Tag Archives: world record

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Rapid Rubik edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And I’d like to return to the subject of twisty puzzles.

Obviously the most famous twisty puzzle of all time is the Rubik’s Cube. It’s one of the most recognizable puzzles in the world, and there are entire tournaments dedicated to speed-solving those signature cubes.

As you may recall, I’ve written about Rubik’s Cube world records before, but you’ve never seen a solve like this. Collin Burns set a new world record for speed-solving a 3×3 Rubik’s Cube.

His solve was so fast that he could’ve solved a dozen Rubik’s Cubes or more in the time it’s taken you to read this far. Check it out!

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=huh4GEPKYt4]

Collin’s solve took 5.253 seconds, shattering the previous record of 5.55 seconds. Absolutely mind-blowing.

I wonder if Erno Rubik had any idea his eponymous cubes would’ve inspired something like this.

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It’s Follow-Up Friday: Jumbo Jigsaw edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today, I’d like to return to the subject of world records!

Follow-Up Friday has become something of a repository of puzzly world records.

In previous installments, Follow-Up Friday posts have covered Largest Architectural Video Game Display (when a 29-story game of Tetris was played in Philadelphia), Most Game Show Episodes Hosted by the Same Presenter (for Alex Trebek’s run on Jeopardy!), and the solving of the World’s Largest Rubik’s Cube-style Puzzle.

Heck, just last week, I posted about the World’s Largest Vertical Maze.

And this week, I’ve got another cool one for you: the world’s largest jigsaw puzzle.

It is called “Wildlife,” and it’s produced by Educa. It retails for $400. It’s composed of 33,600 pieces. It measures 5 feet by nearly 19 feet. It is so large that it comes in ten separate bags, inside a wooden box on wheels for ease of movement. It is a monster.

The young woman pictured solved it in 450 hours (over the course of two and a half months). There is a world speed record for solving it, but it took 100 people over 19 hours to do it.

Pretty amazing, especially since she owns a cat, a creature rarely conducive to the solving of jigsaw puzzles.

So, fellow puzzlers and PuzzleNationers, what’s the biggest jigsaw puzzle you’ve ever tackled? Let me know! I’d love to hear about it!

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: A-maze-ing edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

By this time, you know the drill. Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and bring the PuzzleNation audience up to speed on all things puzzly.

And today, I’d like to return to the subject of building-sized puzzles!

In the past I’ve mentioned some truly monster-sized puzzles, from the apartment building crossword in Ukraine to multi-story games of Tetris played on the sides of office buildings.

Well, another world record has been set for super-sized puzzles, this time in Dubai!

The largest vertical maze in the world (certified by the folks at Guinness!) can be found on the side of a 55-story building aptly known as Maze Tower.

Although LED lights make the maze quite an eye-catching spectacle at night, the maze is also visible in the daytime, since it was physically built along the side of the building.

All it needs is a digital minotaur prowling the corridors to chase off prospective solvers.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out the growing library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Tetris Theology Edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

For those new to PuzzleNation Blog, Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and update the PuzzleNation audience on how these projects are doing and what these people have been up to in the meantime.

And today, I’d like to return to the subject of Tetris for a moment.

This year marked the 30th anniversary of Tetris, one of the all-time favorite video games in history, and we’ve joined in the celebration with posts about a new Tetris world record in Philadelphia and the power of Tetris to curb the urge to snack.

A friend recently pointed me toward this comedy skit from CollegeHumor, which finally solves the riddle of where all those Tetris blocks come from.

And so, without further ado, I present The Tetris God:

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out our library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

It’s Follow-Up Friday: Hunger Games edition!

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Welcome to Follow-Up Friday!

For those new to PuzzleNation Blog, Follow-Up Friday is a chance for us to revisit the subjects of previous posts and update the PuzzleNation audience on how these projects are doing and what these people have been up to in the meantime.

And today, I’d like to talk about hunger and games! (No, not THOSE hunger games).

This year marked the 30th anniversary of Tetris, one of the all-time favorite video games in history, and I recently posted about the world record Tetris game played on the side of a skyscraper in Philadelphia.

But did you know that Tetris could be good for your health?

In a recent study, visually distracting and engaging games like Tetris were found to reduce the urge to snack by up to 24%!

From the article:

According to a theory called Elaborated Intrusion, our cravings are driven by visual images that often pop into our heads. With this in mind, Plymouth University psychologists Jessica Skorka-Brown, Jackie Andrade, and Jon May wondered if a visually based task, like playing a video game, could decrease the frequency of craving imagery, and with it, the cravings themselves.

Apparently, only three minutes of gameplay was needed to make an impact on food cravings!

As if we needed another reason to love those distinctive little blocks.

Thanks for visiting PuzzleNation Blog today! You can share your pictures with us on Instagram, friend us on Facebook, check us out on Twitter, Pinterest, and Tumblr, and be sure to check out our library of PuzzleNation apps and games!

Happy (Follow-Up) Fourth of July!

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It’s Independence Day in the U.S., and what better way is there for PuzzleNation Blog to honor the holiday than to talk about a world-record puzzly event in one of the cities synonymous with the birth of America: Philadelphia.

A former nation’s capital, home of the Liberty Bell, location of the First Continental Congress, and home of Benjamin Franklin, Philadelphia is also the new home of a world record.

Yes, Philadelphia is the Guinness Book of World Records record-holder for Largest Architectural Video Game Display, after Drexel University professor Frank Lee orchestrated a 29-story-high game of Tetris on the side of a skyscraper.

From nearly a mile away, Lee and other Tetris enthusiasts played a monstrous game of Tetris with a specially rigged joystick and a custom-written computer program.

[Another pic of the puzzly feat, from a local news station’s coverage.]

What’s cooler, more ridiculous, and more bombastically American than that?

Happy Fourth of July, fellow puzzlers! Thank you for spending Independence Day with us, and thank you to the marvelous Kathy Matheson for sharing this story!