Uwe Mèffert

Uwe Mèffert (born 28 November 1939)^{[citation needed]} has manufactured and sold mechanical puzzles in the style of Rubik's Cube since the original Cube craze. His first design was the Pyraminx and others include the Megaminx, Skewb and Skewb Diamond.^{[citation needed]} More recently he has licensed and re-released designs from other manufacturers, such as Dogic.^{[citation needed]}

In the 1970s Mèffert created some puzzles for his own amusement using pieces of balsa wood attached to a center ball by rubber bands.^{[citation needed]} He did not think anyone else would be interested in them, and put them away and forgot about them until Ernő Rubik's Rubik's Cube became a worldwide sensation in the 1980s. In 1981 Mèffert took his puzzles to a Japanese toymaker who agreed to market them. One of them, Pyraminx, sold more than 10 million pieces that year, and 90 million within three years.^{[citation needed]} Since that time, Mèffert and his associates have created more than 100 3-D rotating mechanical puzzles.^{[citation needed]}

Mèffert also created his own version of sudoku, the popular nine-number print puzzle. His puzzle consists of nine 3×3 grids, “representing total logic.” One has to place the numerals 1 to 9 in each horizontal and vertical row, each 3×3 box and the two major diagonals without repeating numbers. A “Chinese Magic Square”, consisting of the numbers 1–9, is hidden in a 3×3 grid somewhere in each puzzle. Adding any three numbers together in any direction always adds up to 15, providing additional challenge. Mèffert calls his version of the puzzle KOKONOTSU, a Japanese word meaning simply nine.^{[citation needed]}

Biography

Mèffert was born in Wernigerode in the Harz Mountains of Germany on the 28 November 1939. Mèffert is the son of Otto Oscar Wilhelm Rudolph Mèffert and Emmy Johanna Frieda Von-Vorkauf.^{[citation needed]} He was educated in Heidelberg, Germany, Geelong, Australia, and Bern, Switzerland. He has lived in Asia since the 1970s and currently resides in Hong Kong.^{[citation needed]} He is married to Jing Mèffert; they have three children: Michelle, Andrew and Ulrich and two grandchildren, Mikaela and Zachary.^{[citation needed]}

References

• Douglas Hofstadter, Metamagical Themas
• Martin Gardner. "Introduction to Uwe Meffert". Retrieved 2009-09-24. 
• http://www.mefferts.com/

External links

• Mefferts.com online store