My best ever time is probably something like 10 minutes. I never timed myself so I don't actually know, but certainly not very fast. At the time I treated it more as a mental test rather than rote repetition of learned sequences. After a few days, and having solved it 20-30 times, I got bored with it and moved on to more evil activities. So far have never returned to it. I still have my original cube around somewhere. After ~30 years I don't know if it will still rotate or if it has seized up.

[QUOTE=retina;341785]After ~30 years I don't know if it will still rotate or if it has seized up.[/QUOTE]
A little bit of soap (the solid one, not liquid, the normal one you use to wash your hands) does wonders. And smells nice too. Don't use oils or other lubricants, which clog in time or can attack the plastic.

[QUOTE=LaurV;341826]A little bit of soap (the solid one, not liquid, the normal one you use to wash your hands) does wonders. And smells nice too. Don't use oils or other lubricants, which clog in time or can attack the plastic.[/QUOTE]Why didn't you tell me this 30 years ago? :tantrum:

Lol a rubik's thread
 

I found this thread by incredible chance. I don't have time to read it tonight but I will later!

FYI: I use all the same methods. I got just under a minute once, back when I was pretty into the cube. The cube I had then is gone since I made the mistake of lubricating with vaseline.

I can't say for sure but I do know I can solve a 3x3x3, 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 in 25 minutes (put together). I used to do that to keep me distracted on the bike in the basement for 30 minutes but I eventually got too fast. Now I watch TV, lol.

The 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 (and 5x5x5 now that I think of it) are V-Cubes which you should all totally buy. My Rubik's brand 5x5x5 was actually a piece of crap. V-Cubes use a different method to hold the cubes together which is negligible in 4x4x4 yet noticeable in 5x5x5. Engineers for the Rubik's brand declared anything bigger than 5x5x5 to be actually impossible to build. V-Cube proved them wrong.


If anyone can tell me how to get my hands on bigger cubes, I will love you forever. People seem to have them yet I can't find them. I probably don't know the magic search term.

Reason I want bigger is I'm pretty sure learning the 7x7x7 and 6x6x6 (the latter is actually more difficult) on my own taught me all I need to solve a cube of ANY size, and I want to try it out.


It took me a while to learn the 3x3x3 (I thought those algorithms were tough). I learned the 4x4x4 from the same guy (Dan Brown, no not that one) and I was able to eliminate all but two of the parity algorithms he uses by solving the cube enough times, experimenting. I also found a few 3x3x3 shortcuts.

I found the 5x5x5 in a shop in a more developed part of Canada on an exchange trip and solved the 5x5x5 on the bus trip back home, except for a single inverted middle piece (one piece OF the set of three was inverted, and it hadn't occurred to me to use the inversion algorithm from 4x4x4). I went and found the answer to that online, and I was set.

The 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 are just extensions of 4x4x4 and 5x5x5. From 4, you take the notion of not having a defined center. From 5x5x5, you take the difficulties of building centers. In larger cubes, you build the centers for your last two sides one layer at a time. You start with the 3x3 center, make the 4 3x1 edges, match up the 4 corners, 4 edges and center to form the bigger 5x5 center, and then get to work on the 4 5x1 edges, and you can go on like this as much as you want, so I believe.

We owned a regular 3×3 cube but it didn't turn smoothly and got bound up sometimes. We think it was a "real" licensed one. Are there better cubes or did we just have a defective one?

We never solved it but (self-taught) we did get as far as one face and two rows all of the way around. We are certain we were doing it wrong.

It would be fun to revisit the puzzle and actually solve it.

