Hoffmann Cube

The 3 x 3 x 3 Cube

The earliest reference to 3 x 3 x 3 cubic block puzzles may be one shown in the classic Puzzles Old and New by Professor Hoffmann (Angelo Lewis), published in London in 1893, and not to be confused with the recent Botermans and Slocum book of the same name. It shows a puzzle called the Diabolical Cube, which is rather a misnomer as it is one of the easier puzzles of its type. The six pieces, illustrated in Fig. 48, assemble into a 3 x 3 x 3 cube 13 different ways. Since all of the pieces in this puzzle have reflexive symmetry, it necessarily follows that every solution must either be self-reflexive or be one of a reflexive pair. It is customary not to count these reflexive pairs as two different solutions. This particular version of what has now become a very common type of puzzle is unusual in that all of the pieces are flat and contain different numbers of cubes increasing in arithmetic progression.

Level 2 = Medium
The Hoffmann Cube is the earliest known 3x