Rubik's Cube is 30 this year. Ever solve it? What's your best time?

The Game Room
1

I’ve been thinking about the Rubik’s cube lately. Last year I was ordering some Christmas presents from ThinkGeek, and also picked up a Megaminx (“Rubik’s dodecahedron”) to give myself (because no one else would think to). Or maybe Santa left it in my stocking. I worked at it for a while, but it was half-done for a long time. Anyway, I finally got around to solving it a few weeks ago, and I’ve been thinking about the Cube since. I just realized it came out in 1980. Where are all the news stories? Where are all the other Game Room threads?

I was the first in my high school to have one. I had read about it in (IIRC) Scot Morris’s Games column in Omni magaine, and thought “Wow, that looks so cool!”. I was watching for it, and when it showed up in an ad, I got my Mom to take me to the store that night to get one. I remember carefully playing with it for a while; Do three moves, and undo them. Do four moves and undo them. Do five moves and undo them. Do five moves and un… um… oops. It was small enough, so I took it to school the next day, and got lot’s of “What’s that.” comments. Actually, I took it to school for a while.

I think I was the right age when it came out to solve it on my own. Too young, and by the time you were old enough, someone would have shown you how. Too old, and it’s hard to find the time. And now, of course, you can just Google and find dozens of solutions.

Or maybe not. Were you pre-high school or out of college when it came out, but managed to solve it before reading or being told how?

What’s your best time? I wasn’t very fast, but I don’t recall if my best was just over or just under two minutes. I remember there were kids in my high school (probably the next year) who could do it in under a minute. Here’s the World Cubing Association’s world record page for solving Rubik’s Cube and many related puzzles (including the Magaminx). Think you can beat 30.94 seconds? That’s the world record blindfolded, including the time looking at it befoe putting on the blindfold. (For a normal solve, it’s just over 7 seconds.)

I bought my son his own Rubik’s cube a couple years ago, and warned him not to look up the answer, since it’d be more satisfying to solve it on his own (he’s notorious for looking up walk-throughs for video games). I don’t think he’s looked for the solution, but I don’t think he’s really tried to solve it either. :frowning:

Oh well, I have another son left.

2

I think I could do it in under 1:30, at my best. Didn’t figure it out on my own, someone in my high school showed me.

A few years ago, I saw someone solving one and using a completely different method than the one I knew. He said his was faster.

That thing that fascinated me when I first saw the commercials wasn’t the puzzle aspect of it, but how it worked. I could see that any two pieces could be adjacent, or not, so they must not be physically connected to each other. So, what held the whole thing together?

3

Never was able to do it (without peeling the stickers off) and until now, I never knew there was a ‘method’ for solving it.
Same with those square puzzles with that you slide the tiles around on. They frustrated the hell out of me.

4

Best time–thirty years and counting.

5

Never, I read a web page that had the basic strategy but I never got around to it.

6

I too was the target demographic. I blame the cube for the fact my Grade 10 marks were the lowest of any other high school year. I solved it for the first time between my math exam and my english exam. Managed to put it away until after exams to REALLY figure out how I had done it. My best time was also in the 2 minute range. I remember being annoyed when “the book” came out. I had invested so much time in figuring it out and the book came out only a month or so later. Sigh. Of course, those who used the book hadn’t really solved it … they just knew how to do it.

Anyone else ever take a friend’s cube and pop out one square and rotate it so it was impossible to solve. I am sure I am not the only evil one :wink:

So does anyone else still NEED to fix Rubik’s cubes they find messed up? I didn’t solve it for about 10 years and it took a while to remember … but then the muscle memory took over and it was no problem. Now I make sure to solve it at least once a year. Although my kids don’t have any appreciation for the cube since they can always just ask me to fix it. Kids these days!

7

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8

I picked one up and memorized the solution about 5 years ago. It would take me around 15 minutes. Unfortunately, I’ve forgotten how to do it, and the solution I chose is a bit uncommon. I don’t think the website that provided it is around anymore.

9

I was ten when the Cube came out and, being a total geek, was completely into it. My best time was about 1:40, using my own method which I worked out (which I don’t think was actually all that efficient - it was bottom layer, then top layer, then middle. I don;t know anyone else who does it like that).

