Revisiting the 2x3x4

Like the other puzzles I've been solving recently I wanted to see what I could do "on my own" without looking up notes from the past. Just fiddling around, trying to use some simple algorithms that seemed to make sense at the time, I solved all but 3 corners. Then I looked up other posts here in the blog. In November of 2012 I wrote:

This little puzzle has been much more challenging that anticipated. After some careful experimentation and documentation, I was able to solve it consistently, but did not have a fully developed strategy in place. Instead of patiently working with it longer, I got curious about how others were approaching it, so went to rline's tutorial and the twistypuzzles.com forum. rline has some great ideas about reducing the corners, and Konrad has a way to 3-cycle corners! Now my task is to create a page that documents my initial strategy, and also documents my final strategy. The only problem at this point is that I did not, nor do not, have either one.

Wow. So I looked for said document and found one that says:

My Solution after implementing ideas gleaned from chareaves (rline) and Konrad and interacting with Burgo on the forum

and then goes on to have a strategy that includes reduction. Yuck. That is never my first preference. I found some old notes in a Solution Guide spreadsheet that indicates I did solve it on my own before looking to see how others did it and I did use some reduction! So now the question is should I look for a way to 3-cycle the corners, or should I try to remember the 3-cycle from 2012, or should I just look it up and use it?

I did not consult the old notes. Instead I did a 3x3x2 3-cycle then swapped some pieces and did it again and maybe again and then put things back best I could and... it was solved! Did I slowly and carefully document what I was doing? no. Do I remember exactly what I did? no. So now the question is, should I put the solved puzzle back in the cabinet, or should I scramble it and try again?

I scrambled it and solved it to the point of needing one 3-cycle, but decided to look up Konrad's 3-cycle. I love it, but I'd like to study it and figure out what exactly is happening so it is easier to remember.

Alrighty then. Studied, analyzed, figured out. One more scramble and solve before it goes home and we move on to another puzzle.

Whoa! This solve is crazy! Again I started with the 2 center pieces which was pretty simple. Then I went for the 2x2x3 block by getting the whites on one side and yellows on the other then used a corners first algorithm to get it. Then I got the 4 end edges. So far there are no algorithms needed that are puzzle specific, just relatively simple moves I know from other puzzles like the 2x2x2 and the 2x2x3. But here is where it got weird.

Instead of getting to where I need a 3-cycle to finish the solve by solving the corners, I needed a double swap, and they weren't situated such that I could use 2 3-cycles to do it. After a lot of fiddling around I got the corners solved but now there are 2 end edges that are swapped. Huh?!?

Done! If orange is front: F2 D2 to set up swap. (B2 R2) x 3 to swap the 2 edges along with 2 phantom edges on the white side. D2 F2 to put things back. Done! Fun. No puzzle specific algorithms needed.

Crazy 4x4x4 After a 3 Year Absence

I've been solving puzzles in the cabinet that have been scrambled for quite some time. Last night I grabbed the Crazy 4x4x4. Instead of looking up any previous methods I had used, I decided to just go for it and see how it went. Then today after finishing the solve I looked up my previous methods. Wow. I had two ways of solving it in the past neither of which came to me this time. Here is what I did this time. Solve the 2x2x2 inside the circles. Solve everything outside the circles just like I would a 4x4x4. That is, the corners, then the white and yellow edges, then the middle layer edges. That left me all the little bits inside all the circles. That began the actual puzzle solving! I came up with a variety of commutators to solve them all.

As I review the previous methods and think about the method I came up with presently, I have to say that I really like the simplicity of the method I came up with last night. It may not be the fastest or most move efficient method but there is a simplicity to it that I really appreciate.

Moyu Fisher Time Wheel

After spending some time getting better acquainted with the Tangram Cube, I finally put it away and grabbed another puzzle. It was partially scrambled so I started by scrambling it more thoroughly. What a mess! When solved it is a perfect cube, but when scrambled it is quite the jagged mess. At this point I can't even tell you what the puzzle is. I do not remember its name. By the time I post this entry I'm sure I will have found out and put it in the title of the post. I can say that I solved the cube using a lot of Up Replace Down Replace Up Goback Down Goback commutator 3-cycles.

