The Cubing Thread

[VisMaior]

Every person should lern a basic way of solving this. It trains your brain. I can do it, but Im hungarian, so its expected of me.

[VisMaior]

Im not sure what a "square" in this context means. I assume its something positive.

[VisMaior]

What you say is as clear to me as a platypus eating a banana.

[VisMaior]

I am glad we arrived at a common understanding or not understanding.

[VisMaior]

Legend says Rubik needed some months to do it himself.

[VisMaior]

Also, maybe you should do a writeup for beginners, who dont want to speedcube, just solve the damn thing for once.

Ill do that myself, if its ok to you.

[VisMaior]

OK cube solving for beginners.

1. Taking a look

If you want to solve the cube, the first thing you need is to take a good look at it. YOu need to realize a few things.
1. its not made of faces, instead its made of small cubes. For example, if you can make the white face, you need to look at the small cubes that make up teh big one(from now on cubules). We will

separate the cube into 3 layers. The top layer, the middle layer and the bottom layer.
2. the middle squares never change place. They are fixed.
3. There are only 2 types of cubules apart from middle faces: edge and corner cubules.

2. The cross

Chose a color. (For some reason, 70% chose white in this step, so I assume you chose white)
Now that you chose one, we will define directions.
White is pointing to the top
opposite to white (usually yellow) is pointing to the bottom
others point to the sides.
Top layer: the white midpoint and all cubules adjacent
The bottom layer: the midpoint opposite to the white middle (usually yellow), and all adjacent cubules
The middle layer: all cubules not in the previous 2.
If you look at the cube from the side, then you can see the layers easily.

Lets start making the white face. The cross is when on the white face all edge cubules are in the correct position.
Edge cubules have only 2 colors, so you have to move all edge cubules with one white and one other color onto the edge between the white and the other color middle.
This is 4 cubules total. This should be the easy part, solvable by anyone.

at the end you look at something like this:

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x w x
w w w
x w x

And from the side

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x g x
x g x
x x x

where w is white, g is some other color (green) x is placeholder for whatever color.

3. the white corners

The white corner cubules can be in any of the 8 corners of the cube. You need to move them to their correct places in the correct direction.
1. the corner is in the bottom layer, and the white face faces to the side. This is the easiest.
a-Place the cubule under its correct place by twisting the bottom layer.
b-twist the side the white is now facing so that the corner cubule remains in the bottom layer
c-twist the bottom layer so that the cubule goes back to its former position
d-do the opposite twist of b
Or in illustration
1. twist bottom until it is under its location, result:

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x w x
w w w
x w x 
-------
x g x | x r x
x g x | x r x
x x w | r x x

2. twist green, result:

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x w x
w w w
x x x 
-------
x g x | x r x
x g g | w r x
w x x | x x x

3. twist bottom, result:

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x w x
w w w
x x x 
-------
x g x | x r x
x g g | w r x
x x g | w x x

4.twist green, result:

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x w x
w w w
x w w 
-------
x g g | r r x
x g x | x r x
x x x | x x x

2.the corner cubule is in the bottom layer but white faces down - you need to twist this so you will end up with case #1. here is how
a. place the corner under any top corners that are not correctly placed yet.
b. look at it from the side. Twist the side face
c. move the corner away by twisting the bottom layer
d. do the opposite twist as b
3. the corner is in the top layer - we twist this that we end up with #2 or #1
a. twist a side so that the cubule ends up in the bottom layer
b. twist it away by twisting the bottom layer
c. do the opposite twist as 1


---The first layer should be done by now.----

4. the second layer

If you managed to do the forst layer, take a look at the cube. You shuold notice that the second layer only consists of 4 edge cubules. We will use an algorithm that changes a cubule in the

middle layer with a cubule in the bottom one, without disturbing the top layer.
The basic idea is, that we take a corner cubule out of the top layer, then put it back from the other direction.

Look at the cube from the side. It looks something like this:

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g g g | r r r
x g x | x r x			
x x x | x x x

Now we want to look for the edge cubule that has g|r on it. There are 3 cases 2 of which are actually mirror cases, so Ill handle them as 1.
1. the g|r is in the bottom layer
Check what color looks to the side on it. Place it so , that it can line up with the appropriate middle with 1 twist of the bottom layer.
Now you twist down the W corner cubule to the bottom layer and twist it away by twisting the bottom layer. Note that this twist should do the lineup mentioned before.
Twist back the white edge. Teh white face should now only miss 1 white, while the g|r shuold be lined up with the remaining white corner cubule on one side.
Now twist away the white corner cubule again by twisting the bottom layer. Twist down the white line that has the missing cubule. There are 2 such lines, so chose the one that has not

been twisted so far. Twist the white corner back to its place, and twist the white line back.

