F-Skewb Fun?

This puzzle has 3 types of pieces. Experimenting with The Move and the FTO commutator brought it all back. Scramble time!

Step 1: Simple twists solve the 4 little skew corners.

Step 2: Simple slices and The Move solve the 12 center pieces.

Step 3: The FTO commutator 3-cycles the ... uh ... edges(?) ... corners(?)

After step 2

After most of step 3

Solved

Tangram Cube

Instead of waiting years to solve my puzzles like I did before, I want to solve different ones on a semi-regular basis. Some of the puzzles are not so appealing and fun so will continue to just sit in the cabinet and look pretty. But some are more fun so I hope to get them out more.

As I was solving the Tangram Cube today it got down to this interesting 3-cycle.

The setup move turned out to be L W, so the "algorithm" is

L W 3-cycle W' L

where the 3-cycle is the one I documented a couple days ago.

L R W 3-cycle W' R L

would cycle them anti-clockwise.

Shower Frog

What I normally call a Tree Frog, today I'm calling a shower frog. Yesterday we had the twin fawns, one at the back door and one at the front door. Today when I took a shower, a frog came crawling out of the overflow drain, hopped to the other end of the tub, and started climbing up the shower door. Fortunately I had seen it in the overflow drain before I started so I was prepared. I grabbed a container to contain it until I could take it safely to the patio.

Deer Me

This afternoon Marae and I were in the living room when we heard a noise on the front porch. I wondered if a delivery was being made so jumped up to look out the kitchen window. Nope. So I opened the front door and there was a little spotted fawn standing right at the front door. I called Marae and we watched it as it lay down. Crazy!

An hour or so later I decided to go out the back door and around the house so I could get a picture of the baby on the front porch. When I opened the back door, whoa! There was a fawn laying up againt the back of the house just a few feet from the back porch!

Cabinet Full of Solved Twisty Puzzles

Rubik's Rings—Red Blue Yellow Balls on Intersecting Circles (not to be confused with Rubik's Magic)

I know, I know. Yesterday I told myself I was going to put it away and not think about it. But today I felt compelled to get it out and experiment and see if I could codify it. So...

R' moves the right ring down one. R'2 moves it down 2. And so on.
R moves the right ring up one. R2...
L moves the left ring down one. L2...
L' moves the left ring up one. L'2...

If most of the yellows are in the inner section and if your moves do not pull any red or blue up from the bottom, then the only changes will be at the top.

The right outer section has 11 balls. Let's call them 1x to 11x starting at the top.
The left outer section has 11 balls. Let's call them 1y to 11y starting at the top.
Let's call the inner top ball T, and the inner bottom ball B.
Left inner balls we will call -1x to -5x.
Right inner balls we will call -1y to -5y.

The following 5 pictures were each taken after doing the given sequence to a solved puzzle.

R' L R L'

1x > T > 1y

2R' 3L 2R 3L'

2x > T > 3y

6R' 5L 6R 5L'

6x > T > 5y

R' (L R' L' R) R
1y > 1x > 2x

2R' (3L R' 3L' R) 2R
3y > 2x > 3x

After all this analysis I was feeling pretty confident, so gave it a good scramble and started solving. But before long once again I was dazed and confused and all my wonderful analysis was not helping. Directly. But then. Bam! It hit me. Solve the yellows first! That is the key step that I had forgotten. Basically the whole solution strategy is to solve the yellows then use The Move to solve the reds and blues.

So I did it and it was easy to solve. Another scramble. Yellows first. Reds and blues... Now this is interesting...

Tried The Move but they were too far apart and a yellow got outside, so I solved the yellows again then resolved the blues and reds. So, no, I don't have a perfect strategy for solving the above case. Yet.

After fiddling a while longer I can say two things. I'm still a bit confused. But I am confident I can solve it within a few minutes every time.

Last Two Scrambled Puzzles

The one on the right is another Pentahedron. Uranus, to be exact. I followed the instructions in my Solution Guides Pre Fall 2013 and it was super easy. Here they are:
Anti-clockwise Algorithm
RU'RU L RDRD' L cycles the bottom corners anti-clockwise.

Explanation of Algorithm
RU'RU is an EPS from DR to UR to UL. It also cycles 5 corners.
RDRD' is an EPS from UR to UD to DL. It also cycles 5 corners.
In other words the second EPS puts the edges back.
It also puts some of the corners back, resulting in a corner 3-cycle.

Clockwise Algorithm
LULU' R LD'LD R to cycle corners clockwise around the bottom.

