Baguenaudier

A baguenaudier
Diagrammatic representation of a four-ring baguenaudier
A metal version of the puzzle

Baguenaudier (pronounced [baɡnodje]; French for "time-waster"),[1] also known as the Chinese rings, Cardan's suspension, Cardano's rings, Devil's needle or five pillars puzzle, is a disentanglement puzzle featuring a loop which must be disentangled from a sequence of rings on interlinked pillars.[1] The loop can be either string or a rigid structure.

It is thought to have been invented originally in China. The origins are obscure. The American ethnographer Stewart Culin related a tradition attributing the puzzle's invention to the 2nd/3rd century Chinese general Zhuge Liang.[2][3] It was used by French peasants as a locking mechanism.[1]

Variations of this include the Devil's staircase, Devil's Halo[4] and the impossible staircase. Another similar puzzle is the Giant's causeway which uses a separate pillar with an embedded ring.

  1. ^ a b c Weisstein, Eric W. "Baguenaudier". MathWorld.
  2. ^ Cite error: The named reference DD was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  3. ^ Hinz, Andreas M.; Klavžar, Sandi; Milutinović, Uroš; Petr, Ciril (2015). The Tower of Hanoi – Myths and Maths. Birkhäuser. p. 4. ISBN 978-3034807692.
  4. ^ "The Devil's Halo". The Puzzle Museum. 2017.