3w ago

Rubik's cube

Does anyone here know how to solve Rubik’s cube? If so, when and why did you learn it?

I’ve been trying all my life, on and off, not enough to succeed in anything more than one layer, but more than enough to feel i should have mastered it by now.

My 11yo son, on the other hand, taught himself through a book and some YouTube clips and he is now disappointed whenever he solves it in less than 30 seconds.

He’s the only one i know who can solve it (apart from his best friend, that is), and every time he does, i feel like I’m watching magic. Chaos chaos chaos chaos … oh it’s finished!

Should i be proud of him or worried by own cognitive abilities?

34 comments

There are only a few minimum algorithms you need to memorize to solve one. The real fun is learning more so you can solve it more efficiently/faster.

Speedcubing is a fun hobby. I don't know anyone who has solved a cube fully without instructions.

I took the stickers off and put them back on in order when I was a kid lol

This is kinda off topic but I recently started lock picking. It's fun and challenging, and it gives me something to fidget with. I feel like it's less challenging than a Rubik's cube, plus it can be useful if you lose a key. Lots of good how to videos on YouTube as well.

I was like you. Rubik’s looked like magic ever since I had one as a kid. So, as an adult, I hit Google, then I went to cubeskills.com, paid them $10, watched their videos and read their PDFs, and learned “the beginner method.”
It took me about a week (I have a family and a job, so).
I can solve now in under a minute most of the time, and that’s good enough for me.
So, “solving” a Rubik’s is just a matter of memorizing a set of algorithms (move patterns). That’s it.
Now, figuring out how to solve a Rubik’s cube from scratch, by determining what those move algorithms are through months of trial-and-error, that would be quite the feat! That’s what you attempted to do. I did not do that, nor did most people. We ain’t got the time or patience for that.
Anyway, if you haven’t already, get your kid a nice Gan cube (the one with magnets). Well worth the money. If he sticks with it, he might hit sub-15 or sub-10.
- Yes, just got a magnet one. He was over the moon. He is one of those kids who has a hard time with everything boring, like brushing his teeth or cleaning his room, but can lose himself for hours on end in the most impossible tasks when he has the drive. At the moment, his mania is the cube. So a magnet cube is indeed very much worth it.
  
  FYI that sounds like ADHD to me. Not something to act on unless it becomes a problem, but I wish my parents would have recognized it when I was struggling.
- I seem to remember reading that the guy who invented the Rubik's cube (Rubik?) thought for quite a while that it was impossible to solve until he uncovered the first algorithms for solving it by essentially just messing around.

I solved it by memorizing the steps when I was an adult. My son solved it at 8 years old. The young take over from the old. It's the way of things.

I learnt from instructions in a booklet I found at grandma's house when I was in my early teens. I have since forgotten how to do the last layer.

I can solve the 3x3 in under 30 seconds, the 2x2 in less than 8 and the 4x4 in 2 minutes and under. Speedcubing is a really addicting hobby once you get to know some people. I have since stopped practicing, but the muscle memory is something that will stay forever.
But that doesn't mean that you have to be interested in speedsolving the cube at all. There are all kind of people, some never learned (or want to learn) the Rubik's Cube and just play with it like a fidget toy, some like to solve it in the wildest ways possible (including fewest moves, blindfolded or very obscure solving strategies), and others just want to learn it once to cross it from their bucket list.
If you belong to the latter, you should look into "beginner method" tutorials online. I personally have learned the Cube from my father when I was 6, because it looked fun and I wanted to be able to solve it as well, but the method he used was actually very inefficient. Only in my teen years did I start to time my solves and improve a lot, not least by learning more efficient methods like "CFOP" and "Roux".

I remember trying to do it without tips when I used to do transcontinental flights. I got so close.
Later, I thought it would be a good fidget toy. So, I found a tutorial online and just memorized the steps. Meow I just do it whenever I feel anxious, especially in public.

Check out Jperm on YouTube. He's got a 10 minute video that I used to memorize the basic algorithm.

I learned as an adult by reading a website with instructions and practicing until I could remember and understand what's going on.
My favourite to solve is a "mirror cube". It has blocks of the same colour, but they have unequal lenghts of sides, and I've learned to solve it without looking.

i found them interesting before i knew the tricks. i've still never solved one, because memorizing patterns isn't interesting for a puzzle.

I've had a cube for quite a few years now for casual fidgeting. My current best time is just under 50s using this official Rubik's Cube guide (plus a few personal optimizations).
I've tried my hand at proper speedcubing algorithms, but they're just a bit too complex for me to handle, and I'm perfectly happy where I am at with my cube.
Anyways, be proud of your son, and don't kick yourself for not knowing how to solve it. At this point it's a memorization game, and if that's not your cup of tea, that's fine!

I learnt to solve them in school 17 years ago or so. There's guides etc on the internet its really simple when you memories the steps.
The real fun part for me is only solving the first layer and the T on the side since after that it's just memorised steps and nothing more
As for you question, I would say be proud it's showed dedication to something he wanted to learn

I was stubborn and refused to look up guides on how to solve it. I finally managed to solve it by applying some permutation math I learned in university.

Regarding his disappointment, there are bigger and more complicated cubes. He can also be challenged to create patterns in the cube, like you mess up a cube and he has to match the randomness you created. That's a fun way to keep practicing those cube skills without the monotony of solving the same puzzle over and over.

I learned how to do it over 10 years ago but I’ve forgotten since. And I only knew a slow method.

It's a matter of memorizing a few algorithms, I did it when I wasn't much older than him. It's pretty easy to solve the first two layers unaided, but you're likely to get into the weeds on the last layer without algorithms.

he is now disappointed whenever he solves it in less than 30 seconds.
Sounds like it's time to upgrade him to a professor cube.
I learned how to solve a regular cube but it still takes me a long time. Using the cross method.

You can solve 2 layers with logic. The 3rd requires patterns. You can discover patterns on your own by doing repeated motions until the cube returns to its original state. I came across a pattern that swapped colors on one side. That got me all the way to everything but 2 corners that needed to be rotated. On my own, I never discovered the pattern that rotated corners.

Well, you are either not really interested in it or can't focus for 30 minutes needed to understand how it's done.
- Haha, are you a carpenter? Cause a nail might have been hit on the head :)

When I learned that you could solve it using some standard moves the magic was completely gone.

Its just memorization at a certain point

Get a 15 puzzle. Or try a digital version.
That was about my level of figuring out. One less dimension to worry about. Never could do the cube.
One such implementation is here: https://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/puzzles/js/fifteen.html

Yeah. Originally I thought I would just figure it out but then gave up and watched a youtube video my cuber friend sent.
I highly recommend this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ron6MN45LY

I learned how to solve them from a book when they first came out in the late 70s. I can still remember enough of the moves to get two layers, but not the third.

Took me a weekend watching youtube back in highschool. Its not SUPER hard to get it consistent. Look for the pattern, do the right moves.
To do it faster you need to learn even more patterns, which i have not learnt. Like my best time is 59 seconds. No idea how to do your sons 30 second time.

I love this method. It’s how I solve cubes. It’s fast and it minimizes the amount of turns you do. While new methods (methods with optimized algorithms) trump this method, there was a time this method won many tournaments. The method is still fast and gratifying.
It requires thinking, but it requires minimal memorization of algorithms. With this method, you can get away with learning only one or two algorithms. It’ll be much less like memorizing history dates and much more like learning to ride a bike: learn it once and never forget it.
https://lar5.com/cube/

I learned back in high school from a friend out of boredom. Now it's just a fidget thing. I don't really go for speed. I just solve it if I'm bored

34 comments