/ (3,3) / (–1,–2) / (–2,4) / backtrack
goes from solved to
Saturday, June 27, 2015
Square-1 Parity Fix
I do not have a set algorithm for the parity fix I use. Just go to 44 / 44, swap 3 pieces on top with 3 on bottom, go back to cube shape and resolve then finish solving the colors. I noticed one day though that sometimes when I get back to cube shape all the correct colors are on top, but usually not. So today I set out to discover and document how to fix parity with a minimum of damage to the solve. Found it. When you make the swap of 3 pieces make sure you move the same number of yellows down that you move up. For example:
/ (3,3) / (–1,–2) / (–2,4) / backtrack
goes from solved to
/ (3,3) / (–1,–2) / (–2,4) / backtrack
goes from solved to
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Summer 2015 Twisty Puzzle Progress
2x2x2 Cyclone Boys Cube
2x2x2 Hollow Ball
3x3x3 Zanchi 5 Cube
4x4x4 Cyclone Boys Cube
Crazy 4x4x4 II
2x3x3
Crazy 2x3x3 without the freaky move
2x3x4
3x3x1 Scramble
3x3x3 Magic Octahedron
3x3x3 Mixup Cube
F-Skewb
Pyraminx
Pyraminx Crystal
Pyraminx Trignis
Skewb
Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb (Curvy Rhombohedron)
Skewb Dodecahedron (Skewb Ultimate)
Skewb Tetrahedron (Jing's Pyraminx)
Curvy Copter with jumbling
Square-1
Megaminx
3x3x3 Circle Cube
3x3x3 Crazy Jupiter
3x3x3 Crazy2face B4 Jupiter
Gear Dodecahedron
2x2x2 Hollow Ball
3x3x3 Zanchi 5 Cube
4x4x4 Cyclone Boys Cube
Crazy 4x4x4 II
2x3x3
Crazy 2x3x3 without the freaky move
2x3x4
3x3x1 Scramble
3x3x3 Magic Octahedron
3x3x3 Mixup Cube
F-Skewb
Pyraminx
Pyraminx Crystal
Pyraminx Trignis
Skewb
Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb (Curvy Rhombohedron)
Skewb Dodecahedron (Skewb Ultimate)
Skewb Tetrahedron (Jing's Pyraminx)
Curvy Copter with jumbling
Square-1
Megaminx
3x3x3 Circle Cube
3x3x3 Crazy Jupiter
3x3x3 Crazy2face B4 Jupiter
Gear Dodecahedron
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Crazy 2face B4
I know I know, less than two weeks ago I posted, "Basically I can't be bothered with anything that has alignment or sticker or bandaging issues right now. Been there done that. Just want some smooth simple fun." No bandaged puzzles huh? Well guess what has been calling my name lately.
June 22, 2015 I posted on Puzzle Photography:
I've been fiddling with it. When I had no idea how to start I tried finding notes I had made previously somewhere, I tried looking at diagrams Burgo had prepared back when, but nothing helped. So I just started fiddling with it and found myself trying to reduce and solve the white edges. The white side is the 0-face. Next I figured I'd reduce and solve the white corners. And by that time figured I'd reduce the rest of the corners. This is where I am now.
June 22, 2015 I posted on Puzzle Photography:
I haven't played with the Crazy2face B4 Cube in a year and a half maybe. I didn't intend to play with it now. I was enjoying my smooth, simple puzzles that don't have any bandaging. But this started calling my name. So here it is. I'm not sure what it was even named in the past, if anything. It has one 0-face, two adjacent 2-faces, and three 1-faces lined up. And one pink piece. I have an idea that maybe Andy Chillingworth or Kevin Sadler introduced it but I'm not sure. I think it is supposed to be one of the easier configurations but I'm not sure. I'm not looking for hints on solving, but rather if it was given a name. Any ideas?June 22, 2015
I've been fiddling with it. When I had no idea how to start I tried finding notes I had made previously somewhere, I tried looking at diagrams Burgo had prepared back when, but nothing helped. So I just started fiddling with it and found myself trying to reduce and solve the white edges. The white side is the 0-face. Next I figured I'd reduce and solve the white corners. And by that time figured I'd reduce the rest of the corners. This is where I am now.
