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Rubik's Cube World Championships
cadaeibfed writes "Coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the iconic puzzle's introduction to the world was the second Rubik's world championship, held in Orlando, FL this weekend. Competing under official World Cube Association rules, competitors from around the world vied for recognition in this nerd olympiad. Some new world records set include the 4x4 solve, solving using only feet, and blindfolded solving. The winner, Jean Pons of France, finished with an average solution time of 15.10 seconds on a standard 3x3 cube. Here are the full results."
15 seconds is rather insane. Yes, I know there are tricks and that there is a technique that will produce a solution. But they require quite a number of steps, all of which take time. Not to mention the need to recognize, store and process the locations of 27 color/point pairs for the win. Just... wow.
Quid festinatio swallonis est aetherfuga inonusti?
Africus aut Europaeus?
Surely you mean 5x5 squares ? 'Cause I only know of 3x3x3 or 4x4x4 Rubik cubes :P
Maybe we deserve this world ?
Most cubes have three sides, e.g. 3x3x3. This 5x5 cube of yours sounds interesting.
The traditional Rubik's cube has three dice-shaped blocks on each side and was first licensed and sold in Japan in 1980.
http://www.livejournal.com/users/metricmusic
While just solving the cube quickly may be interesting. I think it's far more interesting that the cube movements can be thought of elements of a subgroup of a very large permutation group, S48 to be precise. If you have some math background and like abstract things you might want to take a look at Adventures in Group Theory : Rubik's Cube, Merlin's Machine, and Other Mathematical Toys which, despite the title is a fairly serious little math book.
Wanted: Clever sig, top $ paid, all offers considered.
Young guy, mid teens. I first saw him do it at a poker tournament I was running. We were using the cube as the dealer button, so whenever it go to him, he'd start working on it. By the time the next hand had started, even if we hadn't even seen the flop, it'd be solved and back on the table. He was probably doing it in 35-45 seconds, but still, it was amazing to watch.
When cryptography is outlawed, bayl bhgynjf jvyy unir cevinpl
I didn't even know there were different sizes. :-)
some people take things TO THE EXTREME!!!@11!1eleven
The second prize is an all day massage to get the RSI down a bit.
My wife's sketchblog Blob[p]: Gastrono-me
None of them are up to the challenge of the 1x1 cube!
I'll form my OWN solar system! With blackjack! And hookers!
I'm disappointed that my favorite solver, Shotari Makisumi, only placed third. Them's the breaks. I've seen him solve, and as is true for anyone in his league, it's incredible.
That's the shit that feds me up
For those folks who are interested in dressing up all nerdy, you could try making your own functional Rubik's Cube Costume. It appears to only have one axis of rotation, but I'm sure someone could work a way to get the other axis rotation working as well.
Ask me about repetitive DNA
http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa040497 .htm
The history of it is interesting. It seems multiple folks developed similar items around the same time.
http://www.thebricktestament.com/the_law/when_to_
I remember the craze. I got one cube, my brother too, my friends too, almost every pupil had one. I never could do more than two lines but some could in 1'30. There was different types, the official and some imitations of quite bad quality. There was also similar games (cylinders, ...). Fun to see the competition continues.
Million Dollar Screenshot
I have just completed this cube all by myself and deem me Champion Of The Rubic Universe. Took me 7 years to do it, plus two thumb replacements, but I did it.
My newest project is this cube, I project 10 years for this.
...exactly, does one solve a rubiks cube while blindfolded?
braille, perchance?
enlighten me
The corner cubies are at right angles to the other three dimensions.
No folly is more costly than the folly of intolerant idealism. - Winston Churchill
1. Take cube apart.
.. er, profit?
2. Put back together in random order so it can't be solved.
3. Give to cube geek.
4. Watch them sweat as their moves don't work.
5.
Of course, these serious cubers would probably take one look at the cube and immediately tell you it had been tampered with.
Sad news. I'm old enough to remember these when they first came out. I feel very, very old. Anyone remember Rubik's snake?
Sigs are so 1990s. No way would I be seen dead with one.
