# Rubik's Cube world record (video)....16 seconds?!?!?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [October 9, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449 "2003-10-09T07:46:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/1 "2003-10-09T07:46:09Z")
[This is nuts](http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/content_pages/record.asp?recordid=53230)
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### Author:  [@Fern\_Forest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fern_Forest)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 10:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/2 "2003-10-09T10:11:33Z")
Wow!! I guess a well oiled one helps but man, was it a few lucky moves with the aid of skill?
I’m tied for last place in the solving a rubik’s cube at never.
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### Author:  [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 11:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/3 "2003-10-09T11:23:17Z")
It’s been proved that it is possible to complete the cube in 52 moves. Conjecture is that is can be done in considerably less.
My own method takes maybe 120 moves. I might be able to trim that down to 100 or so by eliminating inefficient moves, but that tends to be slower because I have to think more and can’t see what I am doing as well. My best recorded time is 1:16, but I have probably done it in under a minute. There’s no magic to it. It is just a matter of memorising an algorithm.
Things to note from the video.
Efficient method for holding the cube. All fingers are involved.
Efficient technique. There is no turning or rotating the cube between moves.
Well constructed cube. It’s been a long time since I had one that didn’t fly apart when it was spun too fast. And it seems to be well lubricated.
And of course an efficient algorithm as well undoubedtly lots of practice.
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### Author:  [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/4 "2003-10-09T12:30:14Z")
> [@](#):
>
> And it seems to be well lubricated.
Good thing they didn’t show us the foreplay.
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### Author:  [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/5 "2003-10-09T12:38:05Z")
Actually, it’s 36 moves…I’m trying to dig up a cite. My little cousin (7) at the time, could do it very quickly, not sure if it was 16 seconds but very quickly. He used to say it was like learning the alphabet, once you know the sequence it goes much quicker.
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### Author:  [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/6 "2003-10-09T12:40:32Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by j\_sum1 \*
> It’s been proved that it is possible to complete the cube in 52 moves. Conjecture is that is can be done in considerably less.
Actually it has been shown that it can be solved in at least 20-22 moves and it has been offered that it can be solved in as little as 19 moves. I tried to understand the math years ago but it was way above my head.
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### Author:  [@Tommyturtle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tommyturtle)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/7 "2003-10-09T13:13:14Z")
Gee that guy is incredible in the video
I could do it but nowhere that fast
They made other similar Rubiks “cubes”…two I had were a triangle one and one 4 X 4 cube…I managed the triangle one but my face saving thought for not being able to do the 4 X 4 cube was by the time I got that I was bored with it by then
Hey that COULD be why I never solved that one damnit…at least that’s what I tell myself anyway
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### Author:  [@nineiron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nineiron)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/8 "2003-10-09T13:23:57Z")
This brings me back to a time when my brothers and I were young, and my dad bet our barber that my brother could do the cube in 60 seconds or less (knowing full well that he could). We got free haircuts that day.
Sixteen seconds is really impressive.
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### Author:  [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/9 "2003-10-09T15:10:25Z")
Does it matter how the cube is set up before the attempt? Or is that random?
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### Author:  [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/10 "2003-10-09T16:28:37Z")
I was waiting in the Toronto airport not so long ago and there was teenager sitting pretty much across from me that was wearing a T-shirt from some gaming competition that he’d just been to and working a Rubik’s cube. He was damned fast - probably solved that thing 20 times in less than a half hour. Some of them using only one hand. He musta been at the same competition.
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### Author:  [@Freiheit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freiheit)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/11 "2003-10-09T17:04:40Z")
My first thought, when seeing that video, is “It’s gotta be backwards.” And it looks sped up, too. Are those possible? Video doesn’t prove anything.
Oh… it looks like that was the official guinness records website. Never mind.
…But you guys just wait, while I put together an even MORE rubik’s solving video!
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### Author:  [@porcupine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/porcupine)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/12 "2003-10-09T21:19:14Z")
“well-lubricated”
“only one hand”
Bet these kids are good at other things, too. 😃
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### Author:  [@if6was9](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/if6was9)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/13 "2003-10-09T21:34:43Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by porcupine \*
> \*\*“well-lubricated”
>
> “only one hand”
>
> Bet these kids are good at other things, too. 😃 \*\*
But do they try for the fewest moves to completion? 😛
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### Author:  [@j\_sum1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j_sum1)
#### Post date: [October 9, 2003, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/14 "2003-10-09T23:56:09Z")
I’m surprised that it’s been proved as low as 20 moves. My information is very old though. It just strikes me as a very diffiult kind of thing to prove.
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### Author:  [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2003, 8:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/15 "2003-10-10T08:03:06Z")
It’s possible to solve it in one move if your lucky! 🙂
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### Author:  [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2003, 12:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/16 "2003-10-10T12:48:50Z")
Here’s some interesting [facts](http://cubeland.free.fr/chiffres/chiffres.htm) about Rubik’s Cube. And you can go [here](http://www.cs.buffalo.edu/~wli4/rubic/maths/rubik_nts.htm) if you are interested in taking an upper level math class about the cube.
So far I haven’t found anything saying 19 yet. That might have been just a theory, but I have seen 22 moves. I’ve got to stop or I’m gonna turn into a nerd.
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### Author:  [@alterego](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alterego)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2003, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/17 "2003-10-10T18:00:56Z")
[This](http://home.t-online.de/home/Kociemba/homex.htm) is a computer program that can reliably give 19 +1 -1 solutions to the cube.
Depending on the starting position of the cube it could be more or less.
[
> [@](#):
>
> However, Dik Winter has produced a program based on work by Kociemba which has solved each of millions of cubes in at most 21 turns. Recently, Richard Korf (1997) has produced a different algorithm which is practical for cubes up to 18 moves away from solved. Out of 10 randomly generated cubes, one was solved in **16 moves, three required 17 moves, and six required 18 moves.**
]([http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RubiksCube.html](http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RubiksCube.html))
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### Author:  [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)
#### Post date: [October 10, 2003, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rubiks-cube-world-record-video-16-seconds/206449/18 "2003-10-10T21:49:37Z")
A few weeks ago, Martin Sargent’s show on TechTV, **Unscrewed** , had as a guest a person named Dan Knights. Dan solved the cube live on the show in about 20 seconds. It usually takes him about 15, but they didn’t give him the usual pre-solve minute to examine the cube and plan his moves. [Here](http://www.techtv.com/unscrewed/episodeguides/story/0,24682,3505338,00.html) is the show, with links to some cube stuff.