Solution Strategy

1. Yellow and Purple Circle Edges. At most 3 twists.
2. Blue, White, Orange Circle Edges. At most 2 twists.
3. Yellow and Purple Outer Edges. Use The Move.
4. Middle Layer Outer Edges. Use The Move.
5. Corners. Use the 10-move 3-cycles built from The Move. (The algorithms above)

The puzzle on the left above is called Rubik's Rings. I remember that I mastered it a couple summers ago when we were in Czechia. But now? I'm still trying to figure it out. When I Google Rubik's Rings I do not get this puzzle. Instead Rubik's Magic comes up. Dumb.

I finally solved it. But have I mastered it again? Far from it! I just fiddled and fiddled. Tried this and that. Finally I tried moving a ball to the other end. It messed up something else. I fixed the top and bam! It fixed the bottom as well.

Rubik's UFO

The last time we were in Czechia, which was the summer of 2018, Raymond bought me some puzzles. One of them was the Rubik's UFO. We had fun with it. As I recall, he figured it out first. Maybe. I had fun coming up with algorithms to do a systematic solve. It's a good thing too. Here are the notes I made that summer.

And here is the puzzle solved.

Qubami

My original Qubami was stolen. In November 2018 I made my own Qubami that is just like the one that got stolen only not nearly as pretty. It is documented in this blog.

Notes from the Solution Guides Pre Fall 2013:
One thing that happens sometimes at the end is that 2 corners need swapped. When this happens, swap them along with 2 identical edges, re-orient if necessary, and you're done.

1. Hold the cube so BO is the center on the bottom.
2. BO GX at Y•
3. BO Y• at GX
4. BO YX YX between these edges
5. Solve the edge above the corner just placed and the two other bottom layer edges.
6. Solve 2 other corner-edge pairs to complete the F2L minus a working corner.
7. Solve the 2 edges farthest from the working corner. 
8. Solve the last 3 edges using EPS.
9. Solve the last 5 corners using commutators.

Let's see if I can follow my old instructions. Yep. Pretty much. Step 8 I ended up using UpForwardDownForwardUpAroundDown (what most cubers call Sune).

Face Turning Octahedron

I didn't get enough sleep last night. I have been trying to remember, or figure out, the FTO today, but so far it has been 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Or sometimes 1 step forward, 2 steps back.

Should I set it aside and come back later? Or look it up? I looked it up. In the Solution Guides Pre Fall 2013 it has an FTO Family page. Family??? Evidently I considered the Rex Cube and the Master Skewb part of the FTO Family. And maybe they should be. I think both of those puzzles were in the nice metal case that got stolen. :(

So here is what the Solution Guide says to do with the FTO:
Corners
Get 3 of one color. The other 3 are either solved or need an EPS to solve them.

Centers

1. Get the White Centers
2. Solve the gray, blue, and red centers using go get it bring it home. Slice Face Slice' Face'
3. 3-cycle the green, orange, purple, and yellow centers home.

Edges

3-cycle all the edges.

How it worked out for me.
Corners. Got 3. 2 of the other 3 needed to flip! I messed around with The Move (EPS) until it worked. Let's see. With a face toward you and a vertex at the bottom, and with the 2 that need to flip on the right do R'LRL' F' to flip them.

Centers. White was real easy. Gray, Blue and Red—The Move. Centers step 3 is sort of vague. It tells what to do but not how to do it. It came back to me. With a face in front with the vertex up you have a right face and a left face showing. You have a horizontal slice. To go from right or left to the other to whereever... yeah. It worked great!

Edges.

Phew! That was rough. Here's the deal. I have to really focus on what I'm doing. It is so easy to mess up and lose progress and have to start over. Maybe I'll try it again in another 7 or 8 years. :) Seriously though, I would sort of like to solve puzzles more often to keep sharp. Think it'll happen? Who knows?

Pyraminx Trignis (Vulcano)

Another puzzle that I felt I could do without notes. And I did. Starting with the 4 big corners ignoring the 3 corner tips on each. Pretty easy. Then the edges using the 8-move commutator. Then the corner tips were easy peasy. A while after the solve while I was doing something totally unrelated I remember that some of the edges could have maybe been paired up and solved like a normal Pyraminx. Probably would have been easier than the way I did it today. Let's look for notes from the past...

It was almost 9 years ago that I wrote about it, and, yes, I did use the pairing technique as much as possible.

Professor Pyraminx

I am pretty sure this one is well documented, but I wanted to see what I could do without looking. What did I try and how did it work out for me?
1. Centers. The 3 pieces around the fixed center.
2. Corners. The 3 edge pieces that go with each corner.
3. Edges that are in the center of each edge of the puzzle.
4. The... uh... edge pieces with 2 pieces, one on each of two sides, that are connected on the edge of the puzzle. I wonder what I used to call these.

