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The Star of David Puzzle has a relative that is mechanically much simpler but just as entertaining. This puzzle was published by the author several years ago in the form of the three axially symmetrical solutions illustrated. All the reader was asked to do was to work backwards and figure out the design of the six identical puzzle pieces. Hint: each piece is made of three standard building blocks and has reflexive symmetry. But wait - why make it so easy? The pieces are bicolored. Each of the three symmetrical solutions has two symmetrically colored forms which are almost but not quite the inverse of each other, as shown in Fig.124. Now what do the pieces look like?
Any reader who solves the above problem mentally or using pencil and paper should consider it quite an accomplishment. On the other hand, once you have the opportunity to play around with these polyhedral blocks in the flesh and experiment with fastening them together different ways, the solutions to this and other similar problems should all become perfectly obvious. Not only that, but in the process you will probably discover other interesting dissections as well.
Fig 124d
Editor's Note: Stewart named this puzzle Triumph.
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