to find one. There are many different suggestions for different color arrangements to try to solve, included in in the accompanying booklet.   ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 16 Jul 2004 21:42:08 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[Zendo: a game of logic ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1542293592/E195900106/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Zendo is one of over a hundred different games that can be played with Icehouse pyramids. In Zendo, one player, the Master, secretly decides on a rule that a small assemblage of pyramids must follow - for example, that all upright pieces in it must be red. The Master builds two examples: one which follows the rule, and one which does not. The remaining players then take turns building their own assemblages to test what the rule might be, and giving their best deductions. When a player has guessed a rule, if the guess is not correct, the Master must build either an assemblage which does meet the secret rule but not the proposed rule, or one that does not meet the secret rule but does meet the one proposed.Sounds easy, doesn't it? I'm afraid that we in my little group of friends are not yet very good at it. We can be stumped for a surprisingly long time by a rule which rates only three or four points on Jake Davenport's scale of example rules (he has rated them from one to nine, according to difficulty). It's not that we're stupid - half of the players had perfect scores on the logic section of the GRE - we just need more practice in being logical. Zendo's not just maddeningly entertaining, it's also good training in logic. It is aimed at adults, not children. My seven-year-old has been happily learning logic with it, but he is a fiend for anything at all mathematical.Icehouse pyramids come in a variety of colors; the Zendo game set includes four colors (red, green, blue, yellow), plus markers used to keep track of which constructions meet the rule and which do not. You can buy additional 'stashes' of fifteen pyramids of a color. Of the three sizes of pyramids, the largest has three 'pips' embossed near one edge; the medium size has two; and the smallest has one pip. A pyramid which is touching the table is called 'grounded', while one that is not is called 'ungrounded'. A piece that is pointing straight up is called 'upright', one that is flat on the table surface, or parallel to it if ungrounded, is called 'flat', and one that is neither is called 'weird'. In the photo to the upper left, the top orange piece and the middle yellow piece are both weird.If your local game store doesn't carry Icehouse pyramids, you can order them from Looney Labs, or, for a significantly lower price, from Fair Play Games. We have found both companies to be quite satisfactory to deal with. The pyramids are a bit expensive, but versatile, since you can play many different games with them. You can also construct your own origami icehouse pieces for free, or spend a vast sum on stone pyramids.  ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 20 Jun 2004 10:20:31 -0500</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Pentarose ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C522364530/E573923138/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ Pentarose is a beautiful puzzle, made by Kadon Enterprizes, constructed using tiles from Penrose set P1.  Penrose tiles can completely fill a plane, leaving no gaps. Unlike other tilings, they do not necessarily repeat any pattern, no matter how far out toward infinity they extend. The tilings assembled from them produce a vaguely five-fold symmetry, and the "golden ratio" is seen repeatedly. For true Penrose tiles, markings are placed on each tile that, when matched edge-to-edge, prevent periodic tiling. Since this set lacks the markings, the pieces can also be assembled in periodic designs.The MathWorld page on Penrose tiles shows only the kites and darts, but mentions the two other groups of Penrose tilings, as well. Penrose's three sets are P1, or the pentacles, P2, or the kites and darts, and P3, or the rhombs. The same thick (72 degree) and thin (36 degree) rhomb shapes as are found in the P3 set are seen in the Deka-Star gamepuzzle, described below (see May 24, 2004).The Pentarose puzzle shown here is a special edition made with transparent colored Lucite, with a translucent tray bottom, so light can shine through. There are many possible solutions to this puzzle that fit inside the tray; a page included with the puzzle gives various suggestions, and names the various shapes (mouse, airplane, cloverleaf, poplar leaf, and maple leaf). The pieces can also, more easily, be assembled free-form, without the tray.While my seven-year-old loves the Deka-Star tiling puzzle, the Pentarose puzzle is too difficult for him to assemble. It's best for adults, while the Deka-Star is good for both adults and kids.(Click on the images for a larger view.) ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 16 Jun 2004 21:07:17 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[The Synergy Ball ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1928003530/E1974591645/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[The Synergy Ball, shown at right (click on image for larger view), is an inexpensive paper model that combines the tension and compression elements of a tensegrity into each die-cut piece of card stock. The more complicated Tensegritoy  uses strings for the tension and sticks for the compression elements. There are nice pictures of a variety of different tensegrity structures at Shelter Systems. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 12 Jun 2004 12:41:15 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[GeoMag ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C253336340/E1188029436/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[In GeoMag and SuperMag, incredibly strong bar magnets, clad in plastic, hold tightly to non-rusting steel balls to build geometric figures, bridges, skyscrapers, etc.      