3 ms·
As someone who as held national records in the sport of speedcubing, I don't feel this makes it easier to understand, at least if you are going for an instrumen
by rwnspace 4y ago
As someone who as held national records in the sport of speedcubing, I don't feel this makes it easier to understand, at least if you are going for an instrumental understanding of how to solve it. I think the community are pretty good at teaching that now! But it does look extremely cool.
My favourite one-liner for improving understanding is something roughly like 'solve areas made of pieces, not faces made of stickers'. Very much clearer when you have a cube to take apart and put together in the order you would solve them.
- phkahler 4y agoMy feeble record is just under one minute. But I spent a lot of time thinking about how to represent the cube in a computer. Yes think pieces, not stickers. But for a long time I thought pieces had position and orientation. More recently I noticed that if we imagine each piece of a solved cube being connected to the cube center (an imaginary extension of the piece) it becomes clear that rotation is the only real freedom, and if a piece is in the correct orientation it is automatically in the right position! The reverse is not true of course. I don't think this is helpful for humans solving, but for computers it largely takes position out of it. Position does determine which pieces are rotated by any given move though.
- iamben 4y agoAgree with you completely - I can't see how this would help me, but it's very cool to watch! And congrats on the records! I've managed to get just below the minute mark a handful of times and remain in complete awe of anyone sub 60 seconds!
- rwnspace 4y agoThank you, very kind. I myself am in awe of the current best solvers, the difference between my previously world-class average and the records now is massive.