June 22, 2015
The next logical step to me in my fiddling was to reduce the non-white edges. But the only way to reduce is on the white side / 0-face, so that means things got a bit muxed ip.
Here is a view of my cool, wet yard in the hot, dry land where I live.
And done. The 0-face and B4 bandage certainly added an extra challenge but once reduced it did not require any special algorithms to solve. Reducing did not require any special algorithms either, just a different technique that isn't needed in solving a normal 3x3x3.
Megaminx
This is one more solve so far in the summer of 2015. Up to 22—
2x2x2 Cyclone Boys Cube
2x2x2 Hollow Ball
3x3x3 Zanchi 5 Cube
4x4x4 Cyclone Boys Cube
Crazy 4x4x4 II
2x3x3
Crazy 2x3x3 without the freaky move
2x3x4
3x3x1 Scramble
3x3x3 Magic Octahedron
3x3x3 Mixup Cube
F-Skewb
Pyraminx
Pyraminx Crystal
Pyraminx Trignis
Skewb
Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb (Curvy Rhombohedron)
Skewb Dodecahedron (Skewb Ultimate)
Skewb Tetrahedron (Jing's Pyraminx)
Curvy Copter with jumbling
Square-1
Megaminx
Thursday, June 18, 2015
Square-1—Back to Cube Shape via Faces
On the Puzzle Photography page Burgo said regarding my blog post about the Square-1 from the past, "This was my favourite: Jig, Around, Over, Swap, Jiggle Joggle, Swap, Go Back, Go Back, Go Back :) I would use a photo or a diagram for a starting position, and then the notation."
Well, here is a compromise. I am not into mindless algorithms when getting the Square-1 back to cube shape, but here is a diagram that shows how I like to do it.
Puzzles I've solved in the last few weeks:
2x2x2 Cyclone Boys Cube
2x2x2 Hollow Ball
3x3x3 Zanchi 5 Cube
4x4x4 Cyclone Boys Cube
Crazy 4x4x4 II
2x3x3
Crazy 2x3x3 without the freaky move
2x3x4
3x3x1 Scramble
3x3x3 Magic Octahedron
3x3x3 Mixup Cube
F-Skewb
Pyraminx Crystal
Pyraminx Trignis
Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb
Skewb Dodecahedron
Curvy Copter with jumbling
Square-1
June 23, 2015
Today during a scramble I started trying to see how many little pieces I could get together. It wasn't too hard to get them all together. My first thought was, "Isn't this rline's method?" And then my second thought was, "Wow! It is really simple to get back to cube shape from here."
Well, here is a compromise. I am not into mindless algorithms when getting the Square-1 back to cube shape, but here is a diagram that shows how I like to do it.
Puzzles I've solved in the last few weeks:
2x2x2 Cyclone Boys Cube
2x2x2 Hollow Ball
3x3x3 Zanchi 5 Cube
4x4x4 Cyclone Boys Cube
Crazy 4x4x4 II
2x3x3
Crazy 2x3x3 without the freaky move
2x3x4
3x3x1 Scramble
3x3x3 Magic Octahedron
3x3x3 Mixup Cube
F-Skewb
Pyraminx Crystal
Pyraminx Trignis
Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb
Skewb Dodecahedron
Curvy Copter with jumbling
Square-1
June 23, 2015
Today during a scramble I started trying to see how many little pieces I could get together. It wasn't too hard to get them all together. My first thought was, "Isn't this rline's method?" And then my second thought was, "Wow! It is really simple to get back to cube shape from here."
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
Square-1—How I Got Started
I got a shipment of twisty puzzles from Cubefans.com (Cube4You) on Monday, August 4, 2008. I’m not sure if I even touched the Square-1 on Monday, or if I waited until Tuesday. I think I started with the Megaminx. Sometime Monday or Tuesday I checked out the Square-1. Before putting on the stickers I scrambled it. It was quite a challenge to get it back into cube shape. I wasn’t sure how I did it, but it involved getting symmetrical shapes on each side. This was probably Tuesday.
