Rainbow Stairs is a colourful sliding-piece puzzle with 13 helical pieces. When a piece is turned around the central column, it passes exactly three of its neighbours, either upstairs or downstairs. The object of the puzzle is to complete a staircase with the colours in a rainbow order.
Other than the canonical staircase, also other patterns can be made. Examples are a reverse staircase, two staircases running at opposite sides of the column, and two staircases spreading in opposite direction.
The puzzle was invented in 2016. At that time, a too-thin failed prototype was made with the pieces running around a ballpoint. The puzzle is directly related to the famous 14-15 puzzle. However, unlike that puzzle, Rainbow Stairs has no parity limitations. This means that any two pieces can be swapped and that any staircase pattern can be made. Still, the puzzle is non-trivial to solve after having been scrambled.
Deisgned by Oskar van Deventer, who has created many different puzzles including his brand of Oskar Puzzles which are mechanical puzzles and objects that can only exist thanks to 3D printing technology. Since 1978, he has been creating hundreds of mechanical puzzles, making him one of the world's most prolific designers. Several of his innovative designs are commercially available.
