The Nut and Bolt Puzzle

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I have no idea who designed this puzzle, so if you know, please tell me! Kickstarter on July 12th with free puzzles! SCRAP put on a short zelda-themed puzzle set for free here: scrapzelda.com/web-puzzle/ This site seems to have good puzzle-related news: puzzlepile.com/

[@TurkeyMeat]

Gary Foshee puzzles.schwandtner.info/puzzle_2023.html

[@FLEBpuzzles]

+Jonathan I saw this page, but I'm a little confused because there's another version of this puzzle which consists of two hemispheres, which you have to turn around to make a sphere. I don't know which one came first!

[@FLEBpuzzles]

It would be available online, and we would work to get it in stores. Because we're self publishing, we'll have to convince stores to stock the book! We'll definitely offer it online, though!

[@boaz23mw2]

I bet that episode or the whole book themselves are a big puzzle/riddle containing hints on how to solve them.

[@Enma200992]

i think this puzzle base on tradional japanase ring puzzle

[@colekern6214]

The string was a brilliantly simple way to explain a complicated concept.

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I'm glad you liked it! I still think I could have done a better job of explaining it, though.

[@clairepimpa]

You are a wizard, FLEB

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I am nothing next to the Archmage who trained me.

[@Imrahilion]

You're a wizard, Har- I mean Fleb

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thanks! After going through several puzzle-magic apprenticeships, it's nice to finally be recognized!

[@hexacryonic2323]

I think your channel is the only reason I get up in the morning.

[@DUFY]

Great vid fleb! Your kid is gonna be a genius.

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you! I hope she likes puzzles!

[@GoneOh]

I'm just waiting on your video explaining the explanation to this puzzle called life.

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I can explain it, it's just that the video takes 75 years on average to film, and that time is better spent living!

[@tracyh5751]

And isn't that in itself the real explanation?

[@guillermopaz7740]

+FLEB omg you are like a super ancient god

[@FLEBpuzzles]

+Tracy ◉_◉

[@gold4963]

My gosh, that's a hard puzzle...

[@loublou22]

I honestly don't know how you work these out I'm in awe

[@SteveFrenchWoodNStuff]

A lot of disentanglement-style puzzles seem magical. Even when you know the solution, it can be really hard to wrap your mind around what exactly is going on. I love your soothing style and clever thought processes.

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you! I agree that disentanglement puzzles feel like that a lot of the time. I wonder why?

[@Varksterable]

Excluding things at the molecular level, I struggle to think of anything that forms loops in nature. And certainly loops which wrap back on themselves or are interlinked. Maybe this is why; our brains have simply not evolved to cope with this type of problem because it not needed? Another great puzzle and brilliant video. Many thanks for posting!

[@totemicthor3707]

Your videos got me into puzzles. This puzzle feels genius yet simple. Nothing flashy or expensive. I like this one the best so far.

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thanks! I'm glad you liked it! Having not seen this puzzle before making this video, I was VERY impressed with it! It's nice to know that after solving thousands of puzzle, there are still interesting mechanics just waiting to be discovered!

[@darioiii9773]

I love when you bring out the red string for explanation, its awesome.

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I'm glad you like it! :)

[@OurCognitiveSurplus]

I can’t even solve and unsolve this puzzle even after watching the video. At what stage am I meant to sacrifice the goat again?

[@midwestskiesinnyc]

LOL, I never understand what you're doing, but I still love your videos.

[@Pandsu]

Nut and Bolt, also known as Smash and Dash or Hit and Run

[@beautyofsylence]

Really good video Fleb. Your description of how you conceptualise, simplify and eventually solve the problem were not only clear and engaging but super informative too. Keep up the great work!

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you! :)

[@ResidentOfTheAbyss]

Fleb, I have some tangled electrical cords in my garage, can you solve those for me? Lol

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Send me a picture! [e-mail] At the least, I can tell you whether it's a knot or not. ...or were you bluffing?

[@ResidentOfTheAbyss]

FLEB I think I will be able to accomplish the tasks, but if not, I will call upon your assistance! Thank you for your offer Fleb, and I love your channel!

[@rat4spd]

Learn over/under and you'll never have that problem again.

[@ChronoQuote]

Found the answer to the page of your book shown at 0:05 (*spoilers below*): UNPOLLED The story hints at the use of palindromes when solving the crossword. All it took was Wiktionary's list of English palindromes and I was set.

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Nice! Well done!

[@Chainsawctopus_]

This puzzle is nuts! (Sorry, i had to. Lol). Another awesome puzzle solved by The Great Wizard FLEB!! It's a bit confusing, but I still managed to understand. Keep up the good work!

