Sources page biographical material

6.G. SOMA CUBE
Piet Hein invented the Soma Cube in 1936. (S&B, pp. 40 41.) ??Is there any patent??

M. Gardner. SA (Sep 1958) = 2nd Book, Chap 6.

Richard K. Guy. Loc. cit. in 5.H.2, 1960. Pp. 150-151 discusses cubical solutions -- 234 found so far. He proposes the 'bath' shape -- a 5 x 3 x 2 cuboid with a 3 x 1 x 1 hole in the top layer. In a 1985 letter, he said that O'Beirne had introduced the Soma to him and his family. in 1959 and they found 234 solutions before Mike Guy went to Cambridge -- see below.

P. Hein, et al. Soma booklet. Parker Bros., 1969, 56pp. Asserts there are 240 simple solutions and 1,105,920 total solutions, found by J. H. Conway & M. J. T. Guy with a a computer (but cf Gardner, below) and by several others. [There seem to be several versions of this booklet, of various sizes.]

Thomas V. Atwater, ed. Soma Addict. 4 issues, 1970 1971, produced by Parker Brothers. (Gardner, below, says only three issues appeared.) ??NYS -- can anyone provide a set or photocopies??

M. Gardner. SA (Sep 1972) c= Knotted, chap. 3. States there are 240 solutions for the cube, obtained by many programs, but first found by J. H. Conway & M. J. T. Guy in 1962, who did not use a computer, but did it by hand "one wet afternoon". Richard Guy's 1985 letter notes that Mike Guy had a copy of the Guy family's 234 solutions with him.

SOMAP ??NYS -- ??details. (Schaaf III 52)

Winning Ways, 1982, II, 802 803 gives the SOMAP.

Jon Brunvall et al. The computerized Soma Cube. Comp. & Maths. with Appl. 12B:1/2 (1986 [Special issues 1/2 & 3/4 were separately printed as: I. Hargittai, ed.; Symmetry -- Unifying Human Understanding; Pergamon, 1986.] 113 121. They cite Gardner's 2nd Book which says the number of solutions is unknown and they use a computer to find them.