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What's funny is that Rubik developed the thing as an illustration for his lectures on group theory. It was only when his students found out they liked messing with it that anybody thought of it as a toy. Funnily enough, playing with one for long enough seems to give you an innate understanding of group theory.

Had one in the '80s. Never solved it once, unless you count twisting one side around and then immediately twisting it back again. Basically, I have no spatial awareness whatsoever, so Rubik and other mechanical puzzles hold little interest.

My own technique is to pry all the mini-cubes out and reassemble them.

There are several chapters on the mathematics of Rubik's Cube solutions in the book "Metamagical Themas" by Doug Hofstadter. Never managed to wade through these particular chapters, but they're probably useful and well written. The rest of the book certainly is fantastic.

misterblack wrote:

Replicant wrote:I think the Cube looks more intimidating than it really is. I suspect most people could solve it if they could be bothered to sit down and learn the layer method;

Amost anyone could learn one of the methods that are available, yes. But that's not the same as 'solving' it. Working it out yourself takes a rare mathematical/spatial intelligence that very few of us possess - certainly not me!

Yes, you're right there. I suspect most people who can solve a Cube are not really solving it, but have merely memorised a series of moves and configurations and then applied the appropriate moves depending on the configuration. So it's just a feat of memory more than anything.

I don't know about anyone else, but the above applies to me. There's no way I could sit down and work out how to actually solve it for myself. It was hard enough memorising all those moves!

i just want to be able to do it! i just get lost about half way through the method! was going to try again last night but now I can't find my cube anywhere! Think it got bored of being unsolved and left home!

Here's how I learned.

I can do it again now, but takes me about 5 to 7 minutes..

http://peter.stillhq.com/jasmine/rubiks ... ution.html

Type in "pogobat" on youtube. Couple of million views and he's won numerous youtube awards for "How to" videos. I learnt from him and do it with an average of a minute now!

Okay I've worked my time down to 2 minutes and 15 seconds, according to http://www.cubetimer.com/

This is actually really addicting.

Can everyone on here just do it apart from me! Although, I've lost old cubie at the mo!