...is pretty awesome. They have each of the competitors solve their cubes, then follow the same steps to mix it up. Then each of the competitors places their cube on a central pad and their hands on two pads to either side. Each person has a their own digital timer, which will be activated when they lift their hands from the pads. A ref blows a whistle, the competitors lift their cubes and solve and then stop their timers by dropping the solved cube on the central pad. The best time I've seen is 12.3 seconds. Frickin' ridiculous. (I was working during the Caltech winter 2005 competition)
.:Semper Absurda:.
Well, the most common cubes seem to be 1x1x1, but they are not usually associated with the name "Rubik".
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
According to this, a french guy handily beat that record... coming in at 11.75 seconds
Check it out. It's pretty unsettling watching someone solve the cube that fast.
http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/0 01_300/270.html
J
Take a loot at the videos on the following page. 3x3x3 in 20.55, still amazing!
I originally worked out the solution to the cube when the Scientific American article by Douglas Hosfstader appeared. I never got my speed much below one minute. I did manage to win a T-Shirt at a Cube contest though - a contents with several hundreds of participants...
...richie - It is a good day to code.
I was fortunate to be one of the first people in the world to play with a Rubik's Cube. In the late '70s, I worked with a woman who's husband worked for the Ideal Toy Co. in Jamaica, NY (that's Queens). She brought a secret prototype into work and all the engineers and technicians couldn't stop fighting over this thing; trying both to solve it and to figure out the mechanism. It was supposed to be hush-hush and she could have gotten her husband in trouble, but when she realized how obsessed we all were with it, she was afraid it would disappear.
It was only a few months later that they hit the market and I couldn't wait to get my hands on one. I eventually got to the point of being able to solve it consistently within a half hour or less. Then I lost interest in the challenge.
I also remember a Scientific American cover story (c. 1980), where I finally learned about the mechanism, disassembly and reassembly. Of course, they also discussed algorithms, but I wasn't interested in that. I never use cheats. Takes most of the fun out.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
I wouldn't mind knowing the ages of all these people. Rubiks are old (to me) so are these fresh blood? Are they still popular? As far as I'm concerned they'd have to be middle aged in order to be that good.
If you want something hard then try a 20x20x20 cube
http://www.speedcubing.com/chris/20cube.html
wot no sig
If you don't want to read RTFA then here's something interesting I noticed. One of the competitions is for a 5x5 cube, or a Professors cube. I know it would personallt ake me about 5 years to do this.
don't you mean ... a 3x3x3 and a 4x4x4 cube?
I can't even remember what it was I came here to get away from - Bob Dylan
thats cool as shit.. i'm going to try to get a friend sign up for that contest.. i thought that program slashdot mentioned a year or so ago that regarded cracking the rubiks code.. gave you instructions to solving your puzzle based on what colors were currently showing.. what the hell was that program?
*plays the Apogee theme song music*
5x5x5 cubes exist, I even owned one once (before it broke). Took me about 20-30 minutes to solve it - not very quick, but I was still happy to have memorised all the little formulas :-)
0 83HIHM/002-1699118-6329633?v=glance
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B00
Two decades after getting my first cube and I still haven't solved the damn thing. :(
Solved the Clock, Magics, and can make just about anything with the Snake, but not the cube in any of its sizes.
It's 1/12. Half of the possible edge positions are unreachable from a solved cube, and 1/6 of the corner cubie configurations can't be reached.
pi = 2*|arg(God)|
The People's Cube?
Jessica Fridrich has kindly published her notes on the process of speed cubing: http://www.ws.binghamton.edu/fridrich/cube.html
l ast
Watch her solve cubes!
http://www.ws.binghamton.edu/fridrich/video.html#
If you're one of the guys solving it in 15 seconds (unblindfolded) I'd assume you've effectively memorized and mapped out all the necessary moves before they put the cube in your hand.
But I think you impress more chicks by saying you can do it blindfolded
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
For all those who don't want to spend too much time on them ...
I remember the Rubik's Cube from first time around. I knew a few different "complete solutions" -- depending on the initial state, one might be significantly faster than the others. I rarely needed longer than a minute. My friend and I built a fake "cube solving machine" from an old washing machine box, with a hatch tor loading the "scrambled" cube, a drawer for removing the "solved" cube -- and me inside with a bicycle lamp, and a cassette recorder for sound effects!