[@antonioblanco1637]

Awesome!! All your videos teach me how to think different in so many aspects. You are so inspirational. Greetings from Spain. Pd: Sorry if my English isn't very good 😅

[@jmile69]

I watch your channel regularly, but I really dug this puzzle in particular. Extremely interesting, thanks!

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I'm glad you liked it! Thanks for watching!

[@jbftcmof]

That puzzle is very unintuitive! I think the fact it's made of chain instead of string makes it more complicated to our visual brain. There's no nice curves making us picture loops and circles in our head etc. The string example was super helpful. Do you ever do stuff like that to help you figure puzzles out, or is it just for the videos?

[@Shlafoutre]

While this kind of solution is classic on cord puzzles, I always find it counter intuitive and hard to intellectualize. As you say, even when you know the solution, it's still magic. Thanks a lot for the video, I'm already impatient to receive your puzzle book!

[@FLEBpuzzles]

One way to think about it is that there's a chain part above and below the nut. You're swapping which one is on the which side of the washer. I agree though, that it's hard to visualize! I hope we meet our funding goal on Kickstarter next week!

[@doritoes6360]

I love your channel, you make such awesome videos where you explain every little step. I don't understand why here's so many... Wierd comments. I liked, subscribed and turned on post notifs😊

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you! I really appreciate it! People are having fun in the comments! Nothing wrong with that!

[@doritoes6360]

FLEB 😁

[@CollectionFreak]

I don't even own these puzzles, neither do I understand this puzzle... it looks complicated.. however I just really like to watch your videos! :)

[@Tom-vx7qh]

Hey there puzzlers, my name is *_-FLIP-_*

[@n8r8rutube]

I had to rewatch the part at 2:14 like 10 times but now I think I get it. Lets say the long way of the string is the x axis with +x going to the right, the y axis is perpendicular to the x axis and on the plane of the table, with +y going away from the camera, and the z axis is normal to the table. The center of the paper ring will be the origin. This essentially makes the constraint that the x coordinate of both arrows must always be positive. In the initial state, the only portion of the string where the arrows can meet lays in negative x. But rotating the string 180 degrees around the y axis brings that section of string to positive x. This rotation would also cause the arrows to enter negative x; however, rotating the string in an arc (ie around the circumference of a circle in the xz-plane), allows a segment of string to be in positive x at every step in the rotation. So during this rotation, you can also move the arrows along the string so that they always remain in positive x. It's kind of hard to explain in words, but visualizing the move as a rotation around the y axis really helps to understand what is happening with the string, as well as the chain in the actual puzzle.

[@leo9714]

OMG so complicated XD

[@rustbloodeclipse]

That's an interesting puzzle! I found your channel a week or so ago, and now I can't stop watching! Nice review on it. :D

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thanks! Someone wrote me an email about it, as they couldn't solve it. After I got a copy, I knew I had to cover it!

[@rustbloodeclipse]

FLEB That's interesting! Thanks for replying, too. :)

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I try to reply to everyone. When my daughter was born I got waaaay behind, but I'm hoping to work through the backlog eventually!

[@MRavaraVago]

topology, man. it's beautiful

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I agree!

[@THE-BIG-JP-REILS]

Girlfriends dad: what are your plans for my daughter Me:

[@akumamakima2280]

This reminds me of a Japanese puzzle that was solved recently. I must get one of these lol

[@sungahn7386]

Awesome vid, Fleb! Keep up the amazing work!!

[@magicgimp9910]

Couldnt figure it out and ripped it in half by mistake, nut fits great with no chain lol, puzzle made by go games

[@-RedEnoz-]

Is it possible to go bolt, washer, then the nut. I actually thought that's what the goal of the puzzle was the entire time.

[@shockingisntit883]

How to solve: get the chain wet, let it rust, then smash it, then solve

[@AndrewLaValley]

I'd love to see you do the hanayama cast enigma puzzle. You have to move the first piece in weird ways to get it off, then you have to do something that I struggled with to get the other two pieces off. It's fun but difficult.

[@FLEBpuzzles]

It's a great puzzle! One of the hardest Hanayama puzzles, if not the hardest! Maybe I'll do a video on it in the future, but I want to understand how it was designed, first!

[@AndrewLaValley]

FLEB it was actually the first one I was able to get apart and put back together without looking up anything. It took me several months lol.

[@ericopenscards819]

Excited to see your book

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you! I hope we get funded!

[@RoomiesGarage]

thanks again for the entertainment, great video

[@hecdudeh2o969]

Cool!

