Puzzled 2

Monday, June 17, 2013

Tuolumne River June 2013

Tuolomne River June 2013, a set on Flickr.

I got to spend a weekend with Rory and fam. One of the highlights was a trip to the Tuolumne River.

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Sierra Discovery Trail April 2013

Sierra Discovery Trail April 2013, a set on Flickr.

Since Raymond and Fam are leaving the country soon, Papa figured it was high time to get those grandkids to SDT. It was great.

Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Creation Seminar 1—Kent Hovind—The Age of the Earth

My Skewb Family puzzles consist of the Skewb, the Jing's Pyraminx, and the Skewb Ultimate. Tonight I finally came to see that I really can solve the Jing's Pyraminx and the Skewb Ultimate using the algorithms and strategy I developed with the Skewb back when I first had it. Things clicked. Over the years I've fiddled with alternate strategies and algorithms, some of which have certain advantages, but the ones that work best for me are the ones I came up with originally when first figuring out the Skewb.

Although it could be argued that the Crazy Tetrahedrons should be included in the Skewb Family, I do not consider them so. Why? Because there is nothing about solving them that is anything like how I like to solve the Skewb.

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Roark's #9

Roark's #9, a set on Flickr.

We made our first trip to the new place.

Monday, March 11, 2013

Lanlan Gear Dodecahedron

My great puzzle accomplishment of late? I have finally figured out the Gear Dodecahedron. This has got to be one of the simplest puzzles ever. After thoroughly and thoughtfully scrambling it, if you just keep making random twists and turns and watch, eventually you'll notice that the 8 corners are all solved relative to one another. If you want to actually solve the corners with a little effort, you can do so in no more than 4 moves from any given scramble.

What I call the edges are the pieces that correspond to the edges of the Gear Cube. They can be positioned in ways similar to the Gear Cube, so a refresher of my old Gear Cube notes was in order.

But with the Gear Dodecahedron, the "edges" can also be flipped in a weird sort of way, but early on in my experimentation I stumbled on a simple algorithm that worked well.

The 6-cog gear pieces can be oriented correctly just like with a Gear Cube.

So what was the big challenge? What I call the centers—because they are the centers of rotation of the outer layers—can be flipped. On the Gear Cube the centers are a single color and square, so orientation does not matter. And for some reason it took me forever—well, a couple weeks or so anyway—to come up with a way, by trying different sequences, that could be used to flip centers. The sequence happens to also tweak all 12 of the 6-cog gears, as well as flipping 4 centers.

I might mention that I had pretty much lost interest in puzzling for several months. I may be back. :)

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.