I guess I put the stickers on it on Wednesday. After putting stickers on I wasn’t going to scramble it right away. I was going to do just a few moves at a time and then undo them to see what I could learn. That didn’t last more than a couple minutes. Before long it was thoroughly scrambled. No amount of fiddling and twiddling could even get it back into cube shape. I worked on it off and on for a couple days.
Finally on Friday I got out a pad of paper and started systematically recording starting positions, and results. After writing down 65 of them, I wanted to quit being so systematic and start following different trails as I came to them, and pretty soon I had 6 corners on one side which made a 6-pointed star, and on the other side an eye-shape, which was 1 corner, 3 edges, 1 corner, 3 edges. I had a feeling this had some potential. It was late though, so I went to bed.
Saturday morning it all quickly fell into place. The 6 + 1313 became 44 + 44 became 2 tops + 2 bottoms became 2 halves + 2 halves became a cube. Now all I had to do was figure out how to get the colors solved!
First I got the edges. I don’t know exactly how I did it and I wonder if it will always be that easy. Then I was able to get 3 of the 8 corners fairly easily. Somewhere along the line I realized that I was moving corners around without messing up the edges, so I looked up a notation for doing Square-1 moves and used it to write down some moves that move corners around without messing up edges. I also wrote down where the corners were both before and after, so I would be able to do something with it. What it does it swap the 2 front corners on top and the 2 corners on the bottom right. I used my corner swapping algorithm with setup moves to swap a blue on the bottom with a green on the top, so that I had 3 of the 4 blue corners on top, and, of course, 3 of the 4 green corners on the bottom. And they were all 6 in the correct places. So I just had to swap a top corner with a bottom corner to have the cube solved. I got all the blue corners on top and all the greens on bottom, and I had the bottom solved, but 2 blue corners needed to swap. I hadn’t had a situation in which I needed to do a 3-cycle, but was sure that I could use the double-swap algorithm twice with setup moves to do a 3-cycle. So to swap a pair of corners I could turn the top 90˚ which would make exactly 1 corner right and then I could use my algorithm to 3-cycle the other corners into place. The only problem would be, my 4 blue edges would all be out of place. And I didn’t know how to move edges without messing up corners.
After much experimenting, that resulted in having to practically solve it over again several times, I ended up with all the edges solved, but 2 green corners swapped. Somewhere along the line I had all the corners solved, but 2 edges swapped. I figured out how to swap edges without messing up corners, but I couldn’t use it to fix the 2 swapped corners after all. I could just use it to switch from 2 swapped corners to 2 swapped edges.
With most of the cube solved it was relatively easy to write down moves and their results and to come up with ways to swap pairs of corners, and to swap pairs of edges. This gives me a way to 3-cycle corners, and to 3-cycle edges. In the midst of all the experimenting there were times when I would mess up and have to use the moves learned so far to get back to one pair of swapped something. Sometimes it was quick and easy, sometimes it was difficult. Try as I might I couldn’t find a way to swap 2 edges, the very thing I needed to do. I figured I was facing some kind of parity issue. I still don’t understand exactly what parity is, but I figured to fix it I would have to back out of the cube configuration and come back to it. Finally I went to Jaaps page and read just enough to get me through. Here is the link to the page that I look forward to studying in depth some day, after I am convinced I can solve the Square-1 on my own.
http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/square1.htm#oddperm
And here is his paragraph that helped me figure out what I had to do.
“The quickest way to perform an odd permutation is to go to the scallop-scallop shape (3 twists), swap three corners from one layer with three from the other (1 twist), and return to the cube shape (3 twists) which takes 7 twists in total.”
I did take a quick look through his diagrams to see what he meant by “scallop.” It is what I called the 44 in my analysis when I was trying to get it into a cube shape at the beginning.
I guess I put the stickers on it on Wednesday. After putting stickers on I wasn’t going to scramble it right away. I was going to do just a few moves at a time and then undo them to see what I could learn. That didn’t last more than a couple minutes. Before long it was thoroughly scrambled. No amount of fiddling and twiddling could even get it back into cube shape. I worked on it off and on for a couple days.