On the left you see the scramble I started with. Steps 1 through 3 worked easily enough. Sort of. At first I lost some of the center pieces on step 2, but once I figured it out, it was easy. In fact, steps 1 through 3 can be done with Up Replace Down type moves and The Move. I don't think step 4 can be done without messing up the edges of step 3. I was right about that. See?

In fact edges from both steps 2 and 3 were scrambled. Solving those was easy with The Move. It is solved. So let's compare what I said before with how I solved this time.
2020 solve:
1. Centers using Up Replace Down or The Move
2. Weird edges using 8-move Commutator
3. Edges using The Move

I certainly was thorough with it when I solved it years ago. I named edge piece type and even faces and slices. I came up with algorithms to do pure 3-cycles and 5-cycles of center tips. I came up with 3 different solution strategies. The weird edges can be solved simply at the expense of center tips. The center tips can be solved just like 4x4x4 centers! So either doing that or doing what I did yesterday requires solving 12 pieces using an 8-move commutator and slices.

Gear Cube Extreme

Here is another puzzle I have no interest in trying to remember how to solve. Just look at the notes I made when I figured it out years ago, solve it, and put it away. I found my notes in the Solution Guides Pre Fall 2013 document. I'm adding some (hopefully) minor edits to help clarify things if I ever come back to this in the future.

Since the U and D layers on the Extreme can turn 90˚, U means 90˚, but since R can not turn 90˚, R means 180˚.

Middle Layer
The middle layer is never far from solved. Good place to start.

Corners
Super Square 1; Corners First
May 2020 observation: Over the years I have totally neglected the Super Square 1 and have changed the way I do corners with Corners First. So this is not helpful. Well... it kind of is. The Square-1 thing means get all the whites on the bottom. I remember how to do that. The Corners First thing. If there are two pairs, that is easy. I remember that one. If there is one pair, even though I have a new improved method, it won't work with the Gear Extreme because of 90˚ turns, but I remembered the old one pair algorithm.

Centers
Centers haven't had to be solved individually the last few solves, but during the experimentation phase a double swapper was discovered. With yellow up, to swap Top with Bottom, and Front with Back do (RU2) x 6.

Edges—Permutation
You know how M2U2 M2U2 on a cube does a double swap of edges? R2U2 R'2U2 does a double swap without twisting the edges. R2U2 R2U2 does the double swap while twisting edges.

Edge 3-cycle: (UL' U'R UL'x2 U'R' UL U') (U'R UL' U'Rx2 UL U'R' U)
(top back top back top back-2 top forward top forward top) x 2
cycles DR to DL to UB (based on the crazy 332 corner 3-cycle.)

Edges—Orientation
R x 4 twists all 4 M slice edges 2 notches counterclockwise.
(RU) x 12 twists UF, UR, and DR 2 notches counterclockwise.
The above two along with their families can be used to do any flipping that comes up. Even if only one piece needs flipped, some combination of these can do the job.

Gear Family

I no longer have a Gear Cube. Well, I have a Gear Cube Extreme, but it is so different from the other gear puzzles I have I don't consider it part of the family. In the family are:

Gear Ball — 6 sides
Gear Tetrahedron (triangular pyramid) — 4 sides
Gear Octohedron — 8 sides
Gear Dodecahedron — 12 sides

Although they vary in the number of sides they have, they have some very important properties in common. They all have:

6 Centers (of rotation)
8 Corners (they don't all look like typical corners)
12 Edges (each "edge" has 3 parts: a cog and 2 adjoining pieces)

Thoughts on a solution:

Corners: As far as I can tell corners are ever at most only 4 moves from solved. With the Ball, Tetrahedron, and Dodecahedron it is easy to use this fact to start the solve with the corners, but with the Octahedron, whose corners are only 1 color each, it is not so clear. Scramble it, set it aside for a year or so, then try to start with the corners. It is mystifying. 

Edges: The 3 pieces that travel together are the edges. The cog is the center piece of the edge. It is possible to flip 8 edges. Do (U R) x 3. The edges in the slices between R and L, and U and D, all flip. Also all 6 centers flip. Although the edges of the Tetrahedron are a single color, if they are flipped it is obviously not solved as they jut out from the face.

The edge on the top left does not need to flip. The other two do. Talking about the 2 outer pieces of each edge, not the cog.

To do the middle layer swap thing just do R U2 R', since orientation of the gears doesn't matter yet.

Centers: The centers are the centers of rotation, not anything in the center of a pentagonal face. In my old Solutions Guide it says: "To flip the 4 centers in the vertical slice between R and L do R U F U L U B U." Think about it. (RU spin the puzzle so the front goes to the right) x 4 is another way to see it.