Or in figures:

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g g g | r r r | b b b
x g x | x r x |	x b x		
x x x | x x x | x R x

Where the capital r is the r face of r|g edge cubule

now twist the g face

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x x g | w r r | b b b
x g g | w r x | x b x
x x g | w x x | x r x

twist bottom

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x x g | w r r | b b b
x g g | w r x | x b x
w x x | x r x | x x x

twist g

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g g x | x r r | b b b
x g x | x r x | x b x
x x w | r r x | x x x

twist the bootom again

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g g x | x r r | b b b
x g x | x r x | x b x
r r x | x x x | x x x

now twist r

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g g w | r x x | b b b
x g w | r r x | x b x
r r x | x x x | x x x

twist bottom back so w matches again

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g g w | r x x | b b b
x g w | r r x | x b x
x x w | r r x | x x x

twist r to fix w face

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g g g | r r r | b b b
x g g | r r x | x b x
x x x | x x x | x x x

2. the g|r is on the middle layer: use #1 to switch it with any other edge in the bottom layer, then goto 1.

5. the bottom layer edge orientations

If you look at the bottom layer, you will see one of four possible orientations for edges. All yellow is already set, so the other 3 are:

1.

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x y x
x y y
x x x

look at the side that is adjacent to a yellow

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g g g
g g g
x x x
-----
x y x
x y y 
x x x

What you have to do, I call the goalpass.
twist the middle row down (the leg) twist the bottom away (the pass) twist the leg back up, the ball should go to the other side, then the leg comes down, and the ball attaches to the leg, then

it goes back up.
leg
. | .
. | .
. V .

pass
. . .
. . .
< - -

leg up
. ^ .
. | .
. | .

ball to the other side
. . .
. . .
- - >

. . .
. . .
- - >
leg
. | .
. | .
. V .
catch
. . .
. . .
< - -
leg up
. ^ .
. | .
. | .

Be careful that the ball goes AWAY from the yellow in the pass step.
This will result in this

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x y x
y y y
x y x

2. the yellows are opposite

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x y x
x y x
x y x

YOu can apply #1 to end up with the formation in #1
3. no yellows
YOu just do #1 twice.

6. the bottom layer edge positions

NOw that all bottom layer edges are the correct orientation, we apply the correct position without disturbing any of what we have so far algorithm.
Again, you have 2 possibilities, when you look at the bottom.

1. one edge is in correct position

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. c .
n . n
. n .

Where c is a correct position, and n is not correct. This can still happen in 2 ways, but one is the mirror of the other, so I assume one, and you should be able to do the other.
assume that we have
. c .
1 . 2
. 3 .
and we need
. c .
3 . 1
. 2 .
look at the side so that the cubule labeled c is facing you
The following will be used later too, so do remember it(needs a name, how about "allaround twist"):
. . |
. . |
. . v

. . .
. . .
< - -

. . ^
. . |
. . |

. . .
. . .
< - -

. . |
. . |
. . v

. . .
. . .
< - -

. . .
. . .
< - -

. . ^
. . |
. . |


And you should be set. YOu can do this in reverse order to twist in the other direction, or do the same with left right switched.
2. there are 2 corrects and 2 that need switching
. c .
1 . c
. 2 .

You simply twist the bottom layer once to end up in #1.

3. opposites are correct
. c .
. . .
. c .

Do #1 once. Now you should end up with a config similar what #1 starts with

7. the bottom layer corner positions

OK so this I call the goalpost
Again, you have multiple possibilities that really are just the same but mirrored and such.
1. 1 corner is ok, 3 are not
Have
c . 1
. . .
3 . 2
need
c . 3
. . .
2 . 1

Look at the side so the correct one is facing you on the bottom left.

g g g
g g g
c . 1

now goalposts
| . |
| . |
V . V
The ball
. . .
. . .
- - >
Up one post
^ . .
| . .
| . .
Ball back
. . .
. . .
< - -
Up the other post
. .^
. .|
. .|
Ball away again
. . .
. . .
- - >
Down first post
| . .
| . .
V . .
Ball back
. . .
. . .
< - -
Up first post again
^ . .
| . .
| . .

You can do it in the mirror or twice for a rotation in the other direction
2. all are wrong position
have
1 . 2
. . .
3 . 4
need
4 . 3
. . .
2 . 1

Do #1 twice.

8. the bottom layer corner orientations

For this Ill use the algorithm in 6, awkwardly named "allaround twist"
What we do is make a twist one way and repair the other way.
The corners can be oriented in pairs. We will look at one pair, then the rest can be solved by repeating this step.


So 1 pair can be off-orientation 2 ways, but one is again, the mirror of the other.

so assuming we want to orient these:

x . .
. . .
x . .

Look at the side like this
. . .
. . .
x . .

now do the allaround twist, then do it again in the mirrored version.
Done.


If anyone can follow, please say so. Otherwise Ill need to rework it a bit...

[VisMaior]

So I scrambled up a cube. Then I got the white side (that dude said people start with white so why not) mostly faced but the edges are not with the right side and I don't know how to eghkldjasfklas I'll worry about it tomorrow.

Youre still thinking in facelets. Try thinking in cubules. If a white face is "corerct" but the other face if the same cubule is not, then the white face is actually incorrect too. It has to be switched with come other cubule later, so it is just as bad as if it was blue instead of white.

However, if you have all white edges correct, you can use the "allaround" method I described earlyer to fix the positions.

[VisMaior]

Any luck?