Solution: CAST News

This is the solution for the CAST News puzzle.

The difficulty in this puzzle is due to its secret mechanism. It is not easy to see or understand much by just looking at it. Nevertheless, by looking carefully in the small gaps between the two pieces, we ca nsee some very small metal locks blocking the pieces together. And when the puzzle is moved to free a lock, the one on the opposite side immediately locks at the same time.

Physics must be used to unlock both sides together: centrifugal force. Put the News on a flat surface and make it spin fast like a top.

Once this is done, we can see that the two metal locks are now open. Nevertheless, it is still not possible to separate the two pieces. This is because there should be inside another hidden mechanism that forbids the lower locks to open. Only when they are on top they can be opened. To solve this, we must switch the puzzle upside down but beware, we must avoid the two open locks to switch back to the closed position. To achieve that, we must turn it around the open lock axis so they don’t move; which means we must rotate it in the North-South direction (or South-North) like displayed below.

Once flipped, we can again spin it fast so that centrifugal force will unlock the remaining two ones.

It happens frequently that a lock moves back to closed when the puzzle is flipped. Many trials can be needed to achieve it.

/tharn