Rubik's Cube

Remove the stickers and reattach them in the correct positions. It's a real time-saver!

Or take it apart and put it together correctly... Be careful not to break anything while doing so.

My advice: don't try completing one side and then moving on to the next. Try working on all sides simultaneously.

Here's what is usually done:

Do the top group first, taking care to make the colors match on the sides. Then, work on the center cubes along the edges dropping down.

One you have two tiers in place, do the bottom corners. Then do the bottom middle pieces.

Good luck!

Mike's right. Work in rows, not sides. I used to work from the bottom up.

When Rubik's Cube first hit the stores, I was in college. I didn't eat, sleep, or go to class - I just played with that thing until I got it figured out. It took me about two weeks, but I got to where I could solve a randomly scrambled cube in under 15 seconds. After that, I slept for about 20 hours and then resumed my college activities. I wish I had known this at the time, but I probably could have made a bit of money by being the first to write a step-by-step solution book. Oh, well. The next semester, I won a campus-sponsored speed contest and haven't picked it up since.

When I pick it up now, I can solve the first row, but I don't remember how to solve for the second.

Mike and Brian are correct. Do one side first, taking care that the edges match the color of the adjacent sides (the center tiles of each face do not move relative to each other) then work your way down. Once you figure out how to rotate/move certain elements without scrambling the rest of the puzzle its possible to "solve" it quite quickly.

I prefer to treat the cube as layers. You do the first layer, then the second (middle) layer, and finally the third layer.

I think my fastest time was around 16 seconds (but it was a fluke). Back when I had a good cube (well lubricated), I would easily average solving it under 40 seconds.

I also know how to do the 4x4x4 Rubik's Revenge Cube. But that's a tedious one to solve, takes me just over 3 minutes on a good day to solve it.

And once upon a time I could do the Tomi Docehedren 12-sides "cube" puzzle. This was over 20 years ago, though.
I wish I knew what happened to that puzzle because I've seen them go for $80+ on Ebay.

16 seconds!

I bow before my betters. my best was probably in the 90+ second range. I didn't actually "solve" it myself, though, a friend had bought a leaflet with instructions, which I was able to memorise (and can actually still remember!).

funny thing is the "system" this leaflet showed seems simpler than most others I've seen (principle is the same though, start with one layer, then the next, then the final layer). the number of different sequences it required you to learn was quite limited.

but perhaps its simplicity also made it less flexible, and therefore more time-consuming to implement.

I got really good at those. When I was a kid at my aunt's place, I would just solve those puzzles. They're pretty easy and after the first time you get it, it becomes easier. It didn't matter how long they spent re-arranging it, I'd easily find a way to solve it. That was about 8-10 years ago. When I tried to do the Rubik's cube recently, I spent half an hour and got nowhere.

I think my best time (without removing the stickers) was something like a year and a half. I used to have the attention span of a ferret on a double expresso...

Once you learn to work in rows you can do it in no time.

Just thinkin' out loud...

Remember Rubik's revenge (don't know if that's the correct name) with the plastic panels with rings on them. They were held together with a clear type of string like fishing
line. The rings would "link" when you solved the puzzle.

Then there was the pyramid. Now that was pretty easy if you worked in layers.

How about the "chain" thing (don't know if it was actually a Rubik's product or not), where you had to link the colored chain on each side.

Does anyone know how to fix a lava lamp that doesn't gurgle anymore? Also, any advice for getting my chia pet to grow better?

What's more of a challenge is to solve the Rubik's Cube and then create cool colorful patterns on the cube by manipulating the corner and edge pieces.

FYI for solving the cube:

1. 1st layer - line up all of the corner pieces in the right orientation, and then fill in the edge pieces. Sure, it requires a little spacial IQ.

2. 2nd layer - you'll need to learn how to insert the 4 edges pieces in the 2nd layer without mucking up the 1st layer. Once you can do that, you'll get both layers done in no time. You just have to learn one string of moves.

3. 3rd layer - you'll need to get the corner pieces moved to the correct locations and oriented correctly. This requires a handful of different string of moves (treat it like a sub-routine in a computer program) depending on what you are facing on the 3rd layer. Then you just need to move the edge pieces around (and flipped if needed) to finish up the cube. This also takes a different set of moves to manipulate the pieces.

I still have all of the moves embedded in my brain. I'll probably always know how to solve the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube if I'm in good mental health. Once you grok it, it's like driving a stick shift transmission.

It was called Rubik's Magic. It was the only Rubik's puzzle I solved. I have it still...tucked away in a closet somewhere. I'll have to give the 3x3x3 cube a try again sometime. I just didn't have the patience for it when I was younger.

I still remember the first time I saw a Rubik's Cube. I was about 12 and I saw this guy walking down the street manipulating this thing in his hands, as i got closer, I was amazed to see the different sides slide in on each other...I couldn't imagine how it could move that way and not fall apart!

