Do You Hate It or Love It?If you can complete
Rubik's cube then you love it, but if you can't then you hate that piece of plastic with 26 parts and one frame.
For 18 years I fiddled and got frustrated by
cube. When you are young there is lots of time to spend on this sort of thing.
At
age of 21 someone showed me
moves required to solve
cube. I was very pleased but also highly annoyed that it took 18 years for me to find
solution.
I am now 26 and I have done some research on that rigid time waster some people call a puzzle. It is way more than a puzzle!
Many people have studied
maths of
cube, hence
algorithms available on some sites that will solve any cube so long as you enter
colors in correctly.
The maths used in
cube is of a higher form that is studied at school, it is called group theory. Enough of that though!
There are two ways to do
cube. The short way, and
long way.
The long way involves completing one side first and then completing
rest of
cube, using sequences of moves that move certain blocks around. There are a few different methods and they all require you to remember sequences of moves for different situations.
Each person is different and one person might prefer one method over another, but for me
main criteria for a solution is
ease with which
solution can be remembered, so that a couple of months down
line you will still be able to do
cube without having practiced.
The short way involves hours of dedication and a good memory. Sequences of turns are memorized along with what
sequence achieves. The difference here is there are over 40 different sets of moves, and even more depending how determined you are.