Nowadays this is called the Moyu Yileng Time Wheel. I bought it from Speedcubeshop in October 2017. On November 6, 2017 I posted the following:

I got a new puzzle. Rline did an unboxing and I liked the looks of it. It hasn't disappointed. I haven't worked out a system for solving it yet and may not ever. It is just fun to mess with. I have fully scrambled and solved it. Let's see...
It is like a Fisher Cube, you know the shape mod of a 3x3x3 that can be slippery and hard to control. It could be scrambled and solved exactly like one. But there are circles on the top and bottom faces and on each edge of the 4 vertical sides that can be turned manually giving each ... How should I explain this?
8 of the edges of the puzzle solve like corners of a cube. On a Fisher cube each edge is one piece. On the MoYu Fisher Time Wheel each of these pieces are cut by circles so that there are 3 extra pieces.
Trying to describe this is crazy. I'm just going to say that there are 54 extra little pieces to solve above and beyond a 3x3x3 cube or 3x3x3 Fisher Cube. I don't even want to try to describe at this point how I have gone about solving it.

Back to 2020 thoughts. As far as a solution strategy... I'm thinking that the centers, edges, and corners of the Fisher cube can be solved like a normal Fisher cube. When this is accomplished everything outside the circles along with the centers of the circles will all be solved. The next step is to focus on the horizontal and vertical pieces inside the circles. These can be solved with Up Replace Down Goback or simply Up Replace Down. Then the small roundish triangular parts of the circles can be solved using the 8-move commutator I am so fond of—Up Replace Down Replace Up Goback Down Goback.

Here it is with a scramble:

Skewb Family Grows

Until recently I haven't touched any twisty puzzles for months. We are in the COVID-19 Shelter in place ordeal so Marae and I have been home together pretty much 24/7 for weeks. Sometimes we like to sit on the patio together. I guess that contributed to my desire to solve the scrambled puzzles in the cabinet. I think I started with the cubes and cube shape mods. Easy. Then came some cuboids, megaminx, helicopter cube, and some I don't even remember the names. I don't know how or why but I noticed the Xtreme Skewb was only $8 on Amazon and I had credit on a credit card so I could add it to my Skewb collection fairly easily. That led to solving the Skewb family.

Tangram Cube Fun

In August 2017 I bought a twisty puzzle—the Tangram Cube. I made several posts telling about solving it. The solution guide I presented. Recently, after a break from twisty puzzles for months, I started solving the puzzles in the case that were scrambled. Eventually I came across the Tangram Cube. I didn't even remember its name, let alone how to solve it. But I finally found my notes from 2017 in this blog, and was able to solve it. I've looked for a better way, a way in which I could easily solve the triangles (centers) near the beginning, and then use pure 3-cycles to solve other pieces, but I couldn't come up with anything. So here I present my current solution for the Tangram Cube.

Step 1. Solve the two little corners using at most one simple twist of W.

Step 2. Solve the six big corners 1 or more at a time by twisting edges or using Up Replace Down to get as many of them as possible then The Move to finish up. Use one of the Little Corners and one of the Edge turns with The Move.

Step 3. Solve the 3 long edges by moving the slice so they are in the correct spots, then if necessary flip two of them. Slide one to A, flip it, slide the other to A, flip it, slide if necessary. For example: K A K' A flips L and A. K A K A K flips L and R. Or you could use L or R as the flip spot and always only use 4 moves. If you need a pure flipper use (K A K' A) x 3 to flip L and A.

Step 4. Permute the 3 little edges using The Move with two Edges. (J A J' R) x 2 is a pure 3-cycle K1 to DE to YP.

Step 5. Orient the 3 little edges. (L A R) x 2 flips DE and YP. (J A J' R) x 2 (A K A K') x 2 is a pure flipper of K1 and YP.