I eventually had about 10 of them, all kinds, I was a freak for the thing. I also had a spherical one (still 3x3x3), the 4x4x4 one, a pyramid one, and the dodecahedron one mentioned above...the only problem with that one was that it was kind of fragile, and it was hard to turn unless you aligned the 'sides' carefully.

I recently came accross an original Rubik's Cube, I could solve the first two layers, and center cubes of the bottom, but the corners of the bottom layer therw me, I couldn't remember the moves anymore...

My brother can solve the 6X6X6 cube . I think he got his average 3x3x3 cube down to under a min.


Ryan

Ah, Rubik's Cube once more.
I loved it, actually I own several of them. Some more facts:

Prof. Rubik created the cube for his students to prove that he solved the problem of the independently moving layers. We were all amazed, like Ed was, to see that it can be done.

The puzzle-aspect originates from adding the six colours to the sides of the cube.

There is a special position that allows you to take the cube apart without breaking anything - starting with one cubicle. It is possible to re-assemble it in a wrong way: so it can never be solved. That's because there are basically 2 different topological configurations given the coloured cubicles. Those two configurations have none of the "views" of the cube in common, so the "solved" cube belongs to only one of them.

Official competions started with a "solved" cube being turned randomly by a judge a given number of times. Normally that given number was 13. So if you think about that, it was always possible, theoretically, to move it back by no more than 13 moves. No one found those moves in time of course.

Official analysis shows that there is a maximum to the number of moves each position is "away" from the zero position. I don't remember it by head for certain, but I seem to remember that number was 53 or so. Perhaps I'm wrong here.

The general solutions given by most books are based on moves necessary to move a single cubicle from position a to (proper) position b, without disturbing already correctly placed cubicles. Of course that leads to many redundant moves.
While you're using this sort of instructions, you most probably start moving the cube farther away from it's solved position instead of getting closer (strictly speaking).

One can try for a fundamental solution for each position. I once wrote an "total analysis" version of a Rubik's Cube solving program using Turbo Pascal. Unfortunately it could only go as deep as 6 moves in about 2 minutes (and needed a time factor of 12 for each further move). Recently, I wrote a Visual Basic version of the program, but it can only solve ... 8 moves in 11 minutes (on a much faster PC). So, we still need C++ or machine code as well as a faster computer.

The puzzle with the rings, known as Rubik's Magic, constitutes a "trick". You cannot solve it until you realize the funny outcome. (I leave it at that, not to spoil it for those who are wanting to give it a try.)

Cees

i used to collect many of those puzzes.
i remember one shaped like a pyramid. it was much easier to sovle then the cube.

i think my rubik's magic fell apart before i solved it.

now i still have a couple cube's left laying around.

including one shaped like homer simpsons head.

a bart one was supposed to come out but i never saw it.

I used to know how to solve the Rubik's Cube back in the early '80s. I have since forgotten since I haven't done it in many years. My dad got me a Rubik's cube that had writing on the sides; this one was more challenging since not only did you have to align the colors, you had to get the writing aligned as well. The center square needed to be aligned with the other squares. I figured out a move to do this without messing up the colors.

I had a Rubik's Revenge (this was the 4x4x4 cube) but it broke, and the Pyraminx (the pyramid shaped one). I solved the Pyraminx in about 10 minutes after I got it, it's a lot easier than the cube. I also had the Missing Link, which had the rotating cubes with the sliding panels and you had to align the colors to make it look like a chain; and I also had a snake which could be folded into a ball or made into a myraid of shapes (there was no "solution" to this one, you just made different shapes with it).

I remember that the original cube could be disassembled and lubricated with Vaseline to make it turn easier. With a well lubricated cube I could solve it in about a minute.

KJP

This thread jogged my memory so much I ran out to Wal-Mart and got a new Rubik's cube (couldn't immediately find the original packed away somewhere)! Yep, they're still for sale. I paid about $9.50 for it (tax included).

For those looking to buy one, get the cube by Hasbro, not one of the other "Rubik's Cubes" by Oddzon or Winning Moves. The stickers will come off in a couple of weeks. The originals do show up on eBay, at about $10-20 or so. Make sure they state it is an original from the 80's.

I think I have ever solved a rukik's cube, but I remember that I loved messing with them. The bright colors were always fun to manipulate.

That has always been the case. If you bought two cubes from different brands, the colours could be differently placed (relatively) or (partly) even be different at all.

Cees

I also solve it with the white side being the bottom color, otherwise I get confused.

So, no one else makes nifty patterns with their Rubik's Cube?

It only seems that way.
Each and every cubicle of the big cube is unique. It can only go to one place for the solved position. So, if you solve the puzzle, the writing will be there automatically - always the same, the way they put it.



Made .
Yes, I used to do that a lot.


Cees