Finally on Friday I got out a pad of paper and started systematically recording starting positions, and results. After writing down 65 of them, I wanted to quit being so systematic and start following different trails as I came to them, and pretty soon I had 6 corners on one side which made a 6-pointed star, and on the other side an eye-shape, which was 1 corner, 3 edges, 1 corner, 3 edges. I had a feeling this had some potential. It was late though, so I went to bed.
Saturday morning it all quickly fell into place. The 6 + 1313 became 44 + 44 became 2 tops + 2 bottoms became 2 halves + 2 halves became a cube. Now all I had to do was figure out how to get the colors solved!
First I got the edges. I don’t know exactly how I did it and I wonder if it will always be that easy. Then I was able to get 3 of the 8 corners fairly easily. Somewhere along the line I realized that I was moving corners around without messing up the edges, so I looked up a notation for doing Square-1 moves and used it to write down some moves that move corners around without messing up edges. I also wrote down where the corners were both before and after, so I would be able to do something with it. What it does it swap the 2 front corners on top and the 2 corners on the bottom right. I used my corner swapping algorithm with setup moves to swap a blue on the bottom with a green on the top, so that I had 3 of the 4 blue corners on top, and, of course, 3 of the 4 green corners on the bottom. And they were all 6 in the correct places. So I just had to swap a top corner with a bottom corner to have the cube solved. I got all the blue corners on top and all the greens on bottom, and I had the bottom solved, but 2 blue corners needed to swap. I hadn’t had a situation in which I needed to do a 3-cycle, but was sure that I could use the double-swap algorithm twice with setup moves to do a 3-cycle. So to swap a pair of corners I could turn the top 90˚ which would make exactly 1 corner right and then I could use my algorithm to 3-cycle the other corners into place. The only problem would be, my 4 blue edges would all be out of place. And I didn’t know how to move edges without messing up corners.
After much experimenting, that resulted in having to practically solve it over again several times, I ended up with all the edges solved, but 2 green corners swapped. Somewhere along the line I had all the corners solved, but 2 edges swapped. I figured out how to swap edges without messing up corners, but I couldn’t use it to fix the 2 swapped corners after all. I could just use it to switch from 2 swapped corners to 2 swapped edges.
With most of the cube solved it was relatively easy to write down moves and their results and to come up with ways to swap pairs of corners, and to swap pairs of edges. This gives me a way to 3-cycle corners, and to 3-cycle edges. In the midst of all the experimenting there were times when I would mess up and have to use the moves learned so far to get back to one pair of swapped something. Sometimes it was quick and easy, sometimes it was difficult. Try as I might I couldn’t find a way to swap 2 edges, the very thing I needed to do. I figured I was facing some kind of parity issue. I still don’t understand exactly what parity is, but I figured to fix it I would have to back out of the cube configuration and come back to it. Finally I went to Jaaps page and read just enough to get me through. Here is the link to the page that I look forward to studying in depth some day, after I am convinced I can solve the Square-1 on my own.
http://www.geocities.com/jaapsch/puzzles/square1.htm#oddperm
And here is his paragraph that helped me figure out what I had to do.
“The quickest way to perform an odd permutation is to go to the scallop-scallop shape (3 twists), swap three corners from one layer with three from the other (1 twist), and return to the cube shape (3 twists) which takes 7 twists in total.”
I did take a quick look through his diagrams to see what he meant by “scallop.” It is what I called the 44 in my analysis when I was trying to get it into a cube shape at the beginning.
All the above in this post was written in 2008 when I first got the Square-1. As it turns out I don't use any of the Corner Swappers and only 1 of the Edge Swappers routinely now.
Monday, June 15, 2015
Square-1
I've been on a puzzle kick lately, solving puzzles that have been put away for awhile. Mostly it has been fun easy pleasant to play with puzzles. Anything with peeling stickers or alignment issues have been avoided. Then came the Curvy Copter adventure mentioned a couple days ago. Well I have a nice CT Square-1 that I haven't played with much since getting it last August. No time like the present.
The Square-1 was one of the first puzzles I got after the 3x3x3 years ago and I painstakingly worked out a strategy for solving it. The only help I needed was the parity issue at the end when solving the last edges. I found what I needed at Jaap's site. I've never taken the time and energy to learn my method well enough not to need notes after a prolonged absence. Maybe this time...
