Rubik's Dice

Introduction

Rubik's Dice consists of a black magnetic shell with 7 metal plates trapped inside. Object: to fill all 6 inside walls with the metal plates, so that NO red dot appears on any side. This applies to ALL the holes, so even the tiny dots must be red-free as well.


The Plates

There are 7 plates inside the shell but only 6 plates are used to fill the inner walls of the shell itself. Rubik's Dice only has one solution, which means that only one side of each plate is assigned to a certain side of the shell, with an extra plate left over that never gets used.

Each plate has a tiny identifying number affixed on its corner. Even though the ID numbers label each plate with no rhyme or reason, they are exactly the same throughout all editions of the Dice puzzle.

Side I / Plate ID #14:

Side II / Plate ID #12:

Side III / Plate ID #58:

Side IV / Plate ID #34:

Side V / Plate ID #65:

Side VI / Plate ID #78:

And finally, the
last plate...

Plate ID #47:

The last plate (#47)
does not have a home.
The extra plate has no
known value for this puzzle
except for the pure reason
of annoyance.


Notation

Explaining how to solve Rubik's Dice is like explaining how to go through a marble maze. I cannot supply the dexterity; all I can do is help out with a few hints. Therefore the notation has been reduced to nothing more than a guide. There are 3 different kinds of moves used: The flip, the slide, and the push.

To FLIP a plate, simply let it fall on its face while hinging on one edge. Because a flip is the most commonly used move, no special character is used to denote it; just the side that it falls to.

  • L ... flip to the left side
  • F ... flip to the front side
  • R ... flip to the right side
  • Bk ... flip to the back side
  • Bm ... flip to the bottom side

To SLIDE a plate, nudge it's bottom edge so that is slides on its back. A slide is denoted by the the \back-slash\ symbol.

  • \Bm ... slide to the bottom side

To PUSH a plate, pop it from one side of the shell to the opposite side, keeping its orientation intact. The push is denoted by the >right-arrow> symbol.

  • >Bk ... push to the back side

Examples:

Setup:
Plate to move at the front,
all loose plates on the bottom.

\Bm F

Slide the plate to the bottom side,
and then flip it up to the front side,
with loose plates in tow.
Setup:
Plate to move at the front,
all loose plates on the bottom.

>Bk Bm F

Push the plate to the back side,
then flip it down to the bottom side,
and then flip it up to the front side,
with loose plates in tow.

Note: All moves start off with the plate on the FRONT SIDE.


@ Notation @ Solution

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