[QUOTE=Xyzzy;341910]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]

From memory I think 30k weight is the standard for cubing but yours should do reasonably.
The lack of stickers isn't the reason why the stickerless cubes are banned. The cubes are coloured on the inside as well which makes lookahead easier. They should(but don't) allow stickerless cubes with single colour centres. I expect they will someday as it makes sense not wearing out the stickers on cubes. Top cubers can wear out a cube in less than a month so maybe the stickers aren't the most critical bit.

We also have 30,000 weight silicone differential oil as well. (We have probably 20 bottles of different weights.)

Will the cube come ready to use or will we need to tune it up?

It is scheduled for delivery on Monday.

:smile:

It should come usable and quite good. I would recommend loosening the screws and lubing before putting it through too much use. This cube is good enough such that it is possible to tune it such that without practice it is so smooth it is hard to control at speed. You might find you want to get used to its default speed before adjusting it if your old cube was rubbish.

[QUOTE]It should come usable and quite good. I would recommend loosening the screws and lubing before putting it through too much use. This cube is good enough such that it is possible to tune it such that without practice it is so smooth it is hard to control at speed. You might find you want to get used to its default speed before adjusting it if your old cube was rubbish.[/QUOTE]It arrived Monday and we are thoroughly impressed. It is so fast that the thought of lubricating it at all freaks us out!

We have not read any tutorials or videos on how to solve it. We are back to being able to complete the top layer but we are stumped on the middle layer.

We will probably throw a few more hours at it before we read a guide.

We have seen mention of "canned sequences" to move blocks around. Our memory is poor so we are wondering if there is a method to solve it without memorizing a bunch of stuff? Or is there only one way?

Thanks for the recommendation!

:smile:

Basically your aim at this point is to pair the top layer corner with the middle layer edge. Then you can put this pairing into the position necessary.

Beginners are usually taught to solve the complete top layer and then insert the edges using a sequence(one sequence and mirrored so two to learn) that matches up the corner and then puts it into place.

This method is inefficient because you spend time putting the corner in in a particular way and then have to use one of the longer cases to put the edge in.

The next stage in learning to speed up is to learn/work out how to pair the corner and the edge when they are in any position and then put it into position.

It is often possible to spot easy cases for the first couple of corner-edge pairs and it is often possible to convert one case to another. Maybe you would find it easier to intuitively work out some of the easier cases and work up.
Alternatively you could try and work out why sequences work and learn them that way. I don't have the best of memories myself and I tend to learn sequences intuitively.

I decided to refresh my skills - but my 4x4, 5x5, 6x6 and 7x7 are more like a memento (or rather a 'cemento') - very hard to turn and ridiculously "catchy" in the internals. They are all ~10 yr old.

So I had a bit of fun discovering the evolution of modern designs (and how now all cube names are invariably chinese - AoSu, AoLong, Wushuang etc); it is also educational to watch the rating videos to hear how different people pronounce Qi, Xi...

So I ordered a new batch - the Qiyi WuQue 4x4 and Yuxin Kylin 5x5... (others saved for later)
WuQue works like a charm! Love it!

Not many believe me that I solved the classic 3x3 by myself, when I was in grade 10, and same for the sphere and the tetrahedron which I met later (both infinitely easier, they took me less than few hours, but at the time I already had a large experience with the classic cube). Only after that, I learned "tricks" from magazines/books and friends/colleagues to be able to solve them faster.

However, I never had a ">3" cube in my hand, and that should be really fun to try. Your post made me want to order a 4x4 too, especially that I indeed trust your judgment when you say that it is good.

Arggh!

[QUOTE=Batalov;472087]Arggh![/QUOTE]
I assume this version requires that each of the digits 1 to 9 appear once on each face? There may be other "Sudoku-like" requirements, but a vertical or horizontal "circumnavigation" involves 12 squares, so avoiding repetitions in those would be impossible.

Speaking of impossible, another thing (besides Sudoku) the numerical Rubik's cube reminded me of, was the [url=http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/courses/m308-02b/projects/grant/fifteen.html]The Fifteen Puzzle[/url]. I recall reading Martin Gardner's "Mathematical Games" column about Sam Lloyd in an anthology. The popular appeal of this puzzle (AKA the "Jeu de Taquin" or "Boss" puzzle) was amazing -- and international. Despite Lloyd's challenge being impossible, thousands of people swore they'd solved it.

[QUOTE=Dr Sardonicus;472126]I assume this version requires that each of the digits 1 to 9 appear once on each face? There may be other "Sudoku-like" requirements, but a vertical or horizontal "circumnavigation" involves 12 squares, so avoiding repetitions in those would be impossible.
[/QUOTE]
Right.

Someone on the forum already reported about this cube - but I wasn't able to quickly find that post.

In short, yes, sudoku rules on every face, and it comes in the solved form. Scrambling right away probably would have been a mistake. I took a complete writedown on a hand-drawn cube net. Using this legend (or if one has a photographic memory, or otherwise memorizes the net), it is relatively easy to put the scrambled cube back together using normal rubik's algos. Doing it otherwise is probably a tedious exercise in cataloging all centers, edges and corners, and then scribbling on a sheet of paper.

[CODE]Centers: 5, 7, 4, 6, 1, 1 (sic! [COLOR=DarkRed]two "1"s[/COLOR]!)
Edges : 24, 37, 79, 12, 32, 35, 94, 89, 86, 58, 36, 82
Corners: 369, 134, 179, 258, 457, 469, 268, 157[/CODE]

The cube would look better with ordered numbers. I assume the reason the numbered stickers are placed in (random?) Is that otherwise it would be trivially easy (er than the standard colored version) to solve.
All this reminds me of a cheap plastic toy I used to buy in elementary school with sliding numbered squares. Then there was a video game in 80's with the same principal as sliding squares but with blocks of rails instead of numbers and you had to keep a locomotive from running out of rails. It was a very difficult game. The next step being a video game with Rubik cube with rails on the squares would be interesting.:smile: