Bedlam cube
Encyclopedia
Design
The puzzle consists of thirteen polycubicPolycube
thumb|200px|right|The seven free tetracubesthumb|200px|right|A [[Chirality |chiral]] pentacubethumb|200px|right|Puzzle with a unique solution...
pieces: twelve pentacubes and one tetracube
Tetracube
The term tetracube can refer to either of the following:*The three-dimensional analog of a tetromino*A tesseract, the four-dimensional analog of a cube...
. The objective is to assemble these pieces into a 4 x 4 x 4 cube. There are 19,186 distinct ways of doing so, excluding rotations and reflections.
Although the Bedlam cube is essentially just the logical next step up from the 3 x 3 x 3 Soma cube
Soma cube
The Soma cube is a solid dissection puzzle invented by Piet Hein in 1933 during a lecture on quantum mechanics conducted by Werner Heisenberg. Seven pieces made out of unit cubes must be assembled into a 3x3x3 cube...
, it is much more difficult to solve.
History
Two of the BBC2 'dragons', Rachel ElnaughRachel Elnaugh
Rachel Elnaugh is a British entrepreneur, who came to prominence as an investor on the first two seasons of BBC Two's TV show Dragons' Den, in which hers was the sole female perspective alongside four male entrepreneurs known as the Dragons.-Early life:Her family lived above her father's...
and Theo Paphitis
Theo Paphitis
Theodorus "Theo" Paphitis is a retail magnate and British entrepreneur of Greek Cypriot origin. He made the majority of his fortune in the retail sector, and is best known to the general public for his appearances on the BBC business programme Dragons' Den and as former chairman of Millwall...
, were to invest in the Bedlam cube during the second series of Dragons' Den
Dragons' Den (UK)
Dragons' Den is a British television series, hosted by Evan Davis. The format of the show is owned by Sony Pictures and is based on the original Japanese series, which has been sold around the world...
. They offered £100,000 for a 30% share of equity in Bedlam Puzzles. Danny Bamping (the entrepreneur behind Bedlam cube) finally chose a bank loan instead of their investment, as seen in the relevant "Where Are They Now" episode of Dragons' Den.