Tobias Rieper: that said he can still do it by looking at just one side.

No, he can't. If you just look at one side, there's no way you can tell whether facets on the other side are flipped.

Anyone remember the Pyramid one?

Realtime? Can't they just use Flash like everyone else?

This would impress me a lot more if the video actually showed he was blindfolded while he solved it and while someone scrambled it, only looking to inspect the scrambled cube. Obviously this kinda thing takes practice and talent, but maybe he's just done it so many times that he can memorize the order it was scrambled in and undo it all.

I don't know if I'd be happy if I was this kid. If I ever did something that resulted in someone describing me as "such a doddle", I'd seriously re-evaluate my life choices.

I'd be more impressed if there weren't books that can be memorized on how to solve that cube.

SpacePunk: I'd be more impressed if there weren't books that can be memorized on how to solve that cube.

I'd be more impressed if you could "memorize a book" that would teach you how to solve the cube in 15 seconds.

DKnight: Rubik cubes are a waste of time...

/now my lvl 70 mage, he can p0wn all


Sure it's boring, if you're still stuck doing them in 3-space.

Try the 4 dimensional cube, guarantee you're not going to solve that easily:

4-D cube (new window)

or if you really want a challenge, go up to 5 dimensions:

5-D cube (new window)

The Rubik's cube is only boring to people who don't understand group theory.

/and yes, I am the king of the nerds...

as a teenager I could take care of business in about 18 seconds with one hand.

Rubik's cube took longer.

Tobias Rieper: youre right , i did rush through that article. that said he can still do it by looking at just one side. impressive

That's simply not possible. You can trivially demonstrate that you need to see at least TWO faces to start, since the next two rows could have 16 different orientations without changing the configuration of the visible face.

Now, I could buy "see it without turning it around," which if you look from one corner on, allows you to see three faces sufficiently well. Three faces are assuredly enough information to uniquely identify the configuration of the cube. I don't know offhand if two are enough.

I've never been good at solving them without a screwdriver.

Best way to piss a cube fanatic off? Swap two stickers on a corner piece. :-)

dumb story but maybe worth a laff:
in 7th grade, during the Cube's initial heyday (my lawn- off!) there was this less-than-popular kid who could solve the cube, and flaunted his "genius" in out faces. Of course, someone had noticed him carrying a "how to solve the Cube" book in the early days of his newfound "celebrity". He'd gotten solving it down to about a minute. One day we decided to mess with him. We challenged him, I can't remember the actual wager, that he couldn't solve it in under TWO minutes. He laughed, knowing he could do it in half that time, at our sucker bet, and eagerly accepted. What he didn't know was, when he wasn't looking, we had taken his cube and popped out one of the cube's 2-color pieces and put it back in the wrong way, making it impossible to solve.

We watched him smugly take the cube and start in on it as the second-hand hit zero on the classroom clock, confident he could win the challenge without breaking a sweat. About a minute goes by and he's got it except for the one cube which was flipped the wrong way. He looked sort of puzzled but un-fazed. He still had a minute to go and there was, after all, just one cube left. About 1:45 into it and he's panicking, cursing (a lot of "Wtf's" under his breath) and fumbling with it. At two minutes, he gave up and looked up at us all, humiliated. Now, we know we cheated, so we really didn't plan to make him pay up, figuring someone would tell him sooner or later, so we did the next best thing: we offered him double or nothing that he couldn't finish it before the end of class. He gladdly accepted and we watched him go completely batshiat insane for the next 40 minutes. At the end we were laughing so hard we felt it was only fair to tell him what we'd done. He was too relieved that he hadn't lost his mind to be pissed at us.

im14u2c: Best way to piss a cube fanatic off? Swap two stickers on a corner piece. :-)

funny you dropped that little morsel as i wrote my story. Flipping the cube with a screwdriver (or whatever) works better as the sticker thing is more noticeable.

toonz: im14u2c: Best way to piss a cube fanatic off? Swap two stickers on a corner piece. :-)

funny you dropped that little morsel as i wrote my story. Flipping the cube with a screwdriver (or whatever) works better as the sticker thing is more noticeable.

I used to have a 6 color Megaminx. It was tricky because you had two of each piece. When you got to the end, you could have just two pieces that needed to be swapped, but it was impossible to swap them even though the overall configuration was valid.

toonz: What he didn't know was, when he wasn't looking, we had taken his cube and popped out one of the cube's 2-color pieces and put it back in the wrong way, making it impossible to solve.

Someone did this to our resident cube geek. He ran it in his usual 45 seconds or so -- about 30 seconds or so in, he said "Oh, one of the edges is flipped", and finished it with one edge flipped. (You can't tell, nor does it matter, which edge was "originally" flipped.)

im14u2c: Three faces are assuredly enough information to uniquely identify the configuration of the cube.

I don't think so. If you're looking at one corner (seeing three mutually adjacent faces), there are three edges you can't see. Two of those edge cubes could be flipped, and/or the three could be permuted.

jfarkinB: toonz: What he didn't know was, when he wasn't looking, we had taken his cube and popped out one of the cube's 2-color pieces and put it back in the wrong way, making it impossible to solve.

Someone did this to our resident cube geek. He ran it in his usual 45 seconds or so -- about 30 seconds or so in, he said "Oh, one of the edges is flipped", and finished it with one edge flipped. (You can't tell, nor does it matter, which edge was "originally" flipped.)

oh. no doubt. it was a "new" trick when we pulled it. like you said, any intermediate-to-expert would know pretty quickly now. It was still funny as hell.

im14u2c: ...Three faces are assuredly enough information to uniquely identify the configuration of the cube. I don't know offhand if two are enough.

Categorically, you need to see all six faces. Anyone who could do the cube would see this immediately upon realising that three edges can be permuted.

I like to solve mine with a different color in the center of each face. Its impossible to use opposite side color but you can use adjacent colors. Its almost the same technique but you need to think about it more. Also, anything under 5 minutes is pretty fast.

I love the generic pop beat they play during the slow motion replay. shiatty videos at their best.

Yawn. Let me know when the 4x4 Rubix is solved in under a minute.

I could take care of business in about 18 seconds with one hand.

Rubik's cube took longer

...Rubik's cube was longer and a lot harder.

my best time is like 50s and average around 1:10

Jon iz teh kewl: Yawn. Let me know when the 4x4 Rubix is solved in under a minute.

WTF is a "Rubix" cube?

Don't cubes have that tricky third dimension? Yanno, 4x4x4...

Oh, and the WR for the 4x4x4 is less than a minute!


/TGU: posting to long-dead threads since 1992