Kathleen Gajewski built and photographed these models. (Click on the pictures to see larger images.) The green arch is  SuperMag, and the yellow tetrahedron and green stellated icosahedron are the original GeoMag - both manufactured in Italy by Plastwood. The difference is that Geomag's bars were all the same length (ideal for Platonic solids), while SuperMag has a shorter length, as well, the right length for diagonal pieces within rectangles. Geomag does not make strong models of molecules, because the bars can rotate on a ball. A sturdy construction will always be made of triangles, since the lengths of the sides of a triangle determine its angles, unlike those of rectangles.   The mass of the pieces is impressive, giving the pieces a satisfying feel. If you don't have to worry about a small child applying it to a CRT monitor (magnets are bad for television tubes), or to your credit cards, it makes an ideal adult desk toy. Be especially careful to keep it out of reach of toddlers when there are GameBoy games, GameCube memory cards, videotapes, or anything else that stores information magnetically. The magnets do not have to actually contact the media to erase their contents.   I once added some locally-purchased steel balls to my set. In our high humidity, the plating wore through quickly, and the non-Plastwood balls rusted quickly. The balls supplied with the GeoMag and SuperMag sets are highly resistant to rust, in a humid city. These things are made with quality.  I purchased my first set of GeoMag at The Construction Site , a great toy store for finding cool building toys, and later in a local chain toy store, the late Zany Brainy. It's also one of the few good math toys that can be purchased from Amazon - if you purchase from them after clicking on the picture link to the right, I'll get a small kickback which will help support this web site. There are many places to buy it, though. If your locally-owned toy store has what you need, help them stay in business by buying from them.Other toys that are very similar to GeoMag include Roger's Connection, with four-inch rods instead of one-inch rods, and Mags, whose rods are thin in the middle and thicker at both ends. Plastwood claims that GeoMag contains stronger magnets than any of its competitors; however, I do not know how significant the difference may be. Don't get the competing brand Magnetix, which is made in China, because the magnets come out sometimes and can be deadly when swallowed. (See the Magnetix recall notice at the CSPC.) Geomag is made in Switzerland and certified free of phalates and other questionable chemicals.    [Updated July 29, 2008] ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 04 Jun 2004 13:02:44 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[Geofix (Geoshapes) ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1403008345/E739038067/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Here are the five platonic solids: tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, and icosahedron. I've inserted the optional flat transparent windowpanes into faces of the three smallest figures.Geofix is the American name for what is called Geoshapes in Australia, where it's made. (Geoshapes in the US refers to a children's educational board game.) I bought mine from The Construction SIte, a toy store. Didax sells a miniature Geofix set as well as some different Geofix kits than The Construction Site, but at considerably higher prices. Above is a bilunabirotunda (one of the Johnson solids), made with four pentagons, two squares, and eight triangles.More complex shapes can be constructed as flat "nets" of polygons and then assembled into the three-dimensional shape, such as the Great Rhombicosi dodecahedron in the two pictures below, which looks rather like a huge colorful soap bubble (note cat behind the assembled shape, for scale):      It's almost two feet in diameter, and is composed of twelve decagons, twenty hexagons, and thirty squares.Geofix is much more fun, for those who care about geometry, if you also download the program Poly to show you how to make (and name!) the more complex geometric solids. It includes the ability to generate Geofix-style nets for the Platonic solids, the Archimedean soilids, prism and anti-prisms, and  Johnson solids.Three-quarters of a stellated icosahedron (missing five points on the base):    Of course, you can also make castles and rocket ships from a set of Geofix. (Note that the window inserts are too difficult for most children to use, unlike the polygons themselves, which can be used happily by a dexterous five-year-old.)There are two other toys, though I haven't yet played with them, that allow the construction of polyhedra by assembling polygons edge-to-edge. Neither is nearly as pretty as the translucent, jewel-tone Geofix, but they have their advantages, as well. Polymorf  has a web site with lots of great information about polyhedra;  it has hinges which allow the construction of pistons, and it looks as though it may be sturdier; Polydron includes wheels, axles, and swivel joints, and thus may be more interesting for those children who happen to care less about geometry. Polymorf appears to be less expensive, per piece, than either Geofix or Polydron. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sun, 30 May 2004 13:26:19 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[pixelblocks ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C253336340/E1521199807/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Pixelblocks consist entirely of a single size and shape of building block, unlike Legos; the smallest block is about 3/8 inch, slightly larger than the smallest Lego. The blocks join top to bottom with pegs that allow rotation, and solidly interlock side-to-side.The translucent plastic glows like gems in the sunlight. The Pixelblocks web site provides a free interactive service that digitizes your photographs, so that you can build them, as flat pictures, with the pixelblocks. The concept takes the old-fashioned paint-by-number picture a big step further. In my hands, the results onscreen were great for our calico cat, and less wonderful for the face of the boy holding her, as one would predict from the lack of flesh tones among the blocks (except for those few people who happen to be the exact color of root beer). The results include a breakdown of the number of each color required, and which of the very high-priced individual color packets you would have to buy to make your picture. It's more economical to buy a set of all of the colors available, and more fun to just build things. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Sat, 29 May 2004 12:31:00 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[Cubits gamepuzzle ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C522364530/E1020451452/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[ Cubits is a gamepuzzle that can be assembled into many different shapes, of widely varying degrees of difficulty, all of which have a three-dimensional effect, although it is a flat puzzle. The visual illusion effect is fun to play with. The relatively difficult shape shown at left fits into the tray that comes with the puzzle. (I took the picture shown below on the left as a key for us to use in putting the puzzle away quickly.)Each of the different shapes that can be formed by arranging one, two, or three diamonds, of three colors, is represented by one piece in the Cubits set. The fact that  the results look like various 3-dimensional piles of cubes is pretty cool.Cubits is quite pricey, but makes a special gift for someone who enjoys math. Although it is intended primarily for adults, my math-loving seven-year-old adores it, as well. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Fri, 28 May 2004 17:41:45 -0500</pubDate>
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      <title><![CDATA[Quintillions ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1550289285/E2004472356/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Quintillions is the name that Kadon Enterprises gives to their beautiful wooden version of Pentominoes . The name 'pentominoes' comes from the resemblance to dominoes, which are composed of two adjacent squares (albeit with dots on them). The twelve pentominoes in Quintillions are all of the possible planar arrangements of five cubes, in this case, laser-cut from maple. An included gameboard allows gameplay with the rules included, and the enclosed pamphlet shows many different shapes which are puzzles to be constructed with the pieces.Enjoyment of the geometric properties of these shapes is greatly enhanced by learning their names, so as to become separately acquainted with each of the shapes. In the picture below, the shapes, roughly from left to right and top to bottom, are identified with these letter names, which bear an obvious relationship with the shapes: L, Z, Y, T, N, P, W, F, I, U, X, and L.    ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Thu, 27 May 2004 21:07:56 -0500</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Soma puzzle by Piet Hein ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C1550289285/E177166433/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[I fondly remember Soma  from my childhood, when I had a red plastic model. Soma is composed of six tetracubes  (polycubes made of four cubes) plus one tricube, and can be assembled into a thre-by-three cube. The picture above shows two sets of the a wooden version of Soma. Gamepuzzles.com sells a plastic Soma variant (the same puzzle but with slightly different numbering in the accompanying pamphlet), called Block by Block, that is made by Binary Arts . The lovely wooden versions I bought from 24Hours7Days lack any helpful booklet with building ideas, a definite minus as far as my son is concerned. ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Wed, 26 May 2004 17:24:57 -0500</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Zome ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C253336340/E1039775559/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Zome is the most versatile geometric building toy, and the best for making molecular models. Each of the different colors of struts has its own geometry. You can be just doodling along, idly fitting pieces together, only to find that you have just constructed something with beautiful five-point symmetry. The blue struts are good for building box shapes, as the holes in the nodes that fit their shape are found at intervals of 90 degrees, on the nodes.      I think that the best place to buy Zome is by mail order from Zometools . It's also one of the few good math toys that can be purchased from Amazon - if you purchase from them after clicking on the picture link to the right (or here), I'll get a small kickback which will help support this web site. There are many places to buy it, though. If your locally-owned toy store has what you need, help them stay in business by buying from them.Advertisement:     Zome Tool - Creator Kit  is a powerful tool for serious builders in a neat attache. Create even more dazzling structures from 2, 3, and higher dimensions. Perfect for big projects and classroom use.      ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Tue, 25 May 2004 17:12:17 -0500</pubDate>
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    <item>
      <title><![CDATA[Deka-Star ]]></title>
      <link>http://www.pburch.net/toys/B1915068958/C522364530/E1681976545/index.html</link>
      <description><![CDATA[Another gamepuzzle, Deka-Star can be put together in many different ways. There are two shapes, a 72-degree rhombus and a 36-degree rhombus, each in two different colors. These are the same shapes as are seen in the P3 set of Penrose tiles, though edge-matching markings would be required to force aperiodicity on the tilings made from them. This is an easy puzzle to assemble. This does not make it inappropriate for adults, however; it makes it accessible to a wider range of adults than the more difficult gamepuzzles. Children also enjoy playing with it.(The tiles that look white in the camera flash, in the photos below, are all actually yellow; the black 36 degree rhombuses seem to vanish into the adjacent black frame.)     ]]></description>
      <pubDate>Mon, 24 May 2004 17:09:42 -0500</pubDate>
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