Obviously you cannot have just five faces "solved", but it is also not possible to have just four faces "solved". You can render a cube insoluble by reversing one of the two-sided pieces, or rotating one of the three-sided pieces. The easiest way to split a cube apart is to rotate one side by 45 degrees, and push the protruding corner piece until its latch pops out. Reassembly is done by inserting one of the two-sided pieces last. I have also seen evidence of very bad sticker-peeling, where one of the two-sided pieces carried the colours of opposite centres and one of the three-sided pieces carried the same colour on each face!
Rubik's Snake was boring: all you could really make with it was a dog and a football.
Rubik's Magic was a little better, because there were two different puzzles on the go: arranging the eight hinged squares to create a shape {4 x 2 rectangle, 3 x 3 square with corner missing, or various solids} and orientating the components of the shape to produce a picture {three separated rings on the rectangle, or three linked rings on the 3-3-2}.
I remember Rubik's Clock best of all. I was given one of the first ones in the country, which my parents got from a toy shop in Yorkshire. It took me nearly two days to crack it -- and then I could not believe just how daft I had been in not spotting it sooner. The secret is to ghea gur pbeare onpxjneqf, ratntr vgf ohggba naq ghea rirelguvat sbejneqf gbtrgure.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
You can learn to solve the 3X3 in less then a minute in about a month of practicing. 15 second solves are mostly luck of pieces sorting in a way were you can skip a step.
Its all about memorizing a routine. I bought a book and learned what to do. You set one corner up correctly and then every move after that is performed in sequence until it is solved. Don't remember how long it took to solve it but I would say maybe about a minute. Once you solve it though, it got boring. I've still got the cube, but I don't have the book anymore. So without the book, its taking me 20+ years and I still haven't solved it.
More fun was taking a two-pack -- with a full-size cube and a keychain mini-cube -- giving the mini-cube to a friend to mix up, then arranging the full-sized cube to match the scrambled one.
:- D
It was harder because you couldn't tell what needed to be done at a glance (Normally, if a side was all blue except for two, you knew what you needed to do. This way you actually had to keep comparing over and over, and thinking about "Okay... This corner has to be blue, yellow, and red. Now where *IS* the blue, yellow, and red corner?")
I used to carry around a Rubik's Cube in the car.
When I got to one red light, I'd mix it up. Then when I got to the next red light, I'd solve it. It usually took two red lights for me to finish, though -- probably about a minute total.
--
Actually, it was first sold in Hungary in 1977. Similar devices were also seperatly invented by Japanese and American manufacturers, but the toy popularised worldwide is the original hungarian invention, named after it's creator Enro Rubik
I used to be able to solve the cube when I was at school. My fastest time was 33 seconds although that was a freak - normally it would be 60-90 seconds. Half the people in my class could solve it and we all used fixed moves (transforms I spose a mathematician would call them) to get there. The only thing that was hard was to complete the top face (with all the upper sides correct) - from there the transforms could be applied from memory. The moves were shown to us by other people and were closely guarded secrets like joing the magic circle or something. The fastest times came from the authentic "rubik's' cube (the knock-offs were mechanically slower by miles) and extra lubrication using graphite or bike oil. I was 13 years old probably the perfect age to be doing it. My family still talk about this ability of mine at Xmas and stuff although I had completely forgotten the moves by my twenties. I read the book that was published and it contained extra steps and longer transforms than the methods we had learnt, so you could never beat our fastest times with 'shop bought knowledge'. Oh happy days!!!!
spoonerize "magic trackpad"
This was the third world championship in history. I participated and finished a measly 90th with a best time of 30 seconds. That's horrible considering my average is between 24-27. It was nerve-racking being on stage and all those cameras though :) SO MUCH FUN though!
I've been working on it for 15 years! Now that's amazing.
