Rubik's Cube

Remember these things? I had one when I was a kid, but never figured out how to solve it.

Well, a few weeks ago, I was at a friend’s place and saw that he had one. I still couldn’t solve it. So I set out to finally learn how. The main difference is that now there are web pages with instructions for solving a Rubik’s Cube. I used this one.

I ordered one from Amazon, and got it a couple of weeks ago.

Took about a week to learn how to solve it all by myself, without referring to the solution. Got the first full solve this past Monday.

Now I’m averaging about 3-4 minutes to solve. 5-6 minutes if I screw up and have to backtrack. Fastest time a little over 2 minutes.

Practice makes a lot of difference, obviously. From not making mistakes on the algorithms, to being able to manipulate the cube more smoothly. The cube itself gets less stiff with more use.

Luck factors into it also – there are certain configurations that require less moves. I’m not good enough yet to “plan” it that way.

I’m sure I can get a little faster – but I won’t be spending huge amounts of time memorizing more algorithms. Still – great to finally learn how to solve one of these things!

Update: It has now been proven that it takes no more than a maximum of 20 moves to solve a Rubik’s Cube.