This story TheMawn narrated remembered me about the "kitty cube". Fifteen year ago I was in China (new fresh job) and some discussion about cubes started between the colleagues working in that office. I, of course :smile:, boasted about my abilities, and they brought me a cube to solve. This cube was in fact a key chain, normal type, 3x3x3 (squares, and centimeters too, even smaller, about 1 inch for the guys on the other side of the pool), so quite small, but still moving well. The point was that instead of colored squares, it had stickers/pictures with "hello kitty". I have to google for it, so you understand better. [URL="http://gadgether.com/hello-kitty-rubiks-cube/"]Found it[/URL]! Something like the one in the picture, but with different pictures on each side, and small. Very small. And nice. They told me I can have it if I solve it. I still have it! :razz:

But it was freaking difficult to solve it! The pieces in the center always came rotated, and you have to THINK if you want to solve it. The formula does not help, and there is no formula to "rotate the centers". For a normal cube, plain colors, it is not important the rotation of the center, the center is just a "non movable" piece. If you ever opened a cube (yes, I opened the one which I had first time in my life, in the '80s, that is how I understood how it works, and I was able to make my mental model), it is just a "fixed" cross in 3 directions, you can't move a "center" compared with another. You can "rotate" it, but that does not matter, it is still red or blue or green.

To [B]imagine[/B] what I say, after you solve your cube, stick some arrows to each of the 54 colored squares, in such way that for a face (9 squares) all the arrows point in the same direction. Nine arrows pointing up. Or down. For each face. Then mix the cube. Then solve the cube. Few times. You will come with "rotated centers" eventually. The cube is solved, but few arrows in the centers point to a different direction (the square in the center is rotated compared with the arrows on the same face). Solve that, without taking the arrows off and re-stick them on the right direction :razz: There is no formula for this, the normal cube is "not oriented" (this kitty cube could be called "oriented cube") and if you can do it, then you can say you understood the cube.

To [B]imagine better [/B]what I say, look to the kitty cube in the link, and imagine the kitty's nose on the white face of the cube (the big kitty picture) pointing right, or up, instead of down. It is still the same kitty, you almost can't see the difference, and you are tempted to place the nose down, but assume its right position is up. It will be impossible for you to solve the cube (you can't rotate only one center, they always rotate in pairs or triangles) unless you place the nose of the right kitty in the right direction. That was very freaking, and the guys made fun of me. But I solved it! To my satisfaction, and their amusement and desperation, in the same time, hehe. I still have the cube!

Some time ago I was explaining to my daughter about solving the cube and I came to the same position with rotated centers. It was much more difficult to solve it than 15 years ago, and it took me much longer to remember the "tricks". In fact I am ashamed to say that I spent a whole weekend to rotate those freaking centers! I even started to solve the cube few times from scratch, in the hope that the centers will come in the right position... :blush:

Is it cheating if you use the LED version? I'm pretty sure you can only move 3 spaces at a time, so it functions as a 3x3x3 unless there's a bug or a hack involved.

No idea about cost.

There might also be an Android or Iphone version, haven't checked.

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;341847]We owned a regular 3×3 cube but it didn't turn smoothly and got bound up sometimes. We think it was a "real" licensed one. Are there better cubes or did we just have a defective one?

We never solved it but (self-taught) we did get as far as one face and two rows all of the way around. We are certain we were doing it wrong.

It would be fun to revisit the puzzle and actually solve it.[/QUOTE]

There are much better cubes than the original rubiks. I use [url]http://www.amazon.com/toys-games/dp/B006WQQHIU[/url] lubricated with differential oil. This is currently a world record standard cube. Cube technology has improved massively in the last few years.

Thank you for pointing us in the right direction.

After several hours of reading and watching videos we ordered this one: [url]http://www.dayancube.com/node/66[/url]

We like the stickerless idea because our old cube's stickers fell off all of the time. (We are aware that a stickerless cube is not legal for competition but we doubt we will ever compete.)

We already have Traxxas 50,000 weight silicone differential oil for our remote control truck so we think we should have everything we need.

:mike:

PS - Interesting page: [url]http://www.cube20.org/[/url]

[QUOTE=Xyzzy;341910]PS - Interesting page: [URL]http://www.cube20.org/[/URL][/QUOTE]

[URL="http://mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?p=224945&postcount=58"]Ahem[/URL].

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