Design by Peter Query

This puzzle is based upon a regular twelve sphere or dodecahedron. A dodecahedron is made out of twelve pentagons, has twenty corners and thirty edges. The twelve pentagons are connected to each other by a connection piece in the shape of a kite. In total you need thirty kite shapes for this puzzle. both the pentagons and kite shapes have notches so a solid connection is made.  

You can make the puzzle above by sawing twelve pentagons and 30 kite shapes according to the diagram below. The exact values of the pieces can be found on the design graph. For making this puzzle use a wooden plate with a thickness of 1 to 1,5 cm. The puzzle can simply be put together by connecting every piece using the picture above as an example.

You can add an extra dimension to this puzzle by gluing different parts to each other. You can glue to one pentagon one to five kite shapes. In total there are eight different combination between one pentagon and kite shapes. All combinations are shown below.

For one Dodec puzzle you can use for example the pieces  1, 3, 6 en 8 one time and the pieces 2, 4, 5 en 7 twice. So in total twelve pieces. Other combinations are possible. It could be fun to search for the combination with the slightest solutions, so you have the most difficult puzzle.

In fact it isn't difficult to find the mathematical solution of the example above, but if you fabricate the pieces described here, you can't fit the pieces together, because that's physical impossible. If you want to construct this puzzle you have to file the notches a little bit wider so the pieces can be connected to each other more easily.