Pointless OffTopic Rave ahead:

OMG!!! I first read about the Soma cube as a child reading Martin Gardner's
"Math Games and Puzzles" - I must have not been older than ten. For a
couple of decades after this, I searched the world in vain for a place to
buy one, and finally gave up in desperation and made my own out of
glued-together wood blocks - three times, and all three times, somebody
would see it, ask to borrow it, and never return it.

Until two years ago, when I walked into a game store at the mall and saw one
for sale! I think that must have made me, the shop owner, and Mr. Gardner of
Scientific American fame the only three people to have heard of such a thing
at the time. The store went out of business a week later. I guard that
puzzle like a hawk, now.

And then I stumble on this thread, and here's somebody bandying them about
like they were as popular as iPods all along! This is nuts!

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"Hosiah" <lev### [at] linuxquestionsnet> wrote:
> Pointless OffTopic Rave ahead:
>
> OMG!!! I first read about the Soma cube as a child reading Martin Gardner's
> "Math Games and Puzzles" - I must have not been older than ten.

About the same age as me. Martin Gardner's services to recreational
mathematics are without equal. He's a living legend.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner

> For a couple of decades after this, I searched the world in vain
> for a place to buy one,

Luckily, my search only lasted 3 or 4 years. :)

> And then I stumble on this thread, and here's somebody bandying them about
> like they were as popular as iPods all along! This is nuts!

Enjoy! I can post the Linux programs I mentioned earlier, if you like. Or I
can post more Soma patterns in POV format - I've converted over 500.

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PM 2Ring wrote:
> "Hosiah" <lev### [at] linuxquestionsnet> wrote:
>> OMG!!! I first read about the Soma cube as a child reading Martin Gardner's
>> "Math Games and Puzzles" - I must have not been older than ten.
> 
> About the same age as me. Martin Gardner's services to recreational
> mathematics are without equal. He's a living legend.

Well, Sam Lloyd, whom he often grabs bits from, was pretty good, just
a great deal earlier.

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Scott David Daniels <Sco### [at] AcmOrg> wrote:
> PM 2Ring wrote:

 > About the same age as me. Martin Gardner's services to recreational
> > mathematics are without equal. He's a living legend.
>
> Well, Sam Lloyd, whom he often grabs bits from, was pretty good, just
> a great deal earlier.

He sure was good. I always loved it when Martin wrote about Sam Loyd and his
puzzles. Sam was a good popularizer for his day, but Martin covered a wider
spectrum of material and had a bigger audience.

(In an attempt to get back on topic) POV is good for popularizing
mathematics. :) And I'm sure that more than a few ray-traced objects have
been motivated by mathematical puzzles and curiosities.

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PM 2Ring wrote:
> (In an attempt to get back on topic) POV is good for popularizing
> mathematics. :) And I'm sure that more than a few ray-traced objects have
> been motivated by mathematical puzzles and curiosities.
> 
I've a couple that are that way (all from explorations of a mathematical
shape.  One is huge Moire extravaganza which is immune to compression,
but the other could be turned into a pretty JPEG w/o loss of beauty.
I'll pop it up sometime this coming week.

-Scott

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"PM 2Ring" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Here's a dog, which actually stands up when constructed in non-virtual
> reality.
>
> The Soma cube is a good way to sharpen your ability to think in 3
> dimensions; a skill all POV users need. :)

This picture is really pretty and I would like to get the povray code.
I just prepare a video including flying pentacubes to assemble a box.
Pentacubes are much more than Soma-cubes needed to think in 3D.
In total there are 29 different pieces.

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Attachments:
Download 'box1240.bmp.dat' (901 KB)

"PM 2Ring" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
> Here's a dog, which actually stands up when constructed in non-virtual
> reality.
>
> The Soma cube is a good way to sharpen your ability to think in 3
> dimensions; a skill all POV users need. :)


Dear Sir,
the picture of the soma pieces is very nice and as I start with povray, it would
be very helpful to get the .pov file for looking how to write this brilliant
surfaces
Please send it to me
I am busy in pentacubes : pentacubes.de
Best Regards
Wilfried

Post a reply to this message

On 15/06/2014 19:52, Wilfree wrote:
> "PM 2Ring" <nomail@nomail> wrote:
>> Here's a dog, which actually stands up when constructed in non-virtual
>> reality.
>>
>> The Soma cube is a good way to sharpen your ability to think in 3
>> dimensions; a skill all POV users need. :)
>
>
> Dear Sir,
> the picture of the soma pieces is very nice and as I start with povray, it would
> be very helpful to get the .pov file for looking how to write this brilliant
> surfaces
> Please send it to me
> I am busy in pentacubes : pentacubes.de
> Best Regards
> Wilfried
>
>

Hi Wilfried,
PM 2Ring has not posted on these news groups for some time. He has 
posted on other sites within the last couple of years. If you Google "PM 
2Ring" you might find a link where you can reply to one of his threads. 
And contact him that way.

-- 

Regards
     Stephen

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