(R U R2 U') x 2 flips all 6 centers, which can be useful if only 2 are flipped, or all 6.

Orienting Gears: 4R or 8R or 12R or 4L or 8L or 12L or 4R' or ... If you solve it often enough you figure out how to minimize moves, but if you don't want to think about it just do R over and over until it is solved.

Okay. I just tried to solve all 4 puzzles. Ball - check. Dodecahedron - check. Tetrahedron - check. Octahedron - Fail. Things actually fell into place nicely at first. I used the centers to get the corners (the big equilateral triangle pieces) and the edges happened to be super easy. Two centers needed to flip so I did the Flip-6 algorithm then the Flip-4 algorithm, but it got locked up part way through and I got messed up and must have turned the wrong faces. It was a big mess. Here is the big problem. When I used the centers to get the corners so that all the centers and corners looked right, the edges can't just be spun into place. Nor can the middle layer swap thing fix them. They are 90 degrees off. Found a fix.

Try R U B R. If that doesn't work, try it again. That should do it. The thing is there are three different ways for the corners to look solved relative to one another, but only one of them is really correct. On the Ball, Dodecahedron, and Tetrahedron there is no question because the corners have 3 colors on them so it is obvious when they are correct. But the Octahedron corners can look right, but there is a one out of three chance they really are right. Make sense?

8x8x8 Cube

This puzzle has the most pieces to solve of all the puzzles in my collection. I have cubes ranging from 2x2x2 up to 8x8x8 at this point. No plans to go beyond. No notes necessary on this one. Just lots of time! 😁

Usually with big cubes I start with the white and yellow centers, then do the corners, then do the white and yellow edges, then do the middle layer edges, then do the middle layer centers. Today I tried something new. After the white and yellow centers I put together all the white and yellow edges, you know, like, 6-piece edges. Now I plan to solve the corners and insert the white and yellow edges. Then I will probably proceed as I normally do.

I solved it, but then decided to play. My BudLCuber Yahtzee with Buddies profile pic needs a change.

The Latch Cube

67 solved; 12 scrambled. 79 puzzles? I had no idea. Now I want one more! 😃

I thought I had only 2 more to solve—the Latch Cube and the Qubami. But I hadn't solved the 9x9x9 cube and there were 9 more in the bottom of the cabinet that are not solved yet. 

The Latch Cube. No way was I going to even attempt it without consulting my notes first. Here is what I found in the Solution Guides Pre Fall 2013:

In July 2013 I set out to see how many of my puzzles I could solve without referring to notes. The Latch Cube understandably was put off until near the end, along with a couple of the Crazy Tetrahedrons. Finally I got the Latch Cube out to give it a go. Here is what I tried and it seemed to work pretty well. I did several solves. 

1. White edges.
2. Green and Yellow black arrow edges.
3. The white arrow edges. That completes all the edges.
4. Corners. 

White edges any old way.
Other black arrow edges using EPS, or Sune, or whatever.
White arrow edges using EPS and Sune.
Corners using the basic 3x3x3 corner 3-cycle to permute them and the Sexy Move Corner Twister to orient them.

Then there is a more complex strategy that I recorded "on or before January 2012."

So it has been almost 7 years since I last solved the Latch Cube, as far as I know. Probably. Yesterday I managed to work through steps 1 and 2 and part of 3. Here it is.

The rest of the edges were not that hard. One time during the corners I messed up and thought I had lost a lot of progress, but I was able to figure it out without too much trouble. Thank You Jesus! Then I was very careful finishing up the corners.

Two More Puzzles

After the 2x3x4 Camouflage Cuboid I did the Gear Ball. It wasn't as easy as it should have been. I was in a hurry to get it done so when it got hard I looked it up. This blog wasn't much help so I got help from the Solution Guides pre Fall 2013 spreadsheet.

Next up: a Crazy Saturn Pentahedron.

With this one also I turn to the Solution Guides pre Fall 2013 spreadsheet as I do not remember how to go about it. These kinds of puzzles never were my favorites because I can't solve them by using intuition and commutators. Special algorithms and methods had to be worked out to solve them.

