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Blast from the past!!! Teh Rubik's Cube!!

iGav said:
I think so.
Click to expand...

haha, i remember that too. it was easier than the cube though.
i remeber i had learned the cube by a very complex way as a kid, and when i picked it up years later, i "discovered" a couple of much quicker ways.
my guiding idea was always that if you repeat a pattern of moves long it will eventually go back to the original state. than you can exploit this to swap pieces in twos and threes.
i could never understand how people could do it so quickly however. to me it always required some time to 'study' where the pieces where and followinf their path in my mind so they'd come back right
 
I can solve it under 2 minutes, although not without the use of the step by step diagrams that came with it. ;)
 
the lot who claim said:
"I can do it in [ridiculously short amount of time]"
Click to expand...

BS-Flag.gif


Prove it. :p iSight that alleged feat and YouTube it. I wanna see. :D
 
There was a guy in my hall (college dorm) last year who was crazy-good at it and a big fan, and he taught me and others, and it kind of got channeled down to others, and by the end of the year, half our hall had learned.

My best time is about 40 sec, though I usually range 50-60 sec. I'm not going to post a YouTube video because getting you to believe me isn't worth that much effort (I'm looking at you, iBlue :p); people can do it that fast, I guess to me it's not a big deal so I don't see point of lying about it, but maybe it's a thrill to some...:rolleyes:

I do have a bit of evidence, though, in this Facebook group thread. (I'm the 42.7.)

edit: you might need a Facebook account to view it; anyway, here's a screenshot:
 

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I found a very fast way to solve my cube. If you are careful, you can pop off the corner cube, separate the pieces, and put them back together again in the solved configuration! But I've also spent many hours doing 'em the hard way, and invented a few patterns (groups of moves to accomplish a goal) myself.

With the same disassembly trick, you can play a terrible terrible prank on somebody. Pop off a corner of their (scrambled) cube, rotate it one third of a turn perpendicular to the diagonal toward the cube's opposite corner, and reinstall it. The cube will no longer have a solution!
 
Doctor Q said:
With the same disassembly trick, you can play a terrible terrible prank on somebody. Pop off a corner of their (scrambled) cube, rotate it one third of a turn perpendicular to the diagonal toward the cube's opposite corner, and reinstall it. The cube will no longer have a solution!
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Oh, that makes me feel a lot better. Clearly, when I wasn't looking you played your little trick on my rubik's cube, hence the reason I have not been able to solve it! :D
 
Okay, ever since this thread started, I swear, I've been seeing all these references to older times. Like that silly Rick Rolled thread. And the Cabbage Patch kids thing. And then something else, too. Can't remember what. Oh yes, that thread about grade-school Mac games and stuffs.

Anyhow... I was trying to figure out wtf this one toy/ machine was called that I used to fiddle about with. I finallly figured it out! And I gave Q a link to it's wiki page and he turned around and linked me to this page. *swoon* (I'm so bummed that the other modes don't work. But damn it! I have sooo missed the Off sound!)

:D <3
 
I had a cube once when I was a kid. I solved it within 10 minutes of getting it!! I found it very easy... Just took the stickers off and stuck em back in order :p:p

aussie_geek
 
Whatever is causing the resurgence of cube talk, it also caused this news story in today's L.A. Times, with a headline about it on the front page!

I don't know how long the link will be open to non-subscribers.

It's about Ryan Patricio:
Last month, the 18-year-old Temecula resident did it in a mere 14.17 seconds to win the U.S. Open Rubik's Cube Championship in Chicago, making him national champion. His trophy, a Rubik's Cube enclosed in a bigger, transparent cube, now sits in his living room beside other cube-within-cube awards. His next stop is Budapest, Hungary, for the world championship in October.​
 
I did manage to complete it a couple of times as a kid. More by trial and error than any sort of formula and definitely not in any kind of sensible time.

iGav said:
I think so.
Click to expand...

I was trying to remember the name of the Rubik Magic. That one was really simple and flipping the squares was quite therapeutic... although a little noisy for others in the room.

I had a Rubik's snake as well which was just boring...
 
