“Searching”

I'll get to the title if you have a moment.

Recently, while posting a 3D puzzle I hadn’t solved yet — http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2013-10-04 but I have solved it now! — I found another post, “Difficult questions, Simple answers,” http://365project.org/oye/365/2012-03-23

Looking at Oye Opaneye’s post, I thought I could see how to solve it and commented that I couldn’t wait to get to my campus office to try it.

Well, my “thought” didn’t work, but I continued to “play” with it, when a student came to my office.

I met with the student and went back to my desk only to discover that the puzzle was apart! Problem? I had no idea what I’d done or how to put it back together!

More “playing” and I got it! Now I know how to solve them all: the one above and these — http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-07-05 (“Geek Toys I”).

The solution of the “ring-and-spring” above is not surprising, but it shows how “narrow” or biased our thinking can be … which, of course, is discouraging, but curiosity is important. Also, as Leonard Pitts wrote in a recent column, while “finding” is important, so is “searching”; see http://www.chron.com/opinion/article/Pitts-A-talk-with-God-while-waiting-in-line-4650292.php

Geez; how did I let post #1024 slip by unnoticed as the tenth power of 2 (1024 = 2^10)?

One year ago (“A new one: ‘Bent-Line Dart’ ”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2012-10-15
Two years ago (“Burst of red”): http://365project.org/rhoing/365/2011-10-15

[Rick Schies]

These things are always so frustrating to me, though I realize there are some who find them quite interesting and fun to solve, I guess more like a challenge, a goal to reach