Rubik's Cube

[Vinny]

Unfreakingbelievable.

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/vly/cubing4.mpg

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/vly/wc1hand-44_98.wmv

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/vly/ChrisHardwick_onehanded.wmv

(The guy in the first 3 videos is Chris Hardwick)

And here's a non-rubik's cube related bonus:
cup stacking! (The video is in real time, not speed up in anyway. The girl name is Emily Fox.)

[edit]The first link works now. The dood took it down last night. I put a copy in my VT box and linked to that instead.[/edit]



[This message has been edited by Vinny (edited 03-25-2004 01:52 PM).]

[Vinny]

Oh yah, also I know how to solve the Rubik's cube. In two different way. No where near the speed of that guy though, but so what? Trying to figure out a 3rd way of solving it.

Rubik's cube are a great stress reliever if you how to get it solved. Anyone want to learn, I can give some pointers.

[Hitchhiker]

There are world cup stacking championships?

[Vinny]

Yeah, unfreakingbelievable, right?

[mathgrant]

dethwing's not a fan of cup stacking.

[Vinny]

Well, tell him to watch that video and be AmazE!

I didn't know about Cup Stacking until last night, after seeing that video. I might just try it out, with glasses! Haha!

[Vinny]

let's give this a try. Feel free to add your own method of solving and comments.

How to solve the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube:

Let's call each 3x3 uniformed color a face.
And each face is make up of blocks.

General ideas:

- Note that all middle block on each face are fixed, and are always in the same position in relation to each other. Use them to navigate.

- All Corner blocks have 3 colors (mini-faces), Edge-Mid blocks have 2 colors, and Center blocks have 1.

- The general idea to solving a Rubik's Cube is to do it one layer at a time.

Let's hold a Rubik's Cube so that White is on Top, Blue is facing you (Front), Orange is on the Right, Red is on the left, Green is at the Back, and Yellow is on the Bottom.

I will give the instruction thus: "Face-Turn Direction", where Face could either be Top, Front, Right, Left, Back, or Bottom, and TurnDirection would either be R (for turn the face clockwise), or L (for turn the face counter-clockwise).

e.g.
When I say

"Top-R", it means grab the Top (White) face and turn it clockwise once.
"Left-L", grab Left (Red) face and turn it counter clockwise once (away from you.)
"Left-R", grab Left (Red) face and turn it clockwise (toward you).
"Right-L", grab Right (Orange) face and turn it counter clockwise once (toward you)
"Right-R", grab Right (Orange) face and turn it clockwise once (away from you).

Rubik's Cube Solving Method 1, I call it the "Keyhole Method".

First solve the Top face, then the Bottom 4 Corner Blocks, then the Bottom 4 Edge-Mid Blocks, then finally the 2nd layer Edge-Mid blocks.

1) Solving the Top Face (White)

Should be pretty straight forward. Use the Center blocks on each face to determine which white block belongs where. For example, if you see a Corner block with a white-blue-red combination. This would block would go in the corner made up of the white, red, and blue face (determined by the Center blocks). If you see an Edge-Mid block with the color white-red, this block goes right on top of the red Center block where the white and red faces meet.

2) Solving the 4 bottom Corner blocks.

First you'll need to put all 4 bottom Corner blocks in the right location, don't worry about the face orientation being correct yet. We'll take care of that in the next step.

Note that there're only 2 possibilities for the 4 corner blocks locations in relation to each other. They are either all going to be in the right location, or two of them are going to be incorrect. You can't have 3 blocks being in the correct location and 1 not, and vice versa.

to swap two corner blocks:

Rotate the bottom corner blocks you want to swap so that they are both in the front facing you.

Let's pretend that you want to swap the blue-orange-yellow corner block on the left with blue-red-yellow block on the right, so that they switched places.

Right-L, Bottom-L, Right-R
Front-R, Bottom-R, Front-L
Right-L, Bottom-R, Right-R
Bottom-L, Bottom-L

The white face should still be correct up top, and the two corner blocks should be swapped.

