TIL - How to Solve a Rubik's Cube

The ultimate in frustrating toys. You have most likely played with one yourself, for a while it was fun and challenging; Twisting and turning the blocks, maybe getting one side solved.

Then you found out that no matter what you did, you couldn't get more than that 1 side. This is where the fun strops and you realize the Rubik’s cube is probably the most frustrating toy in existence. This has now ended up in a box, completely scrambled and the only time you saw it solved was when you pulled it out of the packaging.

Here is a secret

Listen close to this one:

The Rubik’s cube cannot be solved by intuition alone

The simple 3x3x3 has some 100million trillion possible combinations, and roughly only 2 thousand ways to solve. The chances of solving the Rubik’s cube by randomly moving the pieces are impossible.

So you need a strategy.

This strategy is based on following a process of steps while recognizing patterns and most importantly - the algorithms.

I used a beginner’s guide and after a split session of over 5hours, I finally solved it! Although some might consider this cheating, it definitely was a struggle to learn the terminology and process. After learning the algorithms and practicing, I solved it another 2 times, without help, with the last time of less than 20 minutes. I am feeling confident on trying more advanced methods for quicker solve times.

Once you learn how to solve it, you can then have fun with your new toy. Which I must admit, is completely addicting. Once you solve it, you want to solve it faster. Apparently, people are so obsessed with solving it with record speed that there are Rubik’s cube competitions.