ABSTRACT
The topological property on which Piet Hein based Hex is that two lines within a quadrilateral, one joining one pair of opposite sides, the other joining the other pair, must cross. Polygon’s story begins with its creator, Hein, born December 16 1905. Hein was an unusual character with diverse interests. Hein was an unusual character with diverse interests. Hein supported himself by consulting and from royalties from opthamologic inventions. He was also fascinated by games and puzzles. The cardboard package that contains the cube is another Hein surprise: held together without glue or fasteners, it unfolds to reveal a sheet with instructions and puzzles. He called this puzzle the world’s smallest philosophical system. In the 1930s, supposedly while struggling to stay awake during a talk by Werner Heisenberg — who received the 1932 Nobel Prize for Physics — Hein invented the Soma cube.
