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This is also how people can solve Rubik's Cubes blindfolded: use algorithms that only move a couple pieces without changing the rest of the state. It's suddenly
by patejam 10y ago
This is also how people can solve Rubik's Cubes blindfolded: use algorithms that only move a couple pieces without changing the rest of the state. It's suddenly way easier to keep track the state when only a few pieces are moving at a time.
When I was a speedcuber I could use three algorithms to solve a cube blindfolded after memorizing where each piece needed to go: one to flip two edges, one to rotate two corners, and one that switched two corners and two edges at the same time (T-perm for you cubers).
Then it was just 1. orient the edges and corners in a way that makes them easy to move around the cube and 2. move the pieces where they need to go.
This is a very rudimentary strategy, and there are MUCH faster ways to solve the cube, but this is all you need.
- logicallee 10y agohow long did you have to memorize the cube before being blindfolded, and what was your strategy for doing so?
- patejam 10y agoUnder a minute when I was practicing. I'm sure it'd take me 2-3 minutes now. My last algorithm switched the top right and top left edge pieces (as well as two corners which I'll ignore for this explanation). So I look as the top right edge and figure out where it needed to go to be solved, let's say the front left edge. Now if I move the front left edge to the top left, do my algorithm, and move it back, those pieces will be swapped. Here's where it gets fun: since I know what was originally the front left edge is now going to be in the top right position, I can chain this together when memorizing. So memorizing would sound like "top right goes to front left which goes to back right which goes to..." In practice this was just me pointing to pieces and visualizing everything. Another strategy is to assign a letter to each piece and remember a string of letters. At most the length of the string will be numEdges -1 + numCorners - 1 = 18. And then once it's translated to letters you can use more traditional memorization techniques like Roman Rooms. This is how people can solve dozens of cubes at once blindfolded (I've only done three at a time).
- logicallee 10y agoVery cool explanation - thanks so much for taking the time to write this detailed reply :)