So I bought a Rubik's Cube today... (1 Viewer)

[Inspector Hammer!]

and even after 20 years I still can't solve the damn thing lol. It came with a hint booklet but I can't make heads or tails of that either.

 

[Neal_C]

It's just a myth that it can actually be solved...

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Get a different color in the center square of each side. Once that has been accomplished, makes sure your rotations never move any of the center squares. I am told this makes it easier to solve. I can't be sure because the last time I tried one it ended up going through a window.

 

[Patrick_S]

Wait a minute, this advice doesn't make sense because it's impossible not to have a different color in the center of each square.

 

[Francois Caron]

You can always disassemble and reassemble it.

 

[Scott Merryfield]

I used to be able to solve this puzzle very quickly, but that was back in the '70's and before I got old and lost my memory. I had a hint book that showed a foolproof method for solving the puzzle every time. Now, if I could only remember what I did with that book.


If I recall, the center square never moves when you rotate a side. And, as Patrick pointed out, there is always a different color center square on each side. No wonder you could never solve the puzzle, Adam.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I've been able to solve it since the early 1980's, though no speed demon, average solve time in the 30-45 second range.

Now Rubik's Revenge (4x4x4) takes over 3 minutes to solve, that's a real pain.

Never have tried the 5x5x5 cube yet.

The 12-sided Tomy Dodecahedron (Megaminx) was a personal favorite, but I lost it years ago.

 

[Chu Gai]

You'll find various people on YouTube solving it such as this one:

Also there are some people doing it one handed, blind, and with their feet. I don't know if any chicanery was involved.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I was playing with it during Smallville last night, which was appropriate since Clark found himself in the puzzle factory himself last night, and I actually did take notice that I couldn't move any of the center colors, the Rubik's Cube sticker on the center white square tipped me off to that.

I managed to get all but one white square solved but all of the other colors were still pretty scrambled, I was under the impression that if you solve one side you solve all sides?

I've heard of people who could solve it behind their back without looking, I don't know who these people are or where they reside but they are clearly from a higher race of being lol.

 

[Bob Turnbull]

I assume they were allowed to study the cube before putting it behind their backs? Very impressive if so...If not, I would debate the possibility of someone doing that. Unless of course their fingertips were so sensitive they could tell a green square from a red one without looking...

 

[Greg_S_H]

Then just skip straight to the part of the advice about throwing it out a window. . . .

 

[Ruz-El]

anyone remember Rubiks Magik? It's the only one I could ever solve. There was also a globe one.

 

[Jordan_E]

The wife wanted one for Christmas, so I bought her one, and it's collecting dust nicely on the bedside table, thank you...

 

[andrew markworthy]

Somewhere I have one of the original batch of Rubik's cubes exported to the West, supposedly rare and collectable. I bought it in a shop in Oxford where it was advertised as a frustrating puzzle (they got that right). I did solve it just once, and the (literal) headache it gave me was so vile, I never bothered again.

Pretty soon after that, versions of the cube produced under license by western companies came out and then books on how to solve it (if I remember correctly, there was even an article on the maths of solving the problem in Scientific American). Very rapidly, saying that you could solve the puzzle moved from being a boast to a statement that you were a sad loser who'd memorised the solution from a book.

I also had the first follow-up to Rubik's cube, which was Rubik's snake. Anyone remember that? The idea was to fold up a long straight segmented strip into a ball-like shape. It was so easy after the cube it was laughable.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Yeah, but the snake could also be used as a toy, to form all kinds of elaborate shapes.

 

[Michael Harris]

Anyone remember Rubik's Hand Grenade from "Saturday Night Live"? One of their best faux ads.

 

[RichP]

You have to solve it in layers, not sides.

Top layer first, then the middle, then the bottom. There are patterns for each "solve" scenario.

I can solve a completely scrambled cube in about 3 mins or so. That's much slower than some of the uber-solvers I've seen.

 

[Patrick Sun]

I was bouncing around 50-65 seconds at work today, just wanted to see how slow I am these days, but the cube I have is pretty much on its last legs.

 

[EricW]

don't know if this helps...

http://www.chessandpoker.com/rubiks-cube-solution.html

 

[Francois Caron]

YES! It was hilarious! But all the grenade could do was rotate in one direction. How did they get the colors all mixed up without rotating in another direction?

Didn't matter anyway. BOOM!!! "The last puzzle you'll never solve!"