Hello, my name is Tyler and I am your Puzzle Master Insider.
Today, I'll be giving you an inside look at the "A"Puzzle.
The "A" Puzzle is one of the original 10 puzzles that Puzzle Master founder, Allan Stein, first produced in
his basement in 1991 during the inception of the company.
This is video Number 7 in a series I'll be calling The Original 10, where I will be introducing
you to the very first puzzles from Puzzle Master.
This includes the puzzles
Lion's Lair,
The Rack,
Wedding Vows,
Cowboys Hobble,
Fantastic Five,
Scorpion,
Handcuffs,
Iron Maiden,
Heartbreaker,
and today's feature,
"A" Puzzle.
The "A" Puzzle is a wire puzzle made from three millimeter or 1/8 inch thick,
nickel-plated steel wire with three nickel-plated rings and a
nickel-plated handle.
The objective of The "A" Puzzle is to remove the handle from the frame.
It is a Level 7 on the Puzzle Master's Difficulty Rating Scale, which runs from 5 to 10.
This is one of my favorite puzzles because it is simple
enough to learn and complex-looking enough to do that you could show someone the
solution without them getting it right away.
The "A" Puzzle is consistently one of the top sellers year-to-year in the Puzzle Master
wire line of puzzles, due to its familiar shape.
It is named "A" Puzzle not only because of its letter a shape,
but also, in reference to a uniquely Canadian use of the term "eh".
That's pretty sweet fact, eh.
Now to teach you a bit of puzzle terminology,
this ring here is called a gate ring because it is a gateway to the handle coming off the puzzle.
There are several variations of the "A" Puzzle available on the Puzzle Master site
that use a concept of a gate ring and the removal of a handle.
This includes
Tree Puzzle,
Rat Race,
The Whale,
Brontosaurus
Capital 'A',
and The Yak puzzle.
You will find a more detailed history of The "A" Puzzle, and other puzzles similar
to it on pages 100 and 101 of Slocum and Botermans' "Puzzles Old & New".
Next, I will show you the solution.
If you aren't interested in seeing this, then please stop the video here.
Five.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
Zero.
Like I've said before, the solution to "A" Puzzle looks complex,
but when taken step-by-step, is actually fairly simple.
You want to begin with the handle over on the right side
of the puzzle and the inner frame gap facing on the right side of the puzzle as well.
Take the handle, go over the gate ring
through the other ring,
and up
and over the inner frame and down in between the two rings.
Next, you'll go through the gate ring
and then let this part of the frame go through the handle.
So that's through the gate ring, through the other ring, up and over that inner frame
and then down through both rings and out that gap in the bottom of the frame.
Taking the handle off.
Now to put the handle back on, like most of the wire puzzles,
you'll do everything you just did but in reverse.
So take the handle, go up through the gate ring and through that gap in the frame,
through the other ring,
up and over the frame,
down and out of both rings.
That gets you here to that spot again between both rings.
Next, you'll go up through the single ring by itself here, over the inner frame and out of that ring
in between the two rings here. And last you'll go over the gate ring and
out into the starting position.
That's your solution - start to finish.
The "A" Puzzle is available at PuzzleMaster.CA.
That wraps up Video 7 of 10 in the Original 10 Video Series.
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Thank you for watching and I hope you have a very puzzling week.