25 Lotus Flowers Puzzle

25 Lotus Flowers is a rotating-piece puzzle I recently invented (at least I'm ignorant of any earlier versions). The object is to turn the 25 lotus Flowers to form a given pattern. The challenge is that each Flower prevents one of its neighbors from turning, so you usually have to turn several Flowers before you can turn the one you want to turn. Mathematically, this puzzle is in the class of “2 dimensional combination puzzles”.

I call the puzzle "25 Lotus Flowers" because the 25 puzzle pieces look to me like ancient Egyptian images of lotus flowers, and the addictive nature of the puzzle reminds me of the Lotus Eaters in The Odyssey.

I've posted detailed instructions, https://bluepapertech.com/how-to/how-to-play-25-lotus-flowers/, how to play the puzzle, including few challenges for you. Since it's a new puzzle, there are plenty of questions nobody yet knows the answer to – you could be the first to find an answer!

Let me know, in the Comments section here, what you think of the puzzle, and what solutions you've found. Let the games begin!

board.stl is the playing board. piecePrint25.stl is one playing piece – print 25 copies of this piece. cover.stl is the cover that keeps the pieces in place. Print without supports or brim. Print as oriented in the STL: with the board pegs facing up, each piece’s handle facing up, and the cover upside-down.

To assemble the puzzle, place each of the 25 pieces on a peg in the board, with the pieces oriented as shown in the photo.

I successfully printed this design in PolyLite PLA on my Lulzbot Mini printer, slicing it using Cura Lulzbot Edition set to the Lulzbot Mini Standard Resolution.

25LotusFlowers.FCStd is the FreeCAD design file. I created the design in the Part Design Workbench, then used the Part Workbench to create the Refined copy of the board and piece for printing.

Once I’d created the piece, board, and cover in the Part Design Workbench, I switched to the Part Workbench to create Refined copies of those parts, for printing, and to Check Geometry. In the past I’ve found issues with parts that don’t appear until I make a Refined Copy and Check Geometry of that copy.