Surprisingly Difficult Puzzle

This puzzle of interlocking hoops seems simple enough, but will leave most people scratching their heads.

There's no 'one weird trick' to solve it. This. Puzzle. Is. Hard.

Otherwise known as a Baguenaudier, Chinese Rings or a five pillars puzzle, this is a disentanglement puzzle in which a loop must be separated from the pillars.

I won't include the solution here, you will need to try it for yourself!

Step 1: Designing in Tinkercad

I used Tinkercad to make the design, which can be done using the basic shapes it provides.

After making one basketball hoop shape, you can copy and paste to keep the proportions the same, then adjust the height.

Use the ruler function to make sure the hoops are evenly spaced.

Once finished, export to an .stl fie for 3D printing.

Step 2: Preparing for 3D Printing

To prepare the .stl file for printing, load it into a slicing program like Cura.

This design requires a lot of support material for the floating rings, so make sure 'Generate support' or the equivalent is turned on.

I have attached the .stl file below so you can print it yourself.

Step 3: 3D Printing

The design took about 10 hours to print with the settings I used, most of which was the support material.

Remove this however you feel most comfortable (I prefer a screwdriver and a craft knife), but be careful of damaging the delicate posts or your hands.

Step 4: Finished!

Add a closed loop of string to the lowest hoop and you're ready to try out the puzzle!

Good luck and have fun.