Bill's Baffling Burr

Bill's Baffling Burr by Jerry McFarland

Photo courtesy of Bill Cutler

Name

Bill's Baffling Burr

Designer

Bill Cutler

Manufacturer

Jerry McFarland

Dimensions

3.0 x 3.0 x 3.0"

Year

1984

Cost

$45

Where

Bill Cutler

Availability

Occasionally Available

Type

Burr

# of Pieces

6

Burr Level

5

Material

Red Oak

Objective

Disassemble and reassemble the 6 pieces into the standard 6 piece burr shape

"Bill's Baffling Burr requires 5 moves to remove the first piece. There are 24 ways in which one could imagine the pieces being assembled, but only one of them can be physically carried out. A computer program was written to quickly analyze all ways a set of 6 pieces could be assembled and how many moves were required. This program was used as part of the design process.

Bill's Baffling Burr appeared in the Computer Recreations column of Scientific American in October, 1985. Unfortunately, one of the pieces was shown incorrectly in the article, and the resulting burr was impossible. Among letters received from many readers was a model constucted in aluminum (see image below), which requires an Allen wrench to disassemble!" -Bill Cutler

• Bill's Baffling Burr

• • 

    Bill's Baffling Burr in Red Oak by Jerry McFarland
    

    Photo courtesy of Bill Cutler
  • 

    Bill's Baffling Burr (Unsolvable Assembly) in Aluminium
    

    Photo courtesy of Bill Cutler