[@MrDuckAlmighty]

i really enjoyed that one. and i get the whole, still feels like magic. :)

[@CinderellAspergerSapiophile]

Amazing

[@Quetzachapin]

You're an amazing puzzle solver..

[@thaoandduy]

Love the video FLEB!

[@gabrieldietrich9580]

awesome video love them

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you!

[@kokovlogofficial]

It great puzzle 👍

[@jasop2332]

Such a fabulous video... great job, and I'm excited about July 12th!

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you! I hope we get funded! I've been wanting to make this book for about half a year!

[@cruzdindia9702]

I keep doing what the vid says but when I put the loop through the washer that’s where I’m done I do the next step and I’m back where I started

[@tahirsutube]

Great puzzle!

[@GoldfishLiberty]

Is there not a single other video on youtube of this puzzle???

[@zachwalczak6082]

Hey FLEB can you do a video on reseting this puzzle to the start

[@tracken]

Love your videos :D. Strange subject, but cool non-the-less

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you!

[@claxan]

Speaking of puzzle books (looking very forward to yours) - could you probably review Journal 29? I think it's one of the more interesting puzzle books out there at the moment!

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I've never heard of it! I'll order a copy and see what I think!

[@claxan]

It's definitely worth checking out. It starts pretty easy and rapidly becomes harder and harder. And what I really like is, that there are no real extra hints. So you really need to think hard and use everything you learn throughout the experience!

[@moonltcobble]

I'm super stuck on this. There seems to be a cut in the video around 3:00-3:10. After pulling the chain between the nut and bolt through the washer, your chain is not wrapped around the ring anymore, but mine always is.

[@BryanEdwardArmijos]

Some say he uses voodoo so solve this puzzles.

[@Toooooom0898]

Surely the washer has to be on the bolt before putting the nut on.

[@kmlkmljkl]

Wow, you'd think that with videos like yours, morons would stay away, but just look at the comments here... Pretty cool puzzle though. I totally don't get it, but it's cool.

[@FLEBpuzzles]

If you don't understand it, that's a failure on my part. I'm sorry about that! This puzzle is very unintuitive, though! The best way to think about it it that the nut and bolt have chain segments on both sides. The moves that you make switch them. The particular way that the chain is tied around the ring is what allows you to do that.

[@BigDBrian]

KML: the hubris is real I despise people like you As for fleb's comment, that's a really nice way think about it, it makes sense. My initial thought when seeing the puzzle was "would it be possible if you only had to flip one?" Which, I guessed, was not. And it isn't ;)

[@kmlkmljkl]

hubris??? I was talking about the comments like "first", " sixth", "can i get likes for my birthday" how does hating useless comments like that make me a bad person?

[@BigDBrian]

Because you divide people into categories like morons and would wish & expect they "stay away". Sure, there's some attention seeking people. Most comments I see are just jokes. And yes, there's a "Can I get 16 likes for my birthday?" (which I had downvoted btw) but that's simple attention seeking, that doesn't mean he's a moron. And hubris, because you feel like you're better than others and exclaim it.

[@sihyunpark4476]

Can you turn it back to its original state?

[@jumiduss]

Hey FLEB, I had a question about the kickstarter. Will the puzzles be very difficult (imo fun) like the the m.i.t mystery hunt where it's something very complex/ intuitive, or something more standard like the typical one page logic puzzles that float around the internet. a.k.a general audience or hardcore puzzler Not saying that's a bad thing either way! Appreciate your work and look forward to supporting it!

[@FLEBpuzzles]

They're going to be in the puzzlehunt style, which is what the MIT Mystery Hunt is. Each section is themed after a different category of puzzle (word puzzle, grid puzzle, etc.). It's probably closer to BAPHL or DASH difficulty than the MIT Mystery Hunt, but there's going to be a wide range of difficulty, especially as you get further into the book! One of the big differences between something like this and a typical puzzlehunt is that I really don't want internet access to be required to solve the puzzles. The whole first chapter is going to be available for free, with hints on the page, once the campaign launches, so you'll be able to try it out for yourself!

[@jumiduss]

FLEB thanks a ton! I appreciate all your work.

[@j0w0seph18]

Great vid dude keep it up

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[@user-pi7hj8vt2u]

What about getting a washer in between a bolt and a nut?

[@TheIronWaffleMan]

Hey, just a suggestion. For puzzles like these, it might be helpful to highlight the parts you're referencing when you say things like "top part" or "this is the chain between the nut and bolt." Idk, that requires extra video editing work, but just an idea. Cool puzzle!

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Is it confusing? If it is, I can try to point to the relevant section in a more clear way. I'm always looking for ways to improve!

