While general burr puzzles are harder to manufacture, some of them
have much higher levels. The highest level is 12, however the only
such burr - Love's Dozen - is not unique. At a piece length of 8 the
highest level unique burr puzzles are 10. At a length of 6 the highest
level is 9. Most fascinating is the fact, that Peter Marineau designed
his level 9 Piston puzzle without the help of a computer and before Bill
Cutler had completely analyzed all six-piece burrs. Most of the designs
listed here are from Bill Cutler's two publications documenting his
computer analysis of six-piece burrs
[Cutler88 and
Cutler94].
Through e-mail I got a few designs from Peter Rösler who, in 1989 together
with Gerhard Dotzler and Thomas Kiss, two students at the Technical University of Munich,
ran C programs to design their own burrs.
From the following table select the burr you want to explore. Select the
icon
for a static image representation of the burr. These static pages are
good to print a solution on paper which you can take into your
work shop for making a physical model.
| Burr |
Description |
| Designs by Bruce Love |
 |
Bruce Love's Dozen
Level 1-12.3 |
1987: this non-unique level 12 six-piece burr is the highest level
possible. It is the only one at level 12, and there are none at level
11 at all. It has a total of 154 assemblies of which 89 can be
taken apart!
|
| Designs by Peter Marineau |
 |
Peter Marineau's
Piston Puzzle Burr
Level 9.3 |
1986: Peter Marineau designed this puzzle by hand. It was the highest
level burr known before Bill Cutler did his exhaustive computer
analysis.
|
| Designs by Bill Cutler |
 |
Computer's Choice Unique Level 10
Level 10 |
1988: 10 is the highest level for which unique six-piece burrs
exist. There are 18 such unique level 10 solutions, all of which
disassemble in a similar fashion. Note that this particular example
is also unique at piece length 6, but the level is only 5 in that case.
|
 |
Computer's Choice 5-Hole
Level 9 |
1988: There are 6.5 billion 5-hole assemblies. For the highest level
9 there are 23 solutions of which 21 are unique.
|
 |
Computer's Choice 3-Hole
Level 7 |
1988: There are 2.5 billion 3-hole assemblies. For the highest level
7 there are 198 solutions of which 157 are unique.
|
 |
Bill Cutler's BB31-10-40
Level 3 |
1986: This is the least un-notchable level-3, 1-hole design, of a large
number of such designs discovered.
|
| Designs by Peter Rösler |
 |
#C "teuflische Verführung"
Level 9 |
This puzzle has 5 false solutions and 1 which can be taken apart. Even in
all the false solutions some pieces can be moved. The overall sequences of
moves leads to a more satisfying pattern than the next puzzle.
|
 |
#D "super"
Level 9 |
The piece which comes out first moves on a zig-zag pattern. This leaves
a subjective feeling that the burr is of a lower level than it actually is.
|
 |
#G
Level 6 |
A very satisfying puzzle due to the fact that the internal structure of the puzzle
can be readily deduced by logical analysis (rather than brute force trial and error).
|
| Designs by Stewart Coffin |
 |
Stewart Coffin's Triple Slide
Level 3 |
This is a very fascinating burr puzzle. Before it a piece can be taken
out, every move moves exactly 3 pieces (that is half of all pieces).
Two such moves of three pieces have to be executed before it comes
apart into 2 and 4 pieces.
|
| Burr Designs by Jürg von Känel |
 |
jvk #25.2 derivation
Level 3 |
By going from notchable to general pieces, this puzzle has the advantage
of having a weight of 29 (only three internal voids) as opposed to 27.
The more interesting fact however is that the first three moves always
move three pieces simultaneously until the puzzle comes apart in two
halves. |