I used to own about a dozen cube-like things of various descriptions (dunno where they’ve gone) - my favourite was a 5x5 cube. That was hard

I have a favourite Evil Thing to do with random cubes when I find them hanging around. I turn them into a checkerboard … except not using the opposite sides for the pattern, but making it out of the sides next to each other. Meaning anyone who picks it up thinking that they’ll get it back to normal in 6 moves will be … disappointed.

(where’s the Evil smiley when you need it?)

10

I was such a dweeb at school. I was 13 when they came out. A friend showed me a solution (definitely not the best one) in New Scientist magazine, which I learned.

Then I charged people 5p to solve a cube for them.

I charged 25p to show them the moves.

Then I plagiarised the solution in a little self-published book called “The Cube Route” (geddit?) that I sold in the school bookshop for 50p.

My record was just under 1 minute 30 in a competition, I think. I took it apart beforehand and lubricated the bearings with powdered graphite.

11

I think around 1:45 was my best time. Certainly under 2 minutes.

I’m a bit out of practise now.

12

I could never figure it out and still could’nt. I am doing good to get one side one color.

I knew a kis that made a marijuana pipe out of one. the bowl was in the center with the stem out to the side. Beautiful work that was, hit like a horse.

13

I found a book that explained how to do it years ago, though I was ashamed to admit I had it. Funny how the young mind works. I’ve never timed myself, though. I still don’t feel like that’s the point.

I’ve recently considered taking it up again, just to see if I can work out how to do it from these rather terse instructions in Latin.

14

I’ve been solving it for 29 years now, have had a bunch of different cubes - had a collection of 30 at one point.

My best time was ~24 seconds when I was 13 or 14 (about '81-'82) - which would have been good enough to win the regional competition - had I not found out about until AFTER it was held and discovered the winning time was 35 seconds :slight_smile:

Nowadays, a standard official off-the-shelf 3x3x3 cube I can solve in generally 90 - 120 seconds. If it’s been prepped (broken in and lubricated with a silicon lubricant) it’s closer to 60-75 seconds.

15

I memorized the solution that came with the book. My best time ever was 2:19; when I was practicing my average was about a minute longer than that. If handed a scrambled cube today, I could do it in under 5, assuming I could recall the moves and which one applied to which situation. :slight_smile:

ETA: I used a standard off the shelf cube with no lubricants.

16

Holy crap. **unswashed brain **could be posting for me. That’s almost precisely what I was preparing to type in this thread.

The only thing that I wouldn’t swear to is my best time … I haven’t touched one of those things in almost 30 years. I can’t remember what I had for lunch yesterday, let alone my best time on the Cube.

17

I think my best time was about 27 seconds.

18

Pretty much ditto, though I think my fasted was a little slower (2:33 or so)

Good God, I’d have no hope. I’d probably remember a few of those moves and would certainly get 2/3rd of it done, but very much doubt I could seal the deal these days.

19

When I was in high school, I had a booklet that gave a method that did the top face, then the middle layer, and then the bottom. I found the method for the top and middle simple and logical, and memorized it early, but then it got into “Look at the bottom face. If it looks like this picture, do this. If it looks like this picture, do that”, and I always had to go back to the book for that.

Now, I have a method that I mostly developed myself, but I used a sequence of moves a friend showed me. Basically, I get a cross in the center of each face solved, and then I use a sequence of moves that permutes corners while leaving the edges untouched to finish it. My best time with this method is about 3 minutes, but it’s usually closer to 5.

Even before I learned to solve it, one of my favorite things to do with it was to take some simple sequence of moves, and repeat that sequence until the cube cycled back to its original position. You can get some interesting patterns that way, along the way.

In addition to the standard Rubik’s Cube, I also have a 4x4 and a 5x5, but my usual method doesn’t generalize to them, so they’re both currently sitting on my desk in a half-solved (I think) state (I started at one corner and worked my way out from it). I also have a tetrahedral puzzle, which is much easier than the Cube and which I figured out how to solve entirely on my own as a kid, and a thing called a Square One which is square in the solved state but which is cut on odd angles so it takes on weird shapes when scrambled. That one, I can reliably get back to a cube, but I haven’t yet been able to solve the colors. And I’ve worn out at least three Rubik’s Magic puzzles, at which I’m an absolute whiz.

20

I used to be able to solve it - but had to be taught how. I am not sure I still could. I never timed myself