Tetracircles

This is a fun puzzle that even young children can enjoy playing with. The goal is simple and easy to understand at first glance: to fit five pieces into the tray. The tray has a concave on both sides, one is square, and the other is rectangular.

Designed by Juno and previously sold, Bubble Universe was composed of 12 pieces and a tray. It was extremely difficult, and he always thought, "Maybe I went a bit too far." Therefore, he wanted to create a packing puzzle with fewer pieces and decided to use Tetrominoes as the theme.

Those who have experience designing puzzles will likely understand, but creating a puzzle using 5 types of Tetrominoes is quite a challenge. The total area of the pieces is 20, so it seems like they could fit into a 5x4 rectangle, but upon considering parity, it becomes clear that this is impossible. Even if you try to fit them into a different shaped tray, if there are constraints of a square grid, the puzzle will become too easy. Therefore, Juno decided to use pieces made of connected circles instead of squares. Compared to a square with a side length of 1, the area of a circle with a diameter of 1 is considerably smaller, so the pieces can be placed in a rectangle or square with an area close to 20. Additionally, by making the distance between adjacent circles' centers smaller than the diameter of the circles, he was able to reduce the gaps between the pieces when arranging them in the tray.

With only five pieces, some people may solve one side in a matter of minutes, depending on luck, intuition, and puzzle sense. However, clearing both sides will likely take many people a considerable amount of time. Some may even spend several hours without being able to solve it.

In the correct solution, there will be slight gaps between the pieces and between the pieces and the tray, and when you turn the tray upside down, the inner pieces will fall due to gravity. There are many configurations that are close to the correct solution, but please do not force the pieces into place.

The solution to this puzzle will be supplied upon request.

Size: 143 mm x 143 mm x 22 mm

Number of pieces: 6 + tray

Material: Damar Minyak, Wenge, Zebrano, Bubinga, PNG Rosewood, and American Cherry

Designer: Junichi Yananose (Juno)

Origin: Made in Australia

Ages: 6+