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Subject:	Mathematical proof that you can't build anything with LEGO bricks
Newsgroups:	lugnet.general
Date:	Sun, 26 Feb 2012 20:23:41 GMT
Viewed:	19234 times

Dr. Mark Changizi claims that LEGO sets have reached a point where most of the pieces no longer fit other pieces. Sound crazy? Wait - there’s math...

http://discovermagazine.com/2012/jan-feb/02-how-did-lego-lose-its-mojo

I’ve actually had an open conversation with Dr. Changizi about this article and the original paper on which he bases his conclusions. He has made some claims that are not supported by his research or by common observation, and his method of classifying LEGO piece types is suspect.

Wondering what others think of this article.

Here’s a link to the original research paper: http://www.changizi.com/org.pdf

Message has 5 Replies:

		Re: Mathematical proof that you can't build anything with LEGO bricks
(...) He says "LEGOs" which makes his work suspect right there. :) Not very rigorous. The paper is from 2001... the piece palette has improved somewhat since then. But generally I'm not sure he's drawing valid inferences/conclusions. LEGO elements (...) (12 years ago, 27-Feb-12, to lugnet.general, FTX)

		Re: Mathematical proof that you can't build anything with LEGO bricks
(...) Two things come immediately to mind. The first is that it's really amusing that he's saying that now that there are a much wider variety of parts, it's harder to build something with them. I've got over 40 cars in my collection now that could (...) (12 years ago, 27-Feb-12, to lugnet.general, FTX)

		Re: Mathematical proof that you can't build anything with LEGO bricks
(...) I think he's probably correct, from a certain perspective. Essentially, LEGO has become a more diverse toy. LEGO from the 60's and early 70's was a VERY free-form toy. There weren't many connection types, so all the pieces essentially worked (...) (12 years ago, 27-Feb-12, to lugnet.general, FTX)

		Re: Mathematical proof that you can't build anything with LEGO bricks
(...) I spend too much time on Facebook. I very much want to click "Like" to both David Laswell's and Dave Eaton's comments here. As for the argument Dr. Changizi presents, I'm too distracted by the opening of the article, which to any experienced (...) (12 years ago, 28-Feb-12, to lugnet.general, FTX)

		Re: Mathematical proof that you can't build anything with LEGO bricks
(...) I've been sort of pondering this, and I've concluded that the researcher's conclusion makes more sense if we use as a sample 100 random elements chosen from the "classic" LEGO era vs 100 random elements from the newer Ninjago era. Whatever the (...) (12 years ago, 29-Feb-12, to lugnet.general, FTX)

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