Rubik’s Cube

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ANKUSH JAIN
PANKAJ JAIN
Just FYI :
y It’s a 3-D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by Professor
of Architecture, Erno Rubik.
y It’s the world’s top-selling puzzle game.
y 22.95 seconds was the time it took the winner of the first
World Championships to solve the cube in Budapest in 1982.
y The current official world record of solving 3x3x3 Rubiks
Cube is held by Erik Akkersdijk which is 7.08 seconds !!
y There are 43 quintillion possible combinations of the cube.
That is 43 million million million!!!
y 22 is the theoretical minimum number of moves required to
solve a cube from any scrambled position
SOLVED 3X3X3 CUBE :
Videos (World Records):

World record 3x3x3 :

World record 3x3x3 Blind-folded :

World record 3x3x3 One-handed:

Solving the Rubiks Cube
There are many ways and optimization algorithms to solve
Rubik’s Cube.

y Layer-by-Layer
y Petrus Method
y Zborowski-Bruchem (ZB) System
y Blindfold- Piece-by-piece

We will follow the Layer-by-layer method, that too of the

Beginner level.
Lets Start :
Notations :
y F – Front face
y B – Back face
y U – Up face
y D – Down face
y R – Right face
y L – Left face
Moves :
Moves contd…
LAYER-BY-LAYER METHOD :
We will solve the layers one-by-one in the order as under :
y Bottom Layer (4 edge pieces + 4 corner pieces)
y Middle Layer (4 edge pieces)
y Top Layer (4 edge pieces + 4 corner pieces)
y Center pieces can’t be moved !!

NOTE : Bring the piece-into-consideration in the TOP LAYER

before applying the algorithm.
Solving the first layer :
y Create the Cross on the Down Face :
Solving the Corner Pieces
y Corner pieces are either in the top layer or the bottom layer

Or just bring the corner piece

above its correct position.
And then apply (RUR’U’)
1/3/5 times.
First Layer is solved !!
Moving on to Middle Layer :
y Find an edge piece in the top layer.(If no such piece is
present, insert any edge piece from the top layer in the
middle one.)
y If white is the down, a correct piece of middle layer will
have no yellow colour.
y Now, by doing only U/U’ moves, orient the sticker of the
edge piece-in-consideration with it’s corresponding centre
colour.
Second Layer contd….
y Only 2 cases are possible now,

URUR’U’F’U’F

U’L’U’LUFUF’
Second Layer Solved :
Solve the Top Layer:

1. Orient last layer

We are just concerned about bringing the yellow
colour on the top face. The side colours are irrelevant.

2. Permute last layer

We match the side colours.
Orienting edge pieces:

Apply FRUR’U’F’ and get

one of the given configs

f RUR’U’ f’
Top Layer, After orienting edges
Orienting Corners :
y There are 7 possibilities now after orienting edges.
y The basic 2 are :
 Orienting Corners contd….

Rotate the cube so that your top face looks identical to one of the above configurations.
AND THEN APPLY ALGO-1 (R’ U2 R U R’ U R) TO GET ONE OF THE 2 BASIC CASES.
After orienting last layer:
Permute corners
y 2 cases are possible.
y Look for the following 2 corner pieces

y Rotate the top face so that these 2 corners go on the Right

face.
y If you couldn’t find such configuration, blindly apply the
following algorithm so as to get the above config.
Permute corners contd…
y Learn this one algorithm to permute 3 last layer corners anti-
clockwise.

x – Rotate cube so that Down face becomes the Front Face

x’ – Opposite of x. Front face becomes the Down Face.
After permuting Corners
Permute Edge Pieces :
y 4 cases are possible.
Apply once to solve
RU‘ (RURU) RU' R'U'R2 one piece
And then look for the
left 2 cases

Apply once to solve

one piece
Apply above algo twice And then look for the
left 2 cases
SOLVED !! ☺
Advanced Algorithms :
PATTERNS :
y Be careful…

R2 L2 D2 U2 F2 B2
References :
y www.worldcubeassociation.org
y http://www.cubestation.co.uk/
y http://www.solvethecube.co.uk/
y http://www.ws.binghamton.edu/fridrich/cube.html
y http://grrroux.free.fr/
y http://www.speedcubing.com/
y http://www.cubezone.be/
y http://www.cubewhiz.com/ **