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Show HN: Rubik's Cube

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Re: Show HN: Rubik's Cube

#21

Post by thearn4 »

aidos wrote: post #18

I would implore anyone who's thinking about playing with a Rubik's Cube to not read any of those "how to solve it quickly" things. It may have taken me a year of chipping away at it and my process is definitely suboptimal, but at least I have the satisfaction of having worked it out myself. Also, play with it! It's an incredibly simple but totally mind bending device.

I definitely agree that this is the right approach. The methods with stick with you much better, and you'll have an easier time with higher order rubiks cubes, or other turning-face type puzzles. I have an embarrassingly large collection of these kinds of puzzles now. They're a great way to wake up my brain after lunch.

Re: Show HN: Rubik's Cube

#23

Post by dpcan »

One Christmas I got my ~6 yr old son a Rubik's Cube. He loved it and carried it around for a couple days. Then I took it from him to explain how you're supposed to mix it up and solve it. He cried when I couldn't get it back together! I felt so terrible. I spent about a week watching videos, reading move patterns, and practicing at night, and finally figured it out.

I have to get out a cube every couple of months and solve it or I forget. It's funny how a few of the patterns still to work from some strange muscle memory or something - and I only have to think about what piece I need where, and then my hands just do it.

The best part of knowing how to solve one is when you come across a mixed up cube at someone's home or a business... they think I'm some kind of genius, yet really I just memorized patterns to put pieces where I need them. But who am I to tell them what to think ;)

Re: Show HN: Rubik's Cube

#24

Post by TodPunk »

dpcan wrote: post #23

One Christmas I got my ~6 yr old son a Rubik's Cube. He loved it and carried it around for a couple days. Then I took it from him to explain how you're supposed to mix it up and solve it. He cried when I couldn't get it back together! I felt so terrible. I spent about a week watching videos, reading move patterns, and practicing at night, and finally figured it out. I have to get out a cube every couple of months and…

I once picked up a rubik's cube because I thought it would be related to a problem I was trying to solve at work, given the kinds of manipulations you could do on it. Turns out it wasn't at all, but I did learn a couple ways to solve it and got to the point where I could solve it in sub-minute times reliably, just by doing it when someone had messed it up from my desk (and they did this a lot).

It was not at all useful as a skill but it's a decent social experience to teach someone how to solve it, and as you say it makes people think you're a genius for some reason (HA!). Well worth the $10 you would spend on a new one.

Re: Show HN: Rubik's Cube

#26

Post by replicant »

aidos wrote: post #18

I would implore anyone who's thinking about playing with a Rubik's Cube to not read any of those "how to solve it quickly" things. It may have taken me a year of chipping away at it and my process is definitely suboptimal, but at least I have the satisfaction of having worked it out myself. Also, play with it! It's an incredibly simple but totally mind bending device.

I totally agree. I spent a couple of weeks playing with it a little bit everyday, until I managed to come up with an algorithm.

Re: Show HN: Rubik's Cube

#28

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

aidos wrote: post #18

I would implore anyone who's thinking about playing with a Rubik's Cube to not read any of those "how to solve it quickly" things. It may have taken me a year of chipping away at it and my process is definitely suboptimal, but at least I have the satisfaction of having worked it out myself. Also, play with it! It's an incredibly simple but totally mind bending device.

That's a huge effort! People have asked me if I worked it out myself and my response is something like "No way! I suppose with a pencil, piece of paper, and a Rubik's Cube, and a lot of time you could work it out yourself."

I probably wouldn't have bothered to learn to solve the 3x3x3 and 4x4x4 if I hadn't read how to do it. There's a lot of enjoyment to be had from learning the different methods, and my understanding of how the cubes function is still changing as I learn more efficient methods.

Re: Show HN: Rubik's Cube

#29

Post by rmidthun »

aidos wrote: post #18

I would implore anyone who's thinking about playing with a Rubik's Cube to not read any of those "how to solve it quickly" things. It may have taken me a year of chipping away at it and my process is definitely suboptimal, but at least I have the satisfaction of having worked it out myself. Also, play with it! It's an incredibly simple but totally mind bending device.

I would encourage a hybrid approach if you are getting nowhere.

There is a trick to finding solving patterns known as commutators. For instance, see http://w.astro.berkeley.edu/~converse/rubiks.php?id1=basics&...

Once you learn the basic idea of the commutator, you can easily make up you own system. Essentially you select a part of the cube and make some specific change to it. For instance, you come up with a move sequence that turns one top corner but doesn't affect any other top cubie. If you were to reverse that move, you would be back to normal or course. So if you rotate the top before reversing the move: 1) The only change on top will be a different corner turning 2) The rest of the cube will go back to it's original state.

Therefore, the only difference is that you rotate two corners. It takes some practice to learn how this is done, but I can solve any cube-like puzzle (ok... except Square-1)and I don't have any memorized system.

Thus [A] B [A'] B' is all you need. You just need to find a proper [A]

Re: Show HN: Rubik's Cube

#30

Post by TheSpiceIsLife »

TodPunk wrote: post #24
dpcan wrote: post #23

One Christmas I got my ~6 yr old son a Rubik's Cube. He loved it and carried it around for a couple days. Then I took it from him to explain how you're supposed to mix it up and solve it. He cried when I couldn't get it back together! I felt so terrible. I spent about a week watching videos, reading move patterns, and practicing at night, and finally figured it out. I have to get out a cube every couple of months and…

I once picked up a rubik's cube because I thought it would be related to a problem I was trying to solve at work, given the kinds of manipulations you could do on it. Turns out it wasn't at all, but I did learn a couple ways to solve it and got to the point where I could solve it in sub-minute times reliably, just by doing it when someone had messed it up from my desk (and they did this a lot). It was not at all usef…

We buy these[1] $2 cubes ten at a time and hand them out to the kids on the street, cube pusher style, get 'em hooked early ya know. Well, not really, but we do give them away to people we meet who seem interested in learning how to solve the 3x3x3. They're surprisingly high quality and smooth for two dollars.

1. http://www.championscubestore.com/index.php?main_page=produc...

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