How are people able to solve a Rubix Cube in only a few seconds?
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Thing about a Rubik’s cube is the hardest part is the part that most people can do. Just getting one side a full color and having it match on the outside edge. Then the second row. The rest is just algorithms as people have pointed out. I watched a YouTube vid on it before my first solve. There’s just basically 5 or 6 algorithms to memorize and then it’s more or less brainless after that. Each of the algorithms move the block you’re trying to move to a specific place without disturbing the rest of the cube.
Its a bit of a farce. They are allowed to look at it for quite a while before the timer starts and they are then allowed to move it
In seconds? Assuming the understanding of which algorithms or which set of moves to perform is already known in this post, uh, luck, in the amount of moves required is very minimal.
The cubes are also modified to spin much faster. They’ll be lubed or have other alterations so you can quickly and precisely move pieces.
I can’t solve a cube but my husband can. I believe that having a decent cube that moves really easily makes a big difference. His solve time is around 14 seconds but that can double with a cube that doesn’t spin as easily.
Obviously this isn’t as important as knowing how to solve in general but it is part of the speed.
It’s the same principle as learning to play an instrument. The more practice you have, the less time you waste thinking and the faster you become.
Good memory to learn the algorithms (algorithms are on average 8 turns, with some reaching as high as 22 turns).
Good hand eye coordination to turn the cube accordingly (you do one wrong turn followed by all the right turns and you end up with a mess instead of a solved cube).
Good pattern recognition skills.
Finally, practice. A lot of practice. There are more than 90 algorithms in CFOP alone. Some cases are rare, some are common, you need to be able to solve all of them and also need to know what would the cube look like after you have solved this part of the cube. This is called Look Ahead and it comes when you literally solve the cube thousands of time.
I started with the beginner algorithm and was able to solve it in under 3 minutes. Switched to CFOP and got down to under a minute. Personal best is 26 seconds.
Progress comes fast in the starting but slows down super fast.
This is a bit of an oversimplification but it al comes down to practice, once you know how to solve it even with the beginner method you just need a lot of practice to do it fast, also some cubes are better than other in the sense that they are easier to turn and allow you to turn faces even if they are not completely aligned, advanced methods try to optimise by reducing the amount of movement needed or using easier movements even if they are more
There are alot of things happening. You Start the solve with 15 seconds inspection time. So you inspect the cube and think about the start of your solve. Most speedcubers use a method called CFOP. Cross, F2l, OLL and PLL. Those are the four steps they solve the cube.
So they start to solve a cross. They think about the solution while inspecting. You can do that in around 6 moves most of the time. But they try to do that optimal. So they want to use a solution where they can use fingertricks. They want to go from one move to the next.
The second step is f2l or first two layers. You solve the the for corners of the layer you did the cross, and while doing that, you also solve the second layer. You do that in four pairs most of the time. So one corner with the corresponding second layer edge. The top cubers Plan one or more pairs while inspecting the cube. Sometimes they mix the cross solution with Part of f2l so they do the cross while solving one or more pairs.
After that is OLL or Orient last layer. Like the Name says, you Orient the pieces of the last layer. For that you need one of 57 different algorithms.
Last step is PLL for permute last layer. You move the pieces of the last layer to their correct Position. There are 21 cases you need to learn algorithms for.
So the top cubers think about the next step while doing the current one. So at the moment they start a Phase, the know what they need todo.
Ob top of that, they know multiple was to solve parts. For example, they know not only one algorithm per OLL case but multiple ones. With that, they can try to skip one step. If that is not possible, they might be able to force a good case. Ontoo of that, they can do turns really fast.
Even with all of that, World record times are insane. But thar is basically it.
Math.
The rubix cube has a finite number of pieces, color combinations, and move options. And while it may seem there are many different combinations of a way a rubix cube can be “scrambled” a cube is never more than 20 (i think maybe 25?) moves from being solved.
Taking all of this there are “paths” that can be followed that reduce the “jumbledness” of the cube. Kind of like when you leave your home. If you are at your friends house who lives down the road, you probably can walk home no problem. Well, consider you are at that one restuarunt at the edge of town. You might not know the direct route home, but you know how to get to the local shopping center from there, and from the shopping center you know how to get home. What about a cross country drive? got the map out, and you follow the major points and as you get closer to home, you “know” where you can take short cuts and what not.
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