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An amazing puzzle with an extraordinary concept...
"Polyaminoes" is the general term given to shapes made by joining a number of squares together. Types of Polyaminoes are named according to the number of squares their shapes contain, so that Monoaminoe denotes one square, Dominoe- a shape made of two squares, Triominoes- three squares, Tetrominoes- four squares, Pentominoes- five squares, etc.
The Penta Puzzle is, in fact, a series of Pentominoes in 3D- we've taken five cubes and joined them together to create 17 different shapes, each of the same volume (5 cubes), but of a different form. The pieces all come packed inside a wooden box- sixteen of the pieces form a perfect rectangle in one part of the box, and the remaining piece rests in a special, seperate niche.
Playing The Game
To play, remove all 17 pieces from the box. Select any one of the pieces, and put it in the small niche by itself. Now, try to fit all of the remaining 16 pieces into the larger space in the box. In effect, you are trying to create a rectangle which is 5 cubes wide x 8 cubes long x 2 cubes deep.
The beauty of this game is that the solution is always different, and its difficulty depends on which one of the 17 pieces you seperate from the rest. There is at least one solution per piece, and some pieces can enable scores of different solutions, so that there's always something else to try.
An ingenious, challenging, rewarding puzzle that is sure to make an addict out of even the most jaded brain teasers expert...
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