"Conway" 7 Cube

Copyright 2007 by Bill Gosper (rwg@osots.com)

Created for the Seventh Gathering for Gardner.  Solved by only two attendees--Conway himself and world puzzle champ Wei-Hwa Huang.  There are 14 large (4x4x1) squares plus 16 smaller squares and half-squares.  (14*4x4+10*4x2+3*3x3+3*2x2 = 7x7x7.)  For total humiliation, ask someone to assemble for you one of the 7.9 million(!) solutions, then you disassemble it, and merely try to replace the 14 large squares back within the cubical volume.  No luck?  Perhaps 14 is not enough.  You need 18!  (Four extra 4x4s come with the puzzle.)  I'm kidding, right?  Well, yes.  You actually need to add enough plastic to gravitationally distort the space within the cube.  Add the three 3x3s too!  Throw in the three 2x2s while you're at it.  All 24 square pieces fit in there!
http://gosper.org/new/, ...org/Huddle.RTF, ...org/octav2.rtf, ...org/7^3l.rtf
www.tweedledum.com/rwg/idents.htm