Skewb

The Skewb is a magic polyhedron—that is, a mechanical puzzle in the style of Rubik's Cube—invented by Tony Durham and marketed by Uwe Mèffert. Although it is cubical in shape, it differs from Rubik's construction in that its axes of rotation pass through the corners of the cube rather than the centres of the faces. There are four such axes, one for each space diagonal of the cube. As a result, it is a "deep-cut" puzzle in which each twist affects all six faces.

Mèffert's original name for this puzzle was the "Pyraminx Cube", to emphasise that it was part of a series including his first tetrahedral puzzle Pyraminx. The catchier name Skewb was coined by Douglas Hofstadter in his "Metamagical Themas" column, and Mèffert liked it enough not only to market the Pyraminx Cube under this name but also to name some of his other puzzles after it, such as the Skewb Diamond.

See also

*Rubik's cube
*Pyraminx
*Megaminx
*Skewb Diamond
*Dogic
*Combination puzzles
*Mechanical puzzles

External links

* [http://www.birgit-nietsch.de/Mixed/skewb.html Birgit Nietsch's Skewb page]
* [http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/skewb.htm Jaap's Skewb page]
* [http://www.mud.ca/puzzler/JPuzzler/JPuzzler.html An online Skewb]
* [http://www.acubist.com Mike Tryczak's Speed-Skewbing page]