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Here's the gratuitous wikipedia link, you know - without all the adverts, popups, and what not. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubix_Cube
I've also heard that they are starting production of 6x6x6 cubes:
http://www.olympicube.com/
You mean WD-40 NOT DW 40 and as far as Rubik's cube lubricants go, WD-40 is at the bottom of the food chain and is a sure sign of a ROOKIE cuber. Using WD-40 is a sure way to become the laughing stock of your local speedcubing guild. You're the kind of person who probably thinks the Petrus method is the fastest, or, God forbid, you think the Friedrich method is superior! I would challenge you to a cube-off, but I would crush your perception of your cubing abilities so badly that you would surely never recover. I'm all about fostering the cubing community, so I won't do that. Years from now, you'll thank me for this tough love. Just remember, don't hate the player, hate the game.
Peace out.
--The Cube Mastah (TCM)
Wonder what happened to that Japanese kid who solved it in 12 seconds in 2003 (2004?) There's a really cool video of it here somewhere. http://cubefreak.hp.infoseek.co.jp/
In fourth grade (1982) I signed up in my school's talent show to solve a Rubik's Cube while being timed. Even though I had learned (from a book) how to solve the cube from a generic random state, I had "pre-scrambled" the cube in a state that looked random but I knew how to solve from there in very few turns. While I was waiting in line for my turn to go on, the person behind me in line asked to see the cube. I handed it to him, and while I turned back to watch the show, he started turning the faces on the cube. When I saw him doing that, I thought I was hosed, since I would have to solve it "honestly."
Anyway, I did solve it on stage, in 1 minute 28 seconds, my best time ever.
Thong.
I can probably do it in about 3 seconds. The trick: cut open a not yet-scrambled cube from pack, then place on table
It's the 4 x 4 cube. I couldn't even solve one side. I never heard about anyone solving it. Are there competitions for that? Can it be solved by anyone?
stupid registry ads show up if you follow the links in the parent post
Back in the early 80s, I used to be able to solve the puzzle, on average, in 2.5 to 3 minutes. My fastest was 1:46, but that was a fluke -- that was the only time I broke 2 minutes.
Every morning for a month, I'd get up and my Mom would have messed up my two Cubes. I'd sigh, sit down and solve them, and then head off to school.
That cheat book cost me all of $5, but it sure made people think I was smart. Fools!
The 3x3 cube is a reasonable challenge, but anyone can learn to solve it without having to memorize any special "moves". I can solve it consistently in about 5-7 minutes just by working through it. (There are many, many methods.) It's one of those things that can look quite difficult at first, but when shown how to do it, you are quickly surprised at how easy it really is. I'd compare it to juggling 3 balls at once -- just about anyone can do it with a bit of practice.
The guys that solve the cube in mere seconds or minutes have memorized moves and sequences to several cubes in place simultaneously, but it's really not necessary if you don't mind taking up a few more minutes to solve it.
Check this video out - solved in 10.95sec
. wmv
http://www.xpert.co.kr/1enjoy/2game/cube/pds/1095
Some amusing well-deserved gleeful cackling at the end!
Link posted in the "chatter" section of Macky's page:
http://cubefreak.hp.infoseek.co.jp/
There was a link to StrangePuzzle.com which has loads of videos.
They have a search by time and puzzle. The fastest I found was 10.29s for 3x3x3. It looks as if it was timed a bit different though.
about.com IS a very annoying site
Not really: Japanese, French and American stated that they have the Cube, but only Rubik's was a working toy. E.g.: the Japanese had no documentation about how the invention came, the French had a drawing with stings attaches cubes and the American just did not work and never made into a working unit.
:-)
:-) When I got one, people on the bus/metro asked me to borrow or buy for 10x the shop price when I was trying to solve it by myself :-) :-)
:)
So even if they were not cheating (that is mostly possible because the Magic Cube was produced before patenting and the American and the Japanese patents are newer the the Hungarian) they could not create a working unit and support it with a documented development process.
Rubik's greatest invention on the Cube was that inside the Cube there's a sphere so the construction can turn around on the 3 axes easily.
He had - and only Rubik had - documented, working predecessors like the rubber string solution that didn't last long.
