Rubix Cube solution

I've been looking online for Rubix Cube solutions but can't seem to find a good one. The farthest I got off one solution was just one side. When the cubes first came out in the early 80's, my brother said that they came with a manual that was easy to understand.

It will be a funner puzzle when I have a logic to work with.

Matt Collins

good one

i like this method by Lars Petrus
http://lar5.com/cube/

my time is now down to about 2 min 30

Maybe if you search for the correct spelling? It's 'rubik's cube' and when I searched at google I found thousands of hits.

Mine didn't. But then, mine may have been a knock-off. I got it at some little corner store some place, one of those junk- for-a-buck type places.

Anyway, there are a few basic ways to solve the cube.

One is 'god's way.' That would be a gigantic table of the moves to get from any position to any other position. I don't have enough computer memory for that one though.

One is a 'holistic' way where the cube does not seem to be getting anywhere till it is only a few moves from being solved. I've never bothered to learn this way. The main goal of such a method is fewest moves. Something like 12 or 15 or some small number is supposed to be enough, but I don't recall the exact number.

Then there's the way most ordinary mortals (me) use. That's the bottom, sides, then top method. To do that, you need to learn a few basic moves that are fairly easy to achieve.

You need to know how to rotate three corners at the same time. That is, each of three corners winds up with a twist round their connection to the centre of the cube.

You need to know how to rotate two edges. That is, two edges wind up with each getting a 180 degree flip.

You need to know what interchanges are possible. Can you do an interchange of two corners and have nothing else wind up changing position? Can you do an interchange involving three corners? Say ABC goes to CAB? Can you do two edges? Three edges?

A trick is to start with a cube that is solved and see what simple interchanges you can build. You can cheat on most cubes and take them apart and reassemble them without damage, since the centre thingy is spring loaded. You can also use vasaline on most of them to make them slide easier and quieter.

Once you have the right collection of interchanges and rotations, you solve one face, call that the bottom. Then you use your 'bag of tricks' to solve the sides. Then you should be left with only the top to sort out, and again, you should be able to use your tricks to do that.

If you've ever seen the '15' puzzle, the moves you do there will help your thought processes a little. There you have 15 numbers, 1 through 15, in a grid with one space left over and you slide the space around to sort out the numbers. You have to do a lot of shuffling to do things like get 3, 1, 2 to 1, 2, 3. It's the same general kind of thing, just in 3D.

Scientific American published at least one article, can't recall when or what the title was. But the basic idea is, the R cube shows some interesting group theory. The three corners rotation is like a baryon in particle physics, with three quarks that have to average to colour neutral. The two edge rotation is like a meson with two quarks, again that have to average to colour neutral. Lots of good stuff.

I had an official one, and it didn't have a booklet included either. I collected the things and never saw one back then that came with a solution. However, Ideal sold them, and there was *ordering info* included, which is too tempting.

I've never seen a solution like that, except maybe one where you start with a 2x2x3 block, then finish the rest.

I learned top, bottom, sides myself... And later top, sides,

a while ago, i managed to get a 1 sheet (2 sides) solution... it was a solve top then each row working your way towards the bottom.

It was pretty good, and at my top speed i could solve it in under 2 minutes.

no idea where my cube and the solution are...

Yet another solution method, the Weird Al version.

Scene from UHF: two guys sitting on a city bench, one guy with a white cane and dark glasses. Cane guy is holding a Rubik's cube, does a move, holds it up to the other guy.

'Is this it?' 'Nope.' Another move. 'Is this it?' 'Nope.' Another move. 'Is this it?' 'Nope.' And so on.

Simply looking up a sequence of moves to solve the puzzle is no fun. If you need help solving the cube (most people do), then take a look at my file of helpful hints at
http://remus.rutgers.edu/~rhoads/Fun/Rubik.hints

It contains useful information to enable you to come up with your own solution without giving you any specific moves sequences. In it you'll find such things as the standard notation for Rubik's cube, the importance of inverses, conjugates, and commutators, etc.

Also, it takes a lot of time and effort to solve the puzzle. You almost have to live with it for a couple months.

Step One: Solve the top third. If you can't figure this out on your own, then stop here.

Step Two: Solve the middle third. The following sequence transfers an edge piece from the bottom-left to the front-right, and leave the top third in the same state that it began:

(right side counterclockwise) (bottom side counterclockwise) (right side clockwise) (bottom side clockwise) (front side clockwise) (bottom side clockwise) (front side counterclockwise)

Call this sequence 2A.

Here is X's mirror image about the front-right to back-left diagonal plane:

(front side clockwise) (bottom side clockwise) (front side counterclockwise) (bottom side counterclockwise) (right side counterclockwise) (bottom side counterclockwise) (right side clockwise)

Call this sequence 2B.

Perform these sequences. Repeatedly. Learn exactly what they do.

Step Three: Position and orient the bottom edges. (2A + 2 will rotate and flip three of the four bottom edges. Call this 3. (Note that the last move of 2A is cancelled by the first move of 2B, so you can collapse the sequence a bit.)

As above, study 3.

Step Four: Position the bottom corners.

New sub-sequence: 2X = 2A + (bottom side clockwise)

(2X + 2X + 2X + 2X) will rotate three of the four bottom corners. Call this 4.

As above, study 4.

Step Five: Orient the bottom corners.

(2A + 2A + 2A + 2A) will alter the orientation of three of the four bottom corners. Call this 5.

As above, study 5.