From the Solution Guides pre Fall 2013 spreadsheet: (If you are looking back months or years from now looking for help, do not use this guide. Scroll down to the one made in 2020.)
Middle layer edges
Circle edges using simple twists. Outer edges using The Move and Zero faces.
If they are placed but 2 need to flip, flip the blue/orange edge column, do The Move with one that needs to flip as piece 1, flip back the blue/orange edge column, do The Move. Repeat if necessary.
If two outer edges need to swap, swap them, then use The Move to restore the inner edges, then restore the outer edges. Perhaps it is easiest to use The Move, if necessary, to make the two outer edges that need to swap include one that is not the One face.
Vertical edges
Get as many Inner edges as possible with twists of the top and bottom. Then use The Move. Inners with the One face; Outers with a Zero face.
Reduce the corners
Cycle the bottom corners using the zero faces. In this puzzle those are orange and blue. So if orange is R then blue is L in the following algorithms.

RU'RU L RDRD' L cycles the bottom corners anti-clockwise. LULU' R LD'LD R cycles the bottom corners clockwise.

With white (1) up, to move the whole corners on the right clock, do L'ULU R'UL' RUR'U LUR.
(Up Around Down Around Down Around Up; Up Around Down Around Down Around Up)
Use one of the zero faces to reduce corners. After using it twice in a row, the other may be used.

I am stumped. Using these instructions I can not reduce the corners! Maybe I should look for another way!

Yesterday was pretty exasperating. Throwing the puzzle in the trash was one option that came to mind. Taking it apart and putting it together solved was another. But I kept trying, and finally figured out a way to reduce all the corners!

Now I should be able to finish the solve. And then I need to clearly explain how to do it so that if I come back in 3 years it will be easier to understand.

When I tried to finish the solve this morning, I messed up and had to resolve the edges, but at least the corners are still reduced. Let's see if I can get it right this time. Oh no! A new challenge. Two purple corners are swapped, and two yellow corners are swapped. Got it!

Solution Strategy 2020

1. Middle Layer
2. Vertical Edges
3. Reduce Corners
4. Solve

Middle Layer

Go for the inner edges first, then use The Move to get the outer edges.

Outer edges using The Move and Zero faces.

On my Saturn Pentahedron the Orange and Blue are Zero faces and the White is the One face.

If they are placed but 2 need to flip, flip the blue/orange edge column, do The Move using zero faces with one that needs to flip as piece 1, flip back the blue/orange edge column, do The Move using zero faces. Repeat if necessary.

If two outer edges need to swap, perhaps it is easiest to use The Move, if necessary, to make the two outer edges that need to swap include one that is not the One face. Swap them, then use The Move to restore the inner edges, then restore the outer edges.

Vertical Edges

Get as many Inner edges as possible with twists of the top and bottom.
Use The Move with the One face to get the Inner edges.
Use The Move with a Zero face to get the Outer edges.

Reduce Corners
Maybe reduced corners can be gained by cycling outer corners around the bottom. If so, do it. R and L should be Zero faces.
RU'RU L RDRD' L cycles the bottom corners anti-clockwise.
LULU' R LD'LD R cycles the bottom corners clockwise.

Maybe moving whole corners around the purple or yellow sides will line things up so reduction can take place.

With white up, to move the whole corners on the right up (clock), do L'ULU R'UL' RUR'U LUR.

With white up, to move the whole corners on the left up (anti), do RUR'U LUR L'ULU R'UL'

Either way, you can think of it as
Up Around Down Around Down Around Up; Up Around Down Around Down Around Up

The laborious (fun?) part about reducing corners involves using the last algorithm to move corners between the yellow and purple sides so that just the right corners are in place to be reduced. With white up twist the orange/blue column to move the desired corner to the other side. Care must be taken to position L and R so that the right corners move and the right corners will be moved back when the orange/blue column is restored. The last 3-cycle of my latest solve illustrates this. See below.

Once 4 desirable corners are on either the blue or orange side you twist that side to reduce corners. Sometimes you gain a little, sometimes more. It temporarily does a double swap of edges, so more corners need to be moved into position on this side to be reduced so that the edges are restored. Fun! (laborious, and sometimes quite challenging)

Solve
Once all the corners are reduced, the same algorithm and technique is used to put them home.
Video of 3-cycle

2x3x4 Camouflage Cuboid

I did not have good feelings about this when I started messing with it, but went ahead and just fiddled with it to get reacquainted before actually trying to solve it. Things fell into place enough to get one side as a flat 3x4 rectangle. I must have subconsciously remembered something about twisting corners because I tried that to flatten the other side, but was unsuccessful. My adventures with this puzzle began in 2014, but in earnest in August of 2015, almost 5 years ago. I documented pretty well what I figured out so today it was fairly easy to solve the puzzle using the partial reduction method that I came up with back then.

Unlike some of the other puzzles I have played with recently I have no desire to scramble and solve this one again. Not at this time. But if I ever decide to scramble and solve puzzles on a regular basis, this one should be in the mix.

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