Da Vinci’s Ball Bearing Puzzle is a wooden brain teaser from Professor Puzzle’s Great Minds collection, dedicated to Leonardo da Vinci, the “universal man” of the Renaissance. It is a single wooden piece with small balls inside, and the aim is to get those balls to sit at opposite ends of the puzzle.

• BrandProfessor Puzzle
• CollectionGreat Minds
• TypeBall puzzle
• MaterialWood
• Pieces1, with small balls inside

The Great Minds collection

Great Minds is a Professor Puzzle collection that links each brain teaser to a historical figure; each box includes a short biography of the person and explains how they relate to the puzzle. The display it comes from brings together six models from the collection, three in metal and three in wood, dedicated to Benjamin Franklin, Galileo, William the Conqueror, Leonardo da Vinci, Isaac Newton and William Shakespeare. The pieces have an aged finish that suits the historical theme.

How it works

Unlike other models in the collection, there is nothing to take apart here: everything happens inside the piece, and the goal is to get the balls into the specified position. It is a challenge that combines observation and a steady hand, and in which rushing usually works against you.

Professor Puzzle describes it as a challenging brain teaser, without giving it a numerical level. The reference to Leonardo, inventor, engineer and artist, fits a puzzle that requires you to understand how a small mechanism behaves before solving it.