Pyraminx (3x3x3)

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The Pyraminx is a regular tetrahedron shaped twisty puzzle. It was invented by Uwe Mèffert in 1970 however production of this toy only started in 1981.

This puzzle has 4 axis around which moves can be preformed (comparing to 3 axis in a Rubik's Cube), and it is comprised of 10 tetrahedral parts and 4 octahedral parts. The tips of the puzzle are usually reffered to as "trivial" becuase each of them has only 3 possible orientations and can be solved very easily. Some shape mods and other variations of the Pyraminx have taken these "trivial tips" off completely for example the Tetraminx (coming soon..). Another famous variation of this puzzle in the Master Pyraminx which is essentially the 4x4x4 version of it.

There are 75,582,720 possible combinations of the Pyraminx, however if you ignore the trivial tips the number crunches down to only 933,120. This number is much lower than the Rubik's Cube's wopping 43 quintillion combinations and even the Mini Rubik's Cube's 3,674,160 combinations rendering it an overall relatively easy puzzle to solve.

Optimal solutions to the Pyraminx can be found using computer software. And it has been proven that for any given position the puzzle can be solved in 11 moves or less (14 if you include the tips). The current world record for fastest Pyraminx solve is 0.73 seconds, set by Simon Kellum at the Middleton Meetup Thursday 2023 competition.