My Mongolian ball-in-cage puzzle, solved!

I love problem solving and puzzles. My friend Christina brought me back a fun one from her trip to Mongolia. Here it is, solved:

Mongolian ball-in-cage puzzle, solved

Apparently this puzzle type is what Stewart Coffin calls “Locked Nest.”

It may not look like much, but the challenge is to assemble it from a completely disassembled state. It’s not only geometrically challenging, having to visualize the pieces in their final states, but physically challenging, having to hold the thing together as you put it together. Several times, while I was working on the puzzle, a pin would slide out or a rod would be out of alignment and the pin would miss it.

This is definitely a puzzle I’ll enjoy solving many times over. It’s quite challenging.

Tags: , ,

Comments

  1. George Kalaitzis says

    Dear Friend

    I will be glad if you can scan and send me the small document,
    that was included in the puzzles box.
    I have lost it, and I am afraid to dismantle it, in case that I could not
    put it back in parts.

    Thank you in Advance
    Regards
    George

  2. George: I don’t have the box that it came in or anything else, other than the puzzle itself.

    Reassembling the puzzle is difficult to start, but once you get it going, the solution becomes obvious as it’s a repetetive pattern.

    Good luck and enjoy!

Leave a Reply to George Kalaitzis Cancel reply

*