Diabolical cube seven and nine pieces respectively. However, writes that the diabolical cube appears to be the oldest puzzle of this type, first appearing in an 1893 book "Puzzles Old and New" by Professor Hoffmann (Angelo Lewis). Because all of the pieces have only a single layer of cubes, their shape is unchanged by a mirror reflection, so a mirror reflection of a solution produces either the same solution or another valid solution. The puzzle has 13 different solutions, if mirrored pairs of solutions are not counted as being distinct from each other. Diabolical cube The diabolical cube is a three-dimensional dissection
Soma cube their faces, such that at least one inside corner is formed. There is one combination of three cubes that satisfies this condition, and six combinations of four cubes that satisfy this condition, of which two are mirror images of each other (see Chirality). Thus, 3 + (6 × 4) is 27, which is exactly the number of cells in a 3×3×3 cube. The Soma cube was analyzed in detail by John Horton Conway on September 1958 in Mathematical Games column in "Scientific American", and the book "Winning Ways for your Mathematical Plays" also contains a detailed analysis of the Soma