The Square-1 was one of the first puzzles I got after the 3x3x3 years ago and I painstakingly worked out a strategy for solving it. The only help I needed was the parity issue at the end when solving the last edges. I found what I needed at Jaap's site. I've never taken the time and energy to learn my method well enough not to need notes after a prolonged absence. Maybe this time...
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Curvy Copter Adventure
Yesterday we went to pick up the California grandkids to bring them home for a visit. I packed some puzzles for the car ride one of which was the Curvy Copter. I wanted to see if 11 year old Roark could make any interesting patterns on it. Eventually it ended up under almost 4 year old Rorianna's control and by the time it got back to me it was in a state I don't remember ever seeing before.
By the time Roark was finished trying to get it back to cube shape it was the lumpiest Helicopter Cube I had ever seen. Now I am familiar with jumbling, but whenever I would jumble the cube, I would just use it to scramble petals so that they were out of orbit. Or to unscrambled said petals. It was never shape shifted for long.
I finally got it solved today, but it took a long time and turned out to be a great new adventure. Thanks grandkids. =D
If you are interested my method for the Curvy Copter is to solve the 6 edges, then all the petals in no particular order, then the corners.
Puzzles I've solved in the last few weeks:
2x2x2 Cyclone Boys Cube
2x2x2 Hollow Ball
3x3x3 Zanchi 5 Cube
4x4x4 Cyclone Boys Cube
Crazy 4x4x4 II
2x3x3
Crazy 2x3x3 without the freaky move
2x3x4
3x3x1 Scramble
3x3x3 Magic Octahedron
3x3x3 Mixup Cube
F-Skewb
Pyraminx Crystal
Pyraminx Trignis
Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb
Skewb Dodecahedron
Curvy Copter with jumbling
By the time Roark was finished trying to get it back to cube shape it was the lumpiest Helicopter Cube I had ever seen. Now I am familiar with jumbling, but whenever I would jumble the cube, I would just use it to scramble petals so that they were out of orbit. Or to unscrambled said petals. It was never shape shifted for long.
I finally got it solved today, but it took a long time and turned out to be a great new adventure. Thanks grandkids. =D
If you are interested my method for the Curvy Copter is to solve the 6 edges, then all the petals in no particular order, then the corners.
Puzzles I've solved in the last few weeks:
2x2x2 Cyclone Boys Cube
2x2x2 Hollow Ball
3x3x3 Zanchi 5 Cube
4x4x4 Cyclone Boys Cube
Crazy 4x4x4 II
2x3x3
Crazy 2x3x3 without the freaky move
2x3x4
3x3x1 Scramble
3x3x3 Magic Octahedron
3x3x3 Mixup Cube
F-Skewb
Pyraminx Crystal
Pyraminx Trignis
Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb
Skewb Dodecahedron
Curvy Copter with jumbling
Thursday, June 11, 2015
2015 Puzzling—Back after a long break
After months away from puzzling I'm back for awhile. Got back into it about 3 weeks ago. It is different this time though than it has ever been in the past.
Instead of feeling compelled to solve every puzzle, or better yet, without notes—
Instead of feeling compelled to take on a new challenge—
Instead of feeling compelled to remember or relearn the best method—
I just pulled out my boxes of puzzles, opened them up, and looked for a nice easy puzzle to solve. I didn't care if it was the best method I had ever come up with or picked up. Just have fun, see what flows. If I wanted to refer back to old notes, fine; if not, fine. If I didn't feel like messing with a certain puzzle at the time for some reason, fine. For example, the Pyramorphinx is the Mefferts brand and is not smooth and fun to play with. The good one I had that was smooth was stolen. So the Pyramorphinx got left in the box. The Fluctuation Angle Cube is just so spikey when scrambled. Don't feel like that now. The Gear Cube Extreme has some crazy long algorithm that I never can remember and just don't want to fuss with right now. Some of the Gear puzzles have bad stickers that I don't want to mess with now. Basically I can't be bothered with anything that has alignment or sticker or bandaging issues right now. Been there done that. Just want some smooth simple fun.
So what have I been enjoying?
Each of the following got at least one solve and I want to solve them again soon.
