Posts Tagged ‘rubik’s cube’

3 Sides!

Friday, November 27th, 2009

3-sides Completed on Rubik's CubeWell it’s only been 2 months since I managed to get 2 sides complete on my Rubik’s Cube. I’ve been leaving it out around my house so my roomies can play with it so every time I come around it’s in a different state than I left it.

I’ve managed to get 2 sides about 6-7 times altogether but I’m still not entirely certain of why. I keep having theories that don’t seem to work the next time! I have been finding some interesting algorithms along the way.

And then wham! Today I just managed to get 3 sides complete all around one corner. I’m not sure how useful this is really as a progression towards a completed cube. Different suggestions I’ve heard of how to go about finishing a cube don’t really mention this as a midway stage, but it’s still pretty exciting. It also feels like I’m slowly developing a deeper understanding of how the puzzle works and I love watching my mind try to narrow down the logic.

3-sides of a Rubik's Cube (incomplete)Taking a picture of my achievement made me realise that it’s difficult without mirrors to prove from a picture that a cube is solved. Here I include a photo of the reverse side where you can see that the remainder is still unsolved.

2 sides!

Monday, September 28th, 2009
Red and white sides of a Rubik's Cube completed.

Red and white sides of a Rubik's Cube completed.

After about 2 weeks worth of effort I’ve managed to complete 2 adjacent sides of a Rubik’s Cube on my own! I remember doing this as a child but had no recollection of how I had managed to do it back then.

I find one side easy, but even now I’ve got some doubts about whether I can reproduce the 2 sides very easily. We shall see! I bought the cube recently when I heard someone at work reminiscing. I decided that I wanted to see if I could solve it on my own and learn how to reproduce the solution.

To that end I’ve been leaving the cube out in a common area of the house and letting people mess it up for me. Every time I come back it’s in a different configuration so I’m forced to rethink my next plan of attack.

It amazes me that there are so many combinations from such a simple little device and that so much confusion can be found with a few moves. Slowly my mind is starting to understand the effects of certain actions.

On towards 3 and more sides!