Sunday, August 5, 2012

How to solve Rubik's Cube

Interesting site on solving Rubik's cube:

http://www.rubikssolver.com/

It has plenty of diagrams to make it easy to follow. In my opinion, it is probably one of the better sites on solving Rubik's cube.

Here is an example of a diagram:



Enjoy!

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Thursday, May 15, 2008

Video on Solving Last 2 Centers of 6x6 Cube

I have created a video below that shows how to solve the last 2 centers of the 6x6 cube.
I have later found that it is also the same for the last 2 centers of the 7x7 cube.

There is only 1 case when solving the last 2 centers of the 6x6 and the 7x7.
And that is, where there is only 1 yellow left.

The five steps:

1. Orient the last yellow and the last orange so that they are as close to each other as possible.

2. Swap the middle two slices.

3. Create a yellow 'T'

4. Remove the vertical bar of the T.

5. Attach the last yellow strip










There is also the case of the mirror image.
Just apply the five steps in reverse.


For the 7x7 there is a slight modification.
The middle slice is immovable. When applying Step 2,
just swap the slices to the left and to the right of the middle slice.


That’s it!

Tuesday, May 13, 2008

7x7 Solving the 5th and 6th centers

Below are the sequence to solve the last 2 centers, ie. yellow and orange.

Orient the single yellow and yellow strip opposing each other.
The single yellow on top center and the yellow strip below:



Rotate the single yellow up:



Turn the top 2U, so that the single yellow is now at bottom of top face:



Return the middle slice down, and the single yellow will click into place, and attaches
to the yellow strip:

Sunday, May 11, 2008

7x7 last 2 pentadges

Note below screenshot. Two last pentadges
Do the Lion algorithm.
Assume the centre red as 1 edge - so there are 3 edges (as in 5x5).



You should get this:


Then do LuLu Algorithm. Assume the centre as 1 single edge.
And you should get the 3 centre edges correctly flipped.
You then assume the 3 centre edges as 1 single piece.

Then do the Lulu Algorithm again and you should get this:



Repeat the steps for the opposite pentadges at the back.

7x7 solved in 1 hour 6 mins - new personal record

Improved from 2 hours 24 mins to 1 hour 6 mins - a big improvement!

How to solve 7x7

My first solve for the 7x7 :



Hope to improve on the time in future.

I wasted a lot of time doing the 5th and 6th centres.

The last 2 pentadges were not as difficult as I expected.
Just apply the Lion algorithm repeatedly.

Edge/Flip Swap: (Lion Algorithm)
(Ll)’ U2 (Ll)’ U2 F2 (Ll)’ F2 (Rr) U2 (Rr)’ U2 (Ll)2

Each time, treating the middle 3 as 1 edge, or, middle 5 as 1 edge depending on
the situation.
Once u get the pentadges all of one color, just apply Lulu's algorithm if the middle is flipped.

Single Edge Flip: (Lulu's Algorithm)
(Rr)2 B2 U2 (Ll) U2 (Rr)’ U2 (Rr) U2 F2 (Rr) F2 (Ll)’ B2 (Rr)2



Step 3 has no parity - it behaves just like a 5x5 cube.