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Naming the Quints |
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The 12 uniquely shaped quint pieces are based on the shapes of five squares joined on their edges. They were originally defined and named "pentominoes" in 1952 by Solomon Golomb, as published in his book, Polyominoes. He also gave the individual pentominoes names that are easy to remember, because they look quite a bit like letters of the alphabet. Here are their official names, showing how each is built out of 5 squares:
Here is how the pentominoes look without the lines marking their division, with just their pure silhouette shapes. They are shown in the position and order that makes them especially easy to visualize: FLIP N TUVWXYZ. Notice the straight run from T to Z. 
The Quintillions pieces are not just flat squares but cubes joined in a single layer. Thus they are "solid pentominoes," also called "planar pentacubes." Here's how they're structured: 
And here is how they look as quints — the hand-finished, laser-cut wood playing pieces of the Quintillions set: 
After you've played with the Quintillions set for a little while, you'll be able to recognize any piece by name even when it's upside down and backwards or in any of up to 24 different positions in 3-D space. |
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