Puzzled 2: Summer 2023 Puzzle Adventures

Wednesday, June 28, 2023

Summer 2023 Puzzle Adventures

Last summer I had fun doing twisty puzzles with the Czech kiddos at my house. Some of the puzzles even got to leave with them and travel around the world. The yellow Bump Cube and the Carbon Fiber 3x3x3 went with Annie. The Redi Cube and a Six Spot Cube went with Alex. A 2x2 Cube and the Rediminx went with David. Annie and Alex each mastered the ones they took along with them. David is great at the 2x2 using the 3-step method Solution Guide we made together. And we played a little with the Rediminx and I'm confident that he will be able to figure it out.

Well... the Carbon Fiber 3x3x3 got trashed. Some of the stickers got pealed off and pealed back. I am going to take it home with me and resticker it with normal stickers. Maybe make a sticker mod of some sort. Maybe give the kiddos some sticker mod options and see what they want. Or see if they can come up with one of their own. One corner of the 2x2x2 I sent home last summer also got trashed. Two of the three pieces were missing. We went through two toy drawers and found one of the missing pieces but not the other one. David did not keep working on the 2x2 after he went home last summer so is relearning how to solve it this summer. He did not figure out the Rediminx either although he could get it partly solved.

A short time ago Breann bought a 4x4 cube with Carbon Fiber stickers and a set of puzzles consisting of a 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, and Pyraminx. Alex wanted to learn the 4x4 so I prepared some lessons. The method I taught him to solve the corners is the same one used to solve the 2x2, so he is also learning to solve a 2x2. And of course he will be able to solve a 3x3 after he masters the 4x4.

I hope that after David can solve the 2x2 that he will learn how to solve the 2x2 blindfolded. We shall see.

What about Annie? I brought the Penrose cube. She solved it color-wise but needed a double swap to get the sticker stripes correct. I did it for her and showed her.

The last time we solved the Rediminx we got creative with it.

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Rubik's Cube Books

I got my first Rubik's Cube in the early nineteen eighties. The only way I could solve it was to take it apart and put it back together solved. Until, that is, I got some little books that explained sequences of moves that could be used to put pieces where you want them without messing up what was already in place.

The Simple Solution To Rubik's Cube
by James G. Nourse
Notes on Rubik's Magic Cube
by David Singmaster
Solve That Crazy, Mixed-up Cube Puzzle
by Don Frederick.

I think I put together my own strategy using bits and pieces gleaned from all three books. Eventually I lost interest and forgot how to complete the cube, forgot I had those books, and lost track of the cubes.

Mark Jeays' Working Corner Method

http://jeays.net/rubiks.htm

In 2007 my interest in Rubik's Cube was rekindled when I watched the movie The Pursuit of Happyness. Marae found my 1980s cube for me and I tried to solve it. Huh-uh. I could do part of it, but not the last layer. Looking online I found various tutorials. Mark Jeays included YouTube videos with his Solution 2. This method worked for me and although I no longer use it in its entirety, nor could I, as I have forgotten the yellow edges sequences, I still find the basic working corner technique helpful, and use a slightly modified version of his corner twisting technique at times.

In the summer of 2014 we packed 30 or so puzzles and flew to visit Raymond and Fam in the Czech Republic. Breann, who had learned this method and no other, made some comment about bubururu or something like that, and it piqued my curiosity. What were those algorithms, and how similar are they to the EPS technique I use now when using a working corner? So I looked them up. Actually, the three algorithms were for dealing with the two last edges solved, which either needed to be swapped, or flipped, or swapped and flipped. The swapper is very similar to the one I have learned and used since, but I actually like it better in one sense, with a slight modification.

To swap UR and FR without flipping:

U' R U' R' U' R U' R' U'

To swap and flip UR and FR:

F' U' F U' F' U' F U2

To flip UR and FR:

F' U F U' R U' R' U

Will I actually learn and use these? Probably not. But I like them. :)

There is a slightly different implementation of the Working Corner Method. Arnaud van Galen calls it the Keyhole Method. I like his demonstration better than the one I originally learned. It just dawned on me why he is able to get away with doing it the way he does. He goes ahead and finishes the F2L before going to the last layer, unlike the way Jeays uses the working corner (keyhole) to also get the last layer. Since I no longer use the working corner to get the last layer, I should implement Arnaud's technique.

Jasmine's Scalable Method

http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubikscubesolution.html

This was the next method I learned. For awhile the idea of speed cubing appealed to me. This promised to be a good beginner's method for those that wanted to go on to faster method's later. Now that I know what I know, I wouldn't recommend this method if your goal is to be able to consistently solve the cube in less than 30 seconds. Rubik's Speedsolver Champion Leyan Lo presents a beginner's method that I like the looks of although I've never learned it. I have recently watched Arnaud van Galen's complete beginner's method video series and recommend them. Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that is very close to one of my favorite ways of solving the cube. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. Also, if you are interested in speedcubing you should check out this YouTube video.

After trying for months to get under a minute with both Jasmine's Method and the Corner's First Method—and failing, I finally decided to quit trying and just enjoy cubing at a nice slow pace.

Don't get me wrong. Jasmine's Method has its merits. The sequences for orienting the last layer edges and corners, and permuting the last layer edges are still in my arsenal of useful algorithms.

Adam Cheyer's Corners First Method

Philip Marshall's Ultimate Solution

http://helm.lu/cube/MarshallPhilipp/
After learning to solve the cube corners first, what is next? An Edges First Method! This was a very difficult tutorial to follow, but once I got it, it was my favorite way to solve the cube for awhile. It uses only a few algorithms, and when you are finished solving the cube you feel like you've solved the puzzle, not just used memorized sequences to unscramble it.

Gilles Roux presents a beginners' method that could be used to solve the cube edges first. The simplicity and comprehensibility make this method a good place to start if you want to understand the Rubik's Cube. His technique is much easier to follow than Marshall's.