[@inzizor]

You can point to them or add a color to it in editing or even just an arrow added when editing makes it super clear what you mean :)

[@BigDBrian]

though editing is a solution you could always use tape. I do love your simplified versions of puzzles, they're great and do the job for me, personally

[@FLEBpuzzles]

These are all great comments! Let me see what I can actually do in editing to try to make it more clear!

[@TheIronWaffleMan]

Just in this case it was a little hard to follow (not terribly so). Maybe I'm just slow, but I did rewind the video to recap some things.

[@trickytricky2332]

That's just drove me nuts

[@Kasperhp7410]

In my understanding it is not that you have flipped the nut and bolt, you just simply moved either one along the chain. How I do not know... Magic

[@ellenschmuker9987]

I can not get past "step 3" ". Bring it back around" from where to where??

[@Plopigo]

I think the puzzle is still unresolved, you forgot the washer. Everybody knows that you need a washer if you have a nut and a bolt. Especially if it's in the puzzle..! :)

[@Lucian_Andries]

Blasphemy! Witch! You're a witch! Off with your heads!! El Chupacabra!

[@diontes7906]

I subscribed keep up to good work

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you! I really appreciate it!

[@midwestskiesinnyc]

Ooooh!

[@FLEBpuzzles]

That was my reaction as well, when someone wrote in about not being able to solve the puzzle!

[@midwestskiesinnyc]

loloolololololooloololol

[@MissyFaye]

wait i didnt know that was the idea.. to screw them together.. i thought it was to remover the giant ring... ok i gotta try again before i watch this..

[@deadkatana254]

I am happy 😊

[@carpetlick5243]

I have no idea what you meant by "bring the other part back down"

[@Bakedbri]

please cover codex silenda!! i love you

[@TimTam69420]

I still dont understand how this works aha

[@hawkeandbeenie6951]

why dont you do any live videos of you solving a fresh puzzle?

[@FLEBpuzzles]

I prefer thinking about the puzzle, understanding it, and then presenting it! It's just a personal preference, and it allows me to make the videos at my schedule, instead of worrying about when the best live schedule is.

[@thesultanmerchant]

provide more puzzle but provide dimension in detail of every parts and material.

[@jennitopley7449]

I am trying to reverse the puzzle so that I can now give it to my nephew to solve when he visits me. I have the nut and bolt facing each other but can't figure out how to get them the other way around. I know .... sorry but I am not to cluey at puzzles !!!

[@daniellequinio2509]

I just subscribed

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thank you! I really appreciate it!

[@daniellequinio2509]

FLEB you're welcome 😆

[@lucaslayton3974]

This puzzle is more or less exactly like that impossible Japanese puzzle...

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Similar, but not the same! The Eureka, Loop de Loop (the Japanese puzzle), and the Nut and Bolt puzzle all have different mechanics to accomplish "impossible" tasks! That Japanese video is great, but it's more about pushing knots around the puzzle, rather than switching positions of loop segments!

[@santiago.g2483]

try slowing it down alittle

[@deadkatana254]

I am so amazing 😉 at this

[@daireb789]

fith

[@MissyFaye]

ok so... I did it but holy hell I do not understand it..

[@MissyFaye]

at least it's finally solved.. but I don't feel satisfied cause I don't get it and it just feels like it magically switched sides..

[@thelogicless9040]

the solution was confusing

[@santiago.g2483]

what your doing is confusing

[@destinycates6631]

july 12th is my birthdayyyy

[@mysteriumbros8386]

Notif squad

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Report in soldier!

[@GoldfishLiberty]

Very confusing the way you explained this. Hard to see what youre doing most of the time because your hands are in the way

[@UrasSomer]

My name is flip

[@JonEdwardJordan]

What the...?

[@loganmazzetti5140]

So confusing

[@elobroi]

WHAT THE HECK JUST HAPPENNED?!

[@babushkablyattv2751]

What?

[@neogamer6279]

100th like I don't want to be first dislike xD

[@FLEBpuzzles]

Thanks for the like! I really appreciate it, even though I don't ask for it at the end of the video!

[@Redstoneminecraft06]

50th like 12th comment 392nd view

[@FLEBpuzzles]

The detail is appreciated!

[@Redstoneminecraft06]

lol ur welcome

[@laraf-b]

10th like!!

[@handsome_man69]

I have herpes

[@aether1370]

Try solving a 17 x 17 cube lol

[@thisisnotpaperhats]

first

[@Temaxtiani]

g ka lucky

[@thisisnotpaperhats]

Nicholas Marek meh idk i commented like 5 mins after upload