The Pyraminx is a puzzle similar to the Rubik's Cube but in the shape of a tetrahedron. It consists of four triangular faces made up of smaller, triangular pieces. It was invented by Uwe Mèffert in 1969 a few years before the original Rubik's cube was invented.
At first he made it for a stress-management tool. You would spin it to calm yourself down. It is thus the forerunner of the fidget spinner.
The Pyraminx has 933,120 possible permutations (positions). However, if we add the tips, the number would be 75,582,720. The lowest possible number of moves you need to do to solve it is 11 moves. It is simpler than the normal Rubik's Cube, but spinning one side will affect three other sides, meaning that using algorithms is a must in order to maintain already solved sides.
There is also the Tetraminx, which is just a Pyraminx with the corners removed. This of course does not affect the difficulty of the puzzle.
Mechanics[]
The Pyraminx consists of corner pieces, edge pieces, and center pieces, all of which must be aligned to restore each face to a single color. Despite its tetrahedral structure, the Pyraminx is mechanically simpler than many cube-based puzzles because of its lack of hidden layers. Each tip of the Pyraminx can rotate freely without affecting other pieces.
Notation[]
In pyraminx there are four moves you can do, R U L or B. If there is an apostrophe at the end of it (Ex. R') then do it the turn counter-clockwise, if there is no apostrophe at the end (Ex. R) then you turn it clockwise.
R means to turn the right side, U means to turn the top side, L is to turn the left side and B is to turn the back side.
Solving Methods[]
Popular solving methods for the Pyraminx include: Keyhole Method: This more advanced method involves solving most of the Pyraminx while leaving one piece (the "keyhole") unsolved, which is then used to solve the rest of the puzzle efficiently. V-First Method: In this approach, the solver creates a V-shape on two faces and then uses algorithms to solve the rest of the puzzle in fewer moves.
Speedcubing[]
The world record for the fastest single solve is 0.73 seconds held by Simon Kellum. The World record average is 1.15 seconds held by Sebastian Lee.