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Being A Noob About The Rubik’s Cube
By The Mouse Potato | March 9, 2008
Recently, many of us have seen the rise in popularity of the Rubik’s Cube in the Philippines which is really a surprise because the thing had been around for more then 3 decades. Never had I in my time as a human being, had encountered me and my friends getting frenzied over it. What was famous then was only yoyos, balls and very exciting tag games. So on other words I am a noob when it comes to the cube.
So it being a fuzz over the teenagers and some old dogs, I too got myself one. I know WHAT the thing is… Meaning, I know that it is very hard to solve. But I was really curious and I wanted to learn because I saw some high school students around our community solving the thing even with their eyes closed or blindfolded. I said wow that is cool! but then again, nah, a bunch of show offs hehehe. I can do that I guess…
So I ended up at SM San Lazaro the next day to find one. To the toy section at the department store — hwaat!!! gone!? The cubes were all out of stock. I guess people are really on to it. I did found some on National Bookstore but they were too expensive. They are supposedly the ones which are ORIGINALS. hehe… do they transform into a robot or something? hahaha. They are available on 2×2x2, 3×3x3, 4×4x4 and 5×5x5 cubes. Between a 20 pesos one and 400+ pesos cube, I chose the cheaper. I am not a cube master, so I guess would not need the expensive one. (I guess a date with the cashier is bundled with it that’s why it so damn expensive because I remembered the lady to be a hot one ^_^ ) — besides, they both do what they are supposed to do anyway
So I got one (thanks to my friend Rens and her wife for that) a 3×3x3 from none other than the cheap items capital of the Philippines — 168 at Divisoria. As I’ve said, only 20 pesos… Yeah Mr. Rubik I got a fake one just in case I throw it against the wall when the thing drives me mad.
After some tinkering and a lot of help from my cousin Lawrence for almost 5 hours, I finally figured it out and it was not really difficult at all. He taught me about several techniques like the building the cross, followed by the sides and etc etc. My cousin said that he learn solving it by following a technique on a Youtube video. But to further enhance my new Rubik’s Cube solving technique (haha), I googled some more and find this page –> link
The techniques shown there are very easily to follow and similar to what had been taught to me. So if you are reading this and had been amazed how the thing is solved, better try it now.
I know 2 people (both fathers of their families) trying to learn solving the cube. They said why not learn new tricks just for fun. The result, after 3 days they still could not get hold of it but they won’t give up, not just yet. I guess different people really have different levels of knowledge absorption especially when age and interest comes into the picture.
So what really is a rubik’s cube and how did this wonderful invention came to life. Here’s a clip for you to read. This ends my post.. enjoy and ciao!
Tags: 2008, blog, Ether, friends, fun, game, help, history, life, list, mouse, mousepotato, myself, opinions, people, pet, Philippines, Picture, popular, rubiks cube, school, sm san lazaro, special, Teen, text, Thinking Aloud, Toy, youtubeRubik’s Cube is a mechanical puzzle invented by a Hungarian professor, Ernö Rubik, in the mid 1970s. It has been estimated that over 100,000,000 Rubik’s Cubes or imitations have been sold worldwide. The challenge is to be able to return the cube to its original state with all sides consisting of stickers of the same colour, from any position.
A Rubik’s Cube consists of 21 plastic pieces which fit together to form a cube. Standard cubes measure approximately 2 1/8 inches (5.4 cm) on each side. The cube can quite easily be taken apart, although this is not the challenge. The cube is divided into smaller cubes, called cubies. The pieces are assembled such that the entire cube appears to be a 3 x 3 x 3 block of cubies. The 6 pieces which are in the center of each face of the cube are connected by the unseen middle piece of the cube to provide a structure for the other pieces to fit into and turn around. There are 12 edge pieces which have two colored stickers, and 8 corner pieces which have three colored stickers. The colors of the stickers are traditionally red opposite orange, yellow opposite white, and green opposite blue. The location of the cubies relative to one another can be altered by twisting an outer third of the cube 90 degrees, 180 degrees or 270 degrees.
Countless general solutions for the Rubik’s Cube have been discovered independently. Solutions typically consist of a sequence of processes. A process is a series of cube twists which accomplishes a well-defined goal. For instance, one process might switch the locations of three corner pieces, while leaving the rest of the pieces in their places. These sequences are performed in the appropriate order to solve the cube. Complete solutions can be found in any of the books listed in the bibliography. A Rubik’s Cube can have 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different positions (~4.3 x 1019), but it is advertised only as having “billions” of positions, due to the general incomprehensibility of that number. Despite the vast number of positions, it has not been proven that any given position is more than 18 moves away from being solved. Many mathematicians are interested in the Rubik’s Cube because it is a tangible representation of a mathematical group.
Competitions have been held to determine who can solve the Rubik’s Cube in the shortest amount of time. The first such competition was won by Minh Thai of Vietnam, with a time of 22.95 seconds. However, many individuals have recorded faster times. There is no current official record, due partly to the lack of agreed-upon standards for timing competitors.
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