2x2x2 Cyclone Boys Cube
2x2x2 Hollow Ball
3x3x3 Zanchi 5 Cube
4x4x4 Cyclone Boys Cube
Crazy 4x4x4 II
2x3x3
Crazy 2x3x3 without the freaky move
2x3x4
3x3x1 Scramble
3x3x3 Magic Octahedron
3x3x3 Mixup Cube
F-Skewb
Pyraminx Crystal
Pyraminx Trignis
Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb
Skewb Dodecahedron
I solved the Pyraminx but don't really care if I solve it again for awhile. I enjoyed the Skewb but don't need to solve it again for awhile.
The Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb (aka Curvy Rhombohedron although the faces are not rhombi) was scrambled in the box and yesterday it was calling out to be solved. It turned out to be fun so I also did the Skewb Dodecahedron (aka Skewb Ultimate). It was fun too. I solved them both much like I solve the Skewb, which is—
two opposite corners
the skew corners
the last 4 corners
3 cycle the centers
With the Skewb variants there are sometimes twisting and flipping that needs to be done too but it just flowed in nicely with the basic solve. I also solved the Skewb Pyraminx (aka Jing's Pyraminx), but don't want to solve it again soon. I don't like the way the stickers feel. So what I'm looking for here are puzzles that are pleasant to solve, pleasant to the touch,
What is next? Square-1 maybe. Or maybe I'll work through the ones in the list above again. Or maybe fiddle with the 2x3x4 Camouflage Cube that I have had a long time and have never solved.
Instead of feeling compelled to solve every puzzle, or better yet, without notes—
Instead of feeling compelled to take on a new challenge—
Instead of feeling compelled to remember or relearn the best method—
I just pulled out my boxes of puzzles, opened them up, and looked for a nice easy puzzle to solve. I didn't care if it was the best method I had ever come up with or picked up. Just have fun, see what flows. If I wanted to refer back to old notes, fine; if not, fine. If I didn't feel like messing with a certain puzzle at the time for some reason, fine. For example, the Pyramorphinx is the Mefferts brand and is not smooth and fun to play with. The good one I had that was smooth was stolen. So the Pyramorphinx got left in the box. The Fluctuation Angle Cube is just so spikey when scrambled. Don't feel like that now. The Gear Cube Extreme has some crazy long algorithm that I never can remember and just don't want to fuss with right now. Some of the Gear puzzles have bad stickers that I don't want to mess with now. Basically I can't be bothered with anything that has alignment or sticker or bandaging issues right now. Been there done that. Just want some smooth simple fun.
So what have I been enjoying?
Each of the following got at least one solve and I want to solve them again soon.
2x2x2 Cyclone Boys Cube
2x2x2 Hollow Ball
3x3x3 Zanchi 5 Cube
4x4x4 Cyclone Boys Cube
Crazy 4x4x4 II
2x3x3
Crazy 2x3x3 without the freaky move
2x3x4
3x3x1 Scramble
3x3x3 Magic Octahedron
3x3x3 Mixup Cube
F-Skewb
Pyraminx Crystal
Pyraminx Trignis
Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb
Skewb Dodecahedron
I solved the Pyraminx but don't really care if I solve it again for awhile. I enjoyed the Skewb but don't need to solve it again for awhile.
The Curvy Kite-ohedron Skewb (aka Curvy Rhombohedron although the faces are not rhombi) was scrambled in the box and yesterday it was calling out to be solved. It turned out to be fun so I also did the Skewb Dodecahedron (aka Skewb Ultimate). It was fun too. I solved them both much like I solve the Skewb, which is—
two opposite corners
the skew corners
the last 4 corners
3 cycle the centers
With the Skewb variants there are sometimes twisting and flipping that needs to be done too but it just flowed in nicely with the basic solve. I also solved the Skewb Pyraminx (aka Jing's Pyraminx), but don't want to solve it again soon. I don't like the way the stickers feel. So what I'm looking for here are puzzles that are pleasant to solve, pleasant to the touch,
What is next? Square-1 maybe. Or maybe I'll work through the ones in the list above again. Or maybe fiddle with the 2x3x4 Camouflage Cube that I have had a long time and have never solved.
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