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\nRGB Color Cube<\/a>
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\nMy own Rubik’s cube. Somewhat worn but still loveable. <\/p>\n
While we’re here, let’s dispell some myths…<\/p>\n
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- The solution isn’t just a single sequence of moves that leads to the pieces falling into place by magic. It isn’t some secret combination of turns that you repeat over and over.\n<\/li>\n
- You cannot have just one piece out of place. You also cannot solve five sides. (Think about it)\n<\/li>\n
- There are eight corner pieces and twelve edge pieces, for a total of twenty pieces that move. The center pieces do not move relative to one another: They simply spin in place.\n<\/li>\n
- You don’t need to spend five minutes turning the thing to make sure it’s REALLY messed up. Once it’s scrambled, it’s scrambled, and any more random moves are superfluous.\n<\/li>\n
- The solution is not to solve for sides. People will sometimes get two (usually adjacent) sides, and then think they should naturally progress to three, four, and so on. Sometimes I have two adjacent sides completed, and I’m obliged to scramble one of them as I work on the rest of the cube. Sometimes the audience will laugh at me, “Ha ha! You had that one and messed it up!” \n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
There is a tradeoff in solution methodology. Generally, you can have short (ish) sequences of moves that can be used over and over again to swap a couple of pieces. For example, if you have two corner pieces that need to trade places without disturbing the other six corner pieces, you might hold the cube so that the two corners in question are right in front of you, and then make a particular seven-move sequence. You could use this method over and over again to nudge all of the corners into place. However, you could also have a longer sequence that swaps four corners. You’ll need to memorize a few different variants of it, depending on how you want to re-arrange those four corners. But when you’re done, you’ll have four corners sorted instead of two. So, the simple method would require you memorize one seven-move sequence, and the faster method has you memorize several ten-move sequences. It continues to scale up like this, with longer and more complex chains getting more accomplished. I’m sure the masters have immense lists of moves for every situation. Pehaps they can arrange all eight corners in one set of moves, they just need to choose the right sequence of moves from the huge library they have memorized, and then perform it flawlessly. <\/p>\n
Another danger of using long chains: If you mess up and make a wrong turn somewhere, it is far harder to recover. Generally if you make a mistake during a long chain you won’t know it until you’re nearly through with it, and by that time you’re in trouble. The last few errant moves have just been scrambling the cube. When this happens to me I have to start all over. <\/p>\n
There are many solution methods that people use. Some are very tricky and optimized for speed. Mine is much simpler and quite slow. The best in the world can solve a cube in less than fifteen seconds. I’ve seen it done*<\/sup><\/a> , and it is very strange. Unlike the method I use, where I work on a layer at a time (top to bottom), these people seem to work on the entire cube at once. The cube looks scrambled right up until the last few moves when everything begins to fall into place. Conjecture: This method arranges the corners relative to one another, and then the edge pieces. I imagine they have huge lists of lengthy sequences for swapping groups of pieces as needed. I’d love to know how they develop such sequences. <\/p>\n