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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."
Surely you mean 5x5 squares ? 'Cause I only know of 3x3x3 or 4x4x4 Rubik cubes :P
Maybe we deserve this world ?
Found some videos at http://www.solvethecube.co.uk/
Follow the "videos" link at the top, towards the bottom
of this page is a 13.86 second solve.
You are given the scrambled cube to study for a time and then are blindfolded. You have to perform all the moves to solve the cube while blindfolded.
...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:.
It's really not that hard to solve a cube in around a minute. You can learn the basic, layer by layer method in about a day, and after a few more, you've got it down to under two minutes. Then you just keep doing it to get it too about a minute, and all your friends will be amazed!! (it's seriously fun to do it on a subway, everybody looks in amazement :D) Too get a time consistantly under a minute, you probably need to learn more advanced methods, like for instance the petrus system or the friedrich system. Variations on the latter is what all the pros use, but it is murder to learn, you have to memorize around 100 algorithms!!! Myself, I've gotten down to about 30 secs using the standard, layer-by-layer and some of friedrich's algorithms. It really is alot of fun.
Even non-serious solvers who just solve using the simple method (which ANY serious slashdotter could easily learn in an hour or two) would recognize it as unsolvable after only a couple of moves.
Actually, It's really hard to screw up a cube by just randomly putting it back together. If an even number of inside pieces and corner pieces get flipped then its completely solvable.
Take a loot at the videos on the following page. 3x3x3 in 20.55, still amazing!
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.
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
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.
> Obviously you cannot have just five faces "solved", but it is also not possible to have just four faces "solved".
Not true. There are many examples, but here are a couple examples sequences that leave only two faces scrambled:
1) F2 R2 F2 R2 F2 R2
2) R2 U' F2 R2 F2 U2 R2 F2 R2 U' R2
> 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.
That's a pretty rough way to do it. You're better off turning the top face by 45 degrees and using a scredriver (or your finger) to pry one of the edge pieces upward until it pops out. The rest of the pieces will come out pretty easily after that.
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.
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.
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