Goal #102) Solve the Rubik’s Cube
September 5, 2009 6 Comments
A couple of weeks ago I woke up, grabbing the Rubik’s Cube from my dresser. I laid in bed twisting and turning the cube in my hands and soon I noticed that I might be on to something. The more I worked, the closer I came to solving the first layer of the cube, something I’d never done before. I worked a little longer and voilà!, the first layer was complete.
Afraid to work on solving the next layer, I admired my accomplishment a while before I began spinning the layers around again. After a few more moves I began feeling as though I had done irreparable damage to my earlier progress. I attempted to work backwards in hopes of repairing my solved layer but only succeeded in further scrambling the puzzle. Frustrated, I set the cube down. I decided that solving the Rubik’s Cube would be my newest goal.
After a week of idly tinkering with the cube I had brushed aside the task as being impossible. Sure, I could now solve a single layer without much effort, but anything beyond that seemed like a pipe dream. It wasn’t until my girlfriend began playing with the cube, conducting Internet searches of techniques of how to solve it, that my interest was again piqued. We watched YouTube videos of people solving it with what seemed to be no effort. I was in awe. I could do this!
One video explained the algorithms needed in order to solve the puzzle and I began studying them. I worked along with the video, and after about an hour of watching, rewinding, pausing & fixing my errors I was closer than ever before in actually solving this great mystery. After I had completed the second layer I smiled to myself with satisfaction, only to be overwhelmed with anxiety that in the next step I would undo everything I had accomplished like I had done before.
Despite my worry, I pushed play on the video and watched, again studying the new algorithm. As I twisted my cube I soon realized that I wasn’t doing something right. Thankfully it hadn’t messed anything up. I rewound the video and watched again, realizing my error. Now I was only moments from solving the cube. I twisted with a fury, as fast as my mind and hands would allow. Right inverted, bottom inverted, right, bottom. Repeat. Next corner; right inverted, bottom inverted, right, bottom. Next corner…
Finally I saw my final move, to align the solved top layer with the other two layers I had already solved. With a great sense of pride I made my final turn and smiled. I had finally solved the Rubik’s Cube, one of my life’s great mysteries.
I could not have solved the cube without the help of Dan Brown’s videos on YouTube. I highly recommend his tutorials to help you solve the cube. The first layer can be found here & the rest of the cube can be found here.
About Steven
*face in hands*
I just spent the past hour and a half on Wikipedia and Youtube reading about and watching videos on Rubik’s Cube, Rubik’s Magic, and speedstacking because of you.
Thanks a lot.
Oh, and grats on achieving another goal.
I did the same thing! I’ve found that after having solved it the first time that the second time came a bit easier. Now I dream about algorithms and solving it again and again and again. I think my new goal is to become a Rubik’s master, able to solve it without watching videos and studying patterns. I already have 1 algorithm memorized so I figure I’m getting closer to doing it on my own.
congrats
Thanks! Its not so hard if you have help from a friend! Haha, now I am working to learn the algorithms so I can do it all on my own…not so easy!
YouTube to the rescue! I just had one of those, back in my day conversations with my kids about the Rubik’s cube.
“Back when I was a kid, you had to figure out Rubik’s cube yourself or have someone show you how to solve it.”
Remember Rubik’s snake?
I don’t remember Rubik’s Snake…I’ll have to Google it! Haha. Things have definately changed with our access to information from even just a few years ago.
In my own school career I’ve gone from gathering information from encyclopedias to being in college with kids who have probably never touched one. I must say though that the ease of access to information has been a very wonderful change. I wonder though if with such ease of access to information if we haven’t become a little less motivated to learn because we don’t really have to. Anything we want to know about we can Google. Have a question? Use your cell phone to text a company for the answer.
I still like to ponder & wonder about the world. I do a lot of reading, even if it is on the Internet. Most of my time online is spent reading something thought provoking. Otherwise I am hunkered over a textbook…
Still, without the Internet I may have struggled with the cube for the rest of my life. At least now I know there is a pattern and memorizing the algorithms won’t be that hard once I sit down and really focus in on it.