Glass Puzzle - Pineapple

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Pineapple is another interesting design from the Glass Puzzle collection, designed by the genius of Nob Yoshigahara and launched by Beverly Enterprises. There are eight different puzzles in this collection, each with a unique take on packed food in a jar. A piece of advice: don't play with them if you're hungry, as they're almost identical in appearance to the real thing which can be mouth-watering.

The Pineapple, like all the other puzzles in the Glass series, comes in a real glass jar, about 7cm in height and 7cm in diameter (2.8"), and inside are 12 irregular-shaped pieces in the form of pineapple slices. The puzzle doesn't come already solved though, as the pieces are just randomly fitted for the packaging. This is a good thing, because you'll feel the need to have all the pieces neatly packed inside the jar.

I noticed a very cool thing as I was touching the pieces for the first time. It almost felt as if you were in the presence of real pineapple slices, only with less moisture, but featuring the same rugged texture. This goes to show how far they went just to simulate the real textures of the food items in their puzzle series.

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These Glass Puzzles are also known for their high difficulty level, and the Pineapple is no different. It's a level 8/10, and even though it's not the hardest one in the series, it can still pack a punch. This one took me a little over half an hour to solve. As far as multiple solutions go, I'm not sure it has many, because the one I came up with was the same as the solution found on PuzzleMaster's website, only reversed.

I actually found an interesting fact that I had completely overlooked when I was playing with it and only saw it when looking at the solution. The pieces are a distorted view of pentominos - A pentomino is a piece comprised of five equal units, and there are exactly 12 different ways to build one. When analyzing the pieces more carefully, I found out that the 12 pieces in the Pineapple puzzle are indeed all 12 possible pentominos. It's fascinating how by looking at things in a different way you can miss the obvious things right in front of you. Nob was indeed a genius in the puzzle making and designing.

(Click to Enlarge) - All 12 Pentominos with a Twist

I wouldn't have been able to discover all these interesting facts if I hadn't downloaded PuzzleMaster's solution. And I was just curious to see if my solution was the same as the official one. This proves how looking up the solution to a puzzle you already solved can still be positive even though you don't need to. There's so much you can learn about your puzzles this way.

Solution: Click here to download the solution.

Closing Comments:

The Glass Puzzle - Pineapple is an amazingly designed puzzle, and an example of how making a slight change in the appearance of a puzzle can have a totally different outcome. I strongly recommend this one to all puzzle enthusiasts out there. It's a great puzzle to study visual perception and spatial cognition.

Availability: You can buy the Glass Puzzle - Pineapple at PuzzleMaster for $16 CAD. You can also get all the others here.