There were some fun incidents on the road, eg. when the Hungarian manufacturer could not produce enough units they bought a lot from Taiwan or Hong-Kong but they were bad quality even if there was a "Made in Hungary" on them
I remember very well because I could not manage to buy one but the radio, TV and newspapers were soon full of it
At work my boss stopped supervising us when I lent it to him
I still remember the ache in my arms and fingers...
I know a Mathematician who got an early example and she was the very 1st person who looked at the cube on 3 sides, turned the cube to verify that she thought it's positions then hided the cube behind her back and could complete it without seenig it until finished. I was very impressed
She showed me that solving the cube is not reversing it to the original positions, "only" making the squares on all sides of the same colour.
You can verify it if you write a letter or number on every square of the same colour in the same position, scramble it and solve the puzzle. you will see that the numbers/letters are in wrong position.
Btw. she wrote the 1st program in Fortran that solved the puzzle just a few months later.
... I apparently had developed my own algorithm, sub-consciously. Maybe not very efficient, or perhaps PROficient, and I couldn't express it in a formula, but it was reproduceble. I just didn't want to learn somebody else's algorithm. That's what I meant by "cheat". No fun, or adventure, or mental exercise in it.
Research shows that 67% of those who use the term "research shows", are just making shit up.
How the hell do you solve blindfolded??? Braille?
I am Spartacus
Yeah, the stickers wear out pretty fast, and you have to replace them if you do any semi serious cubing.
I do mine myself, but if you're not DIY inclined and/or want professional quality stuff, you can order from Cubesmith.
No need to know how to solve a cube or even try a single move before spotting a problem.
The central squares on each face of the cube cannot be moved, only rotated. So, for example, if two of them are same color, the cube has been tampered with.
Anyway the surest way is to look at those "opposing" colors. IIRC most cubes had the green face opposed to the blue one, white face to yellow, orange to dark red...
anyway one can just look at the cube's central squares and see what the opposite colors should be if the cube were not tampered with.
Spotting lateral or angular little cubes which have opposing colors on their faces means the cube has been tampered with. Easier to spot on angular little cubes.
That's because most people think that the more they mess with the colors the more they will confuse you. Instead, switching only two couples of stickers will be enough and quite more difficult to spot.
I had learned a simple way to solve the cube, with 3 main sequences, average time 3 and a half minutes without fretting too much.
---- MISSING MISCELLANEOUS DATA SEGMENT --- [sigdash] trolololol
Consider xyxyxyxyx....
You must need some commutation relations
The snake is really the most fun toy out of all the Rubik's toys. You can give that to a very small kid and it'll be fun for hours as they manipulate it in various ways. Once you're a bit older, you can start to work on the "puzzle shapes," like the eagle, the star, the pyramid, tetrahedron, or the famous terrier (dog). If you've never seen the snake, it's a series of alternating blue and white triangular solids. Where the triangles meet, there is a joint that allows full 360 rotation around the point of intersection.
The largest official Rubik's cube is the 5 x 5. It's being re-released for Rubik's 25th Anniversary. I cannot help but wonder if they are re-releasing it because of a string of much tougher puzzles about to be released.
If you're ever in NYC on a Saturday, stop by FAO Schwarz. There's a guy there (Hector) who can solve the cube in about a minute. He claims to be able to solve the 5x5 in about 28 minutes. They sell the snake too, and they're one of the only stores in the USA to carry it. www.fao.com Search for Rubik's (although the snake is only available in-store).
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Once you've learned how to solve the cube (using some simple methods I can get it done in around 2 minutes, nothing impressive), the next fun thing to do is trying to obtain other geometric patterns starting from the solved one. For example, you can rotate the left side 90 degreees upwards and the right side 90 degrees downwards, then face the left side of the cube, apply the same transformation and so on... If I remember correctly, at some point you end up with "Z" shapes on the 4 lateral sides. And if you keep going, you get back to the solved cube!
One I could never obtain that way was to end up with "+" shapes on all 6 sides. Of course I can just come up with it the way I would solve the regular cube, but even then the different pattern plays tricks on you and requires more concentration.
"In our tactical decisions, we are operating contrary to our strategic interest."