Unlocking the world's most unsolvable puzzles

January 27, 2017 12:47 PM

The Millennium 13 piece burr, designed by Donald Osselaer in 2012, is thought to be almost unassailable in its stubbornness not be solved. Check out the Millennium and other wickedly difficult puzzles. There's a puzzle wiki, of course. For state of the art stuff, check out the annual Puzzle Design Competition.
posted by Foci for Analysis (7 comments total)

I have a coworker who flipping loves things like this and currently plays with a rattly rubick's cube. Any recommendations for puzzles that are super, super quiet to play with?
posted by rebent at 1:45 PM on January 27, 2017 [1 favorite]

How about some Zen Kōans? Physical puzzles are but contrivances. True puzzles reside in the mind.
posted by filthy light thief at 3:04 PM on January 27, 2017 [3 favorites]

Any recommendations for puzzles that are super, super quiet to play with?

How about getting them a large metal ball bearing and saying that it comes apart?
posted by Pyry at 3:19 PM on January 27, 2017 [20 favorites]

521 right moves to finish the Millennium. That's amazing that a human could design that. This deserves more than three comments, I figured.
posted by fungible at 7:26 PM on January 27, 2017 [2 favorites]

A video of a simpler burr puzzle getting assembled. Fascinating, and despite soothing music, somehow agitating. Zoinks!
posted by pickles_have_souls at 8:37 PM on January 27, 2017

Japanese man spent 10 years trying to solve the "impossible" puzzle.
posted by usertm at 9:36 PM on January 27, 2017 [6 favorites]

Was there a link to the Millennium itself, or did I miss it in one of the articles?

The thing is practically hostile. These puzzles are so tactical and pleasant when they're at their more usual size, but the Millennium feels like one of those Mario levels where the designer's just gone "here, have a sequence of a hundred consecutive barely possible jumps".
posted by lucidium at 9:49 AM on January 28, 2017