Origami Heaven

A paperfolding paradise

The website of writer and paperfolding designer David Mitchell

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Transformation Puzzles
 
The object of transformation puzzles is to manipulate one state of a puzzle into another. There is a sense in which every paperfolding puzzle is a transformation puzzle, but I usually reserve the term for apparatus puzzles where the possibility for such a transformation seems unlikely. Transformation puzzles can also be set up so that the aim is to find a route that avoids one particular intermediate state.
 
 
 
  Name: 1, 2, 3, 4 - transformation puzzle.

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2000.

Reference: 419

Diagrams: On-line diagrams are available on the Puzzles page of this site.

 
  Name: 5 in a Row - transformation puzzle..

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2017.

Reference: 550

Diagrams: On-line diagrams are available on the Puzzles page of this site.

 
  Name: Alternative Flexatube - Flexatube with 60/30 degree folding geometry.

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2004.

Reference: 422

Diagrams: Not yet available.

 
  Name: Borromean Buckle Puzzle

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1999.

Reference: 172

Diagrams: Diagrams not yet available.

 
  Name: Borromean Figures of Eight

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1999.

Reference: 172

Diagrams: Diagrams not yet available.

 
  Name: Buckle Puzzle

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1999.

Reference: 173

Diagrams: Diagrams not yet available.

 
  Name: Centre-piece - transformation puzzle in which the object is to exchange the positions of two linked sheets of paper.

Paper type / shape: 2 x squares / Irogami or duo

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1998.

Reference:

Diagrams: Paperfolding Puzzles - Water Trade - ISBN 0-9534774-0-X // Paperfolding Puzzles (2nd Edition) - David Mitchell - Water Trade - ISBN 978-0-9534774-5-6

 
  Name: Double Cross Flexagon - puzzle treatment of the 3-state bi-linear tetraflexagon.

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1998.

Reference: 156

Diagrams: The Magic of Flexagons - David Mitchell - Tarquin - ISBN 1-899618-28-7

 
  Name: End to End - a transformation puzzle where the mat on the right must be converted to the mat on the left.

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2007.

Reference: 318

Diagrams: On-line diagrams are available on the Puzzles page of this site.

 
  Name: Flexatube Solutions - multiple solutions for the classic puzzle.

Paper type / shape: N/A

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1998

Reference: 417

Diagrams: Paperfolding Puzzles - Water Trade - ISBN 0-9534774-0-X (omitted from second edition) // Silverflexagons and the Flexatube - David Mitchell - Water Trade - ISBN 9780953477487

 
  Name: Flexatube Chain Puzzles

Paper type / shape: Custom

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2004.

Reference: 418

Diagrams: Silverflexagons and the Flexatube - David Mitchell - Water Trade - ISBN 9780953477487

 
  Name: Flexatube Stack Puzzles

Paper type / shape: Custom

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2004.

Reference: 418

Diagrams: Silverflexagons and the Flexatube - David Mitchell - Water Trade - ISBN 9780953477487

 
  Name: The Flexamat Puzzle - four Flexatubes connected in a flat ring.

Paper type / shape: Custom

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2015.

Reference: 418

Diagrams: Silverflexagons and the Flexatube - David Mitchell - Water Trade - ISBN 9780953477487

 
  Name: Hidden Aces Flexagon - puzzle treatment of a flexagon probably first discovered by Robert E Neale.

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1998.

Reference:

Diagrams: The Magic of Flexagons - David Mitchell - Tarquin - ISBN 1-899618-28-7

 
  Name: Limbo - a flexagon-like apparatus puzzle that can be manipulated into a large hexagonal ring.

Paper type / shape: Custom

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1996.

Reference: 124

Diagrams: As Magic Square Flexagon in The Magic of Flexagons - David Mitchell - Tarquin - ISBN 1-899618-28-7 // On-line diagrams are available on the Puzzles page of this site.

 
  Name: Night and Day - apparatus puzzle based on the Woven Flexatube flexagon in which a completely dark shaded tube - Night - is turned inside out to a completely white tube - Day.

Paper type / shape: Custom

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2001.

Reference: 548

Diagrams: On-line diagrams are available on the Puzzles page of this site.

 
  Name: Purgatory - a flexagon-like apparatus puzzle from 2 squares. There is a hidden hole in the mat through which a surprisingly large object will pass.

Paper type / shape: 4 x squares / Homogeneous paper.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1996.

Reference: 124

Diagrams: On-line diagrams are available on the Puzzles page of this site.

 
  Name: Reverse It - apparatus puzzle based on Flexatube but starting from the Oxford Circus position in which the object is to reverse a black cross into a white cross and to find three other black patterns which can also be reversed.

Paper type / shape: Custom

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2021.

Reference: 581

Diagrams: Not yet available.

 
  Name: Sheep and Goats Revisited - apparatus puzzle based on Flexatube but starting from the Oxford Circus position in which the object is to separate the Sheep and Goats.

Paper type / shape: Custom

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2021. Based on Robert E Neale's Sheep and Goats puzzle.

Reference: 581

Diagrams: Not yet available.

 
  Name: Simple Black Hole (3x2) - flexagon that opens up to a square ring.

Paper type / shape: Custom.

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1999.

Reference:

Diagrams: Online diagrams are available in the pdf Flexagons and Flexigation on the Flexagons page of this site.

 
  Name: The Trapdoor Buckle

Paper type / shape: Custom

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1999.

Reference: 173

Diagrams: Diagrams not yet available.

 
  Name: T-Time - apparatus puzzle - version of the Modular Two Way Tube.

Paper type / shape: 2 x squares / Irogami

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1997.

Reference:151

Diagrams: Paperfolding Puzzles - Water Trade - ISBN 0-9534774-0-X // On-line diagrams are available on the Puzzles page of this site.

 
  Name: Windmill Flexagon - lateral thinking / manipulation puzzle based on a non-twisted flexagon from a square. The solution can only be found by holding the puzzle up to the light.

Paper type / shape: Square

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 1996.

Reference: 134

Diagrams: Origami - Barnes and Noble - ISBN 0-7607-3331-7 // BOM 217 - December 2002 - Solution BOM 218 // Paperfolding Puzzles (2nd Edition) - David Mitchell - Water Trade - ISBN 978-0-9534774-5-6 // On-line diagrams are available on the Puzzles page of this site.

 
  Name: Window on the World - treatment of the Flexatube puzzle.

Paper type / shape: Custom

Designer / Date: David Mitchell, 2021.

Reference: 581

Diagrams: Not yet available.