To rotate the orientation of the 4 bottom Corner blocks:

Let's say you want to change the orientation of the front-bottom-right corner block blue-orange-yellow so that blue faces the front, orange on the right, and yellow on the bottom.

Right-L, Bottom-L, Right-R
Bottom-L, Right-L, Bottom-L, Bottom-L, Right-R
Bottom-L, Bottom-L

The orientation of the front-bottom-right block should have changed. If it's still not correct, repeat above until it is.

To do the front-bottom-left block orientation, do similar steps, but in the opposite directions when turning the bottom face.

Left-R, Bottom-R, Left-L
Bottom-R, Left-R, Bottom-R, Bottom-R, Left-L
Bottom-R, Bottom-R

Solving the 4 Bottom Edge-Mid blocks:

After getting the four bottom corner blocks in the correct position and orientation, proceed to solving the bottom 4 Edge-Mid blocks. Note that after this face is completed, you'll have the top and bottom faces solved, with only the 4 middle Edge-Mid blocks out of place.

Also note that the only incorrect blocks at this point are the 8 Edge-Mid blocks. We are working with only 4 of those blocks here, the one involving the bottom face (Yellow).

This is the "Keyhole" part of the method, you'll see why in a sec.

To move an Edge-Mid block from the middle layer to the bottom layer, turn a side face (left, right, front, back) left or right (clock wise or counter-clockwise), then turn the middle row until the block you wanted is "inserted" into the bottom row, and then turn the side face back so that the top and bottom orientation is again correct.

Note that this will affect 2 blocks only, one Edge-Mid block on the top face, and one Edge-Mid block on the bottom face. A top Edge-Mid block (white) will be messed up and moved out of position the first time you do this. Everytime you "inserted" an Edge-Mid block into the bottom layer, make sure you aligned the "hole" in the top layer and the bottom layer first so that only those two blocks will be affected. When you get to last bottom Edge-Mid block out of the 4, you'll have to arrange it so that when you inserted it into place, the top Edge-Mid block that was bumbed out of place also get slotted back to its original position. Figure that part out yourself, it's fun!

Solving the last 4 middle Edge-Mid block

At this point the top and bottom faces should be solved, and there are only 4 incorrect blocks left, the 4 middle Edge-Mid blocks. To move these four blocks into the correct position, grab the top face in your left hand and the bottom face in your right hand, then "move" the middle layer up or down, rotate the side faces twice, move the middle layer, then rotoate the side faces back. If you do it correctly, the top and bottom faces (White and Yellow) should stay correct all the time, and the 4 Edge-Mid blocks will swap places, and change orientations.

Keep doing it until you get all four blocks into the right position and the Cube solved.

You might encounter situation where the orientation of the last 4 middle Edge-Mid blocks are incorrect. To change their orientation, you'll have to use the "keyhole" step to move a top and bottom block out of place, change orientation of a few edge-mid blocks, and move the top and bottom edge-mid blocks back into place.

I'll also let you figure that part out for yourself. Have fun!

[This message has been edited by Vinny (edited 03-26-2004 04:47 PM).]

[extropalopakettle]

For some reason that cup stacking video plays upside down on my machine.

[Vinny]

could be an encoding problem. You need to update your Windows Media Player. Or turn your monitor upside down.

[Hitchhiker]

Or stand on your head.

[Vinny]

Rubik's Cube Solving Method 2, I call this one the "Cross Method".

First, solve the 4 Edge-Mid blocks for the top face (white).

After this is done, you should have a cross pattern on top. Don't worry about the corner blocks for now.

Next, solve the 4 middle Edge-Mid blocks for the Front, Left, Right, and Back faces.
The general idea is to rotate the Left/Right face down, rotate a middle Edge-Mid block into place (put it next to a Center block of the same color).

After the 4 Edge-Mid blocks are in place, solve the 4 top corner blocks. To do this, you'll have to rotate a corner block out of the way, move an Edge-Mid block without disturbing that corner block to where you can then rotate it down next to the Edge-Mid block, then rotate both into place next to the center block of the same color.

You should have the top 2 layers solved after you move the top 4 Corner blocks into place.

