Puzzle Description:

Hand-painted Hexaflexagon. My brother made this one for me about 50 years ago. I have had fun making my own ever since. More information in comments.

#1: Teresa K (fasstar) on Nov 18, 2009 [SPOILER]

A hexaflexagon is a paper hexagon you can make from a strip of equilateral triangles. When you fold it a certain way, you can flex it to show 6 different "faces" with 2 or 3 variations on how they display. It's really cool.

This puzzle portrays one of many hexaflexagrams my brother and I made with designs using marking pens. This is one variation of one face, that shows a red 6 petaled flower. Fold it once and it will show the blue aster flower in the center, and the third version will show the green in the center.

Here's a link that shows you how you can make your own:
http://www.maths.uq.edu.au/~infinity/Infinity%2012/hexaflex.html

Here are a few quick videos of how the hexaflexagon folds to reveal different "faces":
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEks3oNuErA&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdcOx-ShnNY&feature=player_embedded

Cool puzzle, Teresa! This was fun to solve and now I'm going to have to try to make a real-life hexaflexagon.

Thanks, Sallie. Here is a site with good directions:
http://www.murderousmaths.co.uk/games/flex/flexmake.htm

And there is a cool program to help you make you own using your own graphics, like photos:
http://hexaflexagon.sourceforge.net/

How interesting!

Yes! Since my brother showed me 50 years ago, I wondered how long ago they originated. Found this:

Hexaflexagons began in the fall of 1939 when Princeton University graduate student Arthur H. Stone from England trimmed an inch from his American notebook sheets to fit his English binder. After folding the trimmed-off strips for amusement, he came upon the first Hexaflexagon, one that had three faces (now called a Trihexaflexagon). A flexagon committee was organized including Bryant Tuckerman, Richard P. Feynman and John W. Tukey. Larger structures were developed including the one variety of hexahexaflexagon described here.

I'll have to try it over the Thanksgiving break with my step-son. :)

Comment Suppressed:Click below to view hints

Thanks, Martin.

wow - how interesting! i've never heard of this before doing your puzzle. fun solve.

My dad recently found and showed me a bunch of different hexaflexagons he'd made as a kid! A very cool very nerdy toy :)

Lizzy, I bet you were impressed. They are so cool. My brother showed me, then I showed my kids.

This was a challenging and fun solve. Thank you! And as a math nerd from way back, I'm so surprized I've never heard of these. I'll look into them.

Very hard and yet very doable with time. No guessing. Beautiful. I am very anxious to try my own hexaflexagons. Really enjoyed the history lesson also.

CB and Velma, thanks so much! These really are fun to play with. When you fold, be very precise. Enjoy!

I used to have some 3d tetra-hexaflexagons in my classroom but alas...

Very nice design. Very tough. No guessing.

Preciosa imagen, puzzle duro de resolver, y curiosa aplicación que habrá que estudiar.

Gracias Julio. Este es un objeto muy fascinante.

How did this not ever show up in all my advanced and enrichment math classes?

Show: Hints

Goto next topic

You must register and log in to be able to participate in this discussion.