I also would like to see videos of said bragging. :D ALthough can any of you do it with your feet? ;)

I could never do any of them, although I had a fake Rukik's Cube for 10p from a jumble sale that was octagonal, and equally evil. :D

Someone at school had a Rubik's Magic, and that was much more fun to ineffectually play around with failing do to anything, than a Rubik's Cube, so that gets my vote.
 
That's quite a feet! :D

I read that some cube positions require at least 26 quarter turns to solve, and there is no cube position that can't be solved in 42 or fewer quarter turns.
 
Coincidentally, we just found one at our local thrift store for 50 cents, so we bought it for our son. I let my daughter look at it, who's never seen one (age 13), and she immediately pointed out that two stickers of the same color are on the same cube. Somewhere along the line this one got messed up. I think it's funny that she noticed that in like ten seconds.

I never could do one, nor did I try. No patience, I guess.
 
my friend did it in just under 30 seconds. he also has a 4x4 and 5x5 he can solve really quickly. oh yeah, and a 2x2. i cant even do that one.... but i never really tried. thats my excuse. he is insane.
 
:( I wish I had my 4x4x4..I let my friend borrow it and he broke it while trying to take it apart lol.

fastest I've done it is barely under a minute. But I am still proud. These things are loads of fun for passing time in class.
 
Here, check out this widget I just made (link below). I found a couple of other Rubik's Cube widgets, but they didn't really work the way I wanted so I was forced to make my own. ;) There's still some stuff that needs to be done, but tell me what you think so far...I guess this is a beta version.

Controls:

Click on face and drag to rotate face clockwise or counter-clockwise.

Hold control and move mouse to rotate cube. (Full-screen mode: you can use use the right mouse button instead.)

Command/Apple click on face and drag to rotate face on opposite side...saves having to rotate the cube to get at it. (Full-screen mode: you can use the middle mouse button instead.)

You can use the keyboard to rotate the cube instead: arrow keys or WSAD.

N: Make a new puzzle
Hold shift while pressing N to make the scrambling go slower so you can see it
Hold alt/option while pressing N to scramble the cube just a little bit
T: Toggle moves/time display
R: Reset cube to the original unscrambled state
2: Make a 2x2x2 cube (also resets it)
3: Make a 3x3x3 cube (also resets it)

Enter full-screen mode by clicking on the button with the arrows pointing outwards, and press Escape to leave full-screen mode. If you flip the widget over, just click anywhere on the back to flip it back.

Note that the scrambling does not reset the cube, so you can scramble any number of times. You can hold down option and shift at the same time when pressing N if you want. If you're holding down shift and you get bored watching it, let go and the rest of the scrambling will be done instantly.

There's support for cubes of any size, but I need to figure out some other control method before I enable 4x4x4 and above. Or maybe some way of extending the current control method...I do have an idea for that.

--Eric
 
OK, I've updated the widget so now it has support for 8 cube sizes. The controls are mostly the same as in the previous post. The big difference is that selecting what to rotate is now a two-click process: Click on a side to select all the cubes on that side, drag if you want to add more cubes to the selection, release mouse button. Now rotate the selected cubes by moving the mouse, then click again to finish the move. It's actually quicker/easier than that sounds. :)

Press 2-9 to make cubes of sizes 2x2x2 through 9x9x9. Also you can now press [ and ] (or < and >) to change mouse/key sensitivity for rotating the cube. There are icons for toggling the timer display, scrambling the cube, and resetting the cube (or press T, N, and R). The larger sizes, especially 9x9x9, might be a tad slow depending on your computer...there are quite a lot of little cubes to render in 3D. But personally I have a hard enough time with the small sizes so I'm not even going there. ;) Some screenshots below.

--Eric
 

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I can consistently get about 2-1/2 minutes. My cube is an original from the early 80s, and since it's on the verge of falling apart, it slows me down a bit. With a new cube, I could probably do about 2 minutes.

My 4x4x4 cube takes about 10, but I have to use a cheat sheet a little bit. Still working on that one now and then. Never tried a 5x5x5.

You'll all have to take my word for it - no video camera.
 
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