Next, solve the 4 bottom corner blocks. You can do this the same as the "Keyhole Method" mentioned above. Swap those bottom corner blocks and change their orientation without messing the top 2 layers, as per instructions mentioned in the Keyhole Method.

After this, you should have everything solved except for the 4 bottom Edge-Mid blocks.

Solve these 4 by experimenting. If you move both the left and right faces down, rotate the bottom face (yellow) to move the Top Edge-Mid block that was moved down out of position, rotate the bottom face any number of times, then rotate the disturbed Top Edge-Mid block back into place up top, you should only move the 4 bottom Edge-Mid blocks and not those that are already solved.

If you do this right, nothing should be affected except for the 4 bottom Edge-Mid blocks. The 4 bottom Edge-Mid blocks will swap place and change orientation thru different combination of moving the bottom face and the disturbed Top Edge-Mid block. Remember the patterns you use and how the blocks were affected each time. Come up with as many routines as you can (this is the fun and challenging part) to swap the 4 bottom unsolved Edge-Mid blocks around.

Once you get these 4 bottom Edge-Mid blocks into place, the whole Cube should be solved.

Have fun!

[This message has been edited by Vinny (edited 03-29-2004 05:34 PM).]

[rubik's senior]

I have done cubes since my high school days (grad in '84) ... my best time was just under a minute (56 seconds ?) but only did it once. My average is 90 seconds, even today. I am a bartender now, and it's one of my "props" i keep at the bar for slow periods. My method id the layer method ... top, middle, bottom. A lot of redundant moves in this method, but it is the simplest to remember. I tried to learn this guys method:

Lars Petrus' Method

but got lazy. And it has WAY too many combos to learn for this old guy.

[Antrax]

Originally posted by that site:

---

Being able to solve Rubiks cube very fast is a near useless skill, that takes a lot of time to acquire, and does not typically impress the opposite sex. If you think you have better things to do, I can only agree. You probably have.

---

Antrax

------------------
"Look, that's why there's rules, understand? So that you think before you break 'em" - Lu-Tze, Thief of Time

[Vinny]

Hi, rubik's senior.

I've seen that solution method in the past, and have tried to emulate it before. I can get to the 2x2x3 part easily, but couldn't figure out the last part with getting the edges correct by twisting the two remaining edges.

Thanks for the link! I've been searching for that. I didn't know what that method was called.

[Vinny]

this is a good java applet to play with.

http://lar5.com/cube/solve.html

[Neo]

Do those people have anything better to do with their time?

[Vinny]

what people?

[Neo]

Emily Fox and the rubiks cube guy.

------------------
_{Elayne Corleone: oh so like i am now your love slave and stuff}

[Vinny]

Bah. I admired their skillz.

It's better than being good at drinking or doing card tricks or tying a knots in the cherry stem with your tounge at any rate.

[i_h8_evil_stuff]

http://dev.rubiks.com/lvl3/index_lvl3.cfm?lan=eng&lvl1=commun&lvl2=cbegam&lvl3=rubgme&lvl4=vrtcub#

Online cube from the official site.

[Vegetable]

Pfff. Who wants a rubik's cube solver that's not made of legos?

[casinopete]

I do!

I think Vinny's more than cute enough to make up for his not being made of Legos.

[Vinny]

How do you know I am not made out of Legos?

[casinopete]

I asked my Magic Eight Ball.

It said, "Outlook Not So Good."

[Vinny]

Yeah, ITA. Outlook is a piece of crap software. So many security holes. Inconsistencies in menus. Hard to archived.

[jadesmar]

Hard to archived indeed.

English speak much?

[Pigboy]

As with all skills and talents, the first questin you have to ask yourself beore you dedicate long hours to it is "Is it gonna pull the birds?" (or "Is it gonna pull the blokes?" just to be non-sexist in case any birds are reading).

Rubiks cube, demonstrating rapid wrist action? not likely.
Tying cherry stem in a knot with tongue? Probably.

[Vinny]

don't you have anything better to do, jadesmar?

don't you have cherry to tounge, PigBoy?

[Pigboy]

I wish!