Step 6. Solve the centers 1 or more at a time using (J A J' A) x 3 (W L W' L) x 3 which cycles Bottom > Back > Right. The setup move W' R W swaps the centers on the right and back so the cycle is reversed.

(J A J' A) x 3 is a 5-cycle. Right to Front to Left to Top to Back. 

If the 3-cycle is only going to solve one piece why not solve one piece using the shorter 5-cycle instead?

Now that I have re-figured out the puzzle, it is time to have some fun with it for a while before moving on to other scrambled puzzles in the cabinet. :)

Thanking God for Past and Present

Today when I was splitting some firewood and bringing it to the porch it dawned on me that this must be "the last hole." When the boys were all home (before they grew up and moved away—far far away) we played a lot of frisbee golf in the front yard. Trees, rocks, bushes, the swing set, and the little ditch beside the porch—these were the holes. Over the years the course has changed somewhat. The rosemary grew over the rocks. The swingset is now on the south side of the house holding a bird feeder instead of swings. The big oak fell down one storm. We had the oak that was the last hole and the driveway pine tree cut down during the winter of 2019.

I brought some of the last hole oak to add to the fire and said a prayer of thanks. Thanks for all the fun times the four of us had together playing frisbee golf, and thanks for the firewood to warm the house on this cold spring day.

Today I also found by the shed an old flattened chewed up water bottle and gave thanks for the great fun Molly our dog was. She loved to grab a plastic water bottle and race back and forth across the hill with it, tossing it up and catching it as she went. And when she was close enough for me to make a move for it, it was a fun game of keep away that she always won. Such energy. Such enthusiasm.

Red Twist 3x3x3 Puzzle

The Red 3x3x3 Puzzle has the same scramble as the normal puzzle

They both have a checkerboard pattern 

They are both solved

Qubami Sticker Mod

Today I transformed a Stickerless colored plastic cube into a Qubami. More specifically, into my Qubami. Years ago I bought a Qubami from Kelvin Stott. It was a unique puzzle that had 3 colors, 3 symbols, and was one of a kind. You could solve it by color, solve it by symbol, or solve it with 3 colors and 3 symbols in every row and every column on every side. I read today that it could also be solved with every color on every row and column, and every symbol on every row and column. My original Qubami story.

Some time between then and now our house was broken into and some of my puzzles were stolen, including the Qubami. I haven't thought much about it since. I don't know what got me to thinking about it this morning, but I decided to find a picture of my old Qubami if I could. Found it in my Google Photos page.

I have some cube stickers in my desk that I have had for years. I have a Sharpie pen. I picked out 3 colors, put the symbols on them, and applied them to one of the 20 $2.25 cubes that I bought at speedcubeshop.com a few months ago. First I thoroughly scrambled the cube so the stickerless cube solution would not be a solution to the Qubami stickers. It is not as pretty as the original puzzle, but it works! I have my Qubami back.

 

Dobrá Voda Forest

The 7 of us recently went on a walk to and through the local forest. It was great! Well, it was great in spite of the ticks or whatever those little bugs we got were. They looked kind of like ticks but none of them attached so I'm not sure. We got them all off while they were still crawling around.

Cubing With The CZ Kiddos

All three kiddos have joined in the cubing fun this summer. I remember when I taught Roark how to solve a cube and Roriana had fun exploring on her own with patterns. Here I am teaching 7-year old Annie how to solve the cube and Alex and David enjoy exploring patterns. Alex is also getting into solving a little as he has learned UFDG, which I will explain shortly. Even David can put a short scramble on the cube and get it back to solved.

I have made a page about our cubing and included it in the menu bar. Go to page.

Trees, Rocks, and a Park

We have been here a little over a week now. A couple days ago I left the house for the first time. The kiddos wanted to take me on a walk to the climbing tree.

Eventually we made our way to the rocks nearby.

After playing on the rocks we went back to the trees where we were greeted by a friendly little dog. We also ran around in the field and saw a fun tree.

Can you see the child in the tree in the picture above?

Can you see the child in the tree in the picture above?

Finally we walked to the park.