4 ms·

I'll admit that when I saw the title I thought to myself "yes, I used to brute-force Rubik's Cubes all the time when I was a kid by taking them apart and reasse

I'll admit that when I saw the title I thought to myself "yes, I used to brute-force Rubik's Cubes all the time when I was a kid by taking them apart and reassembling them into a solved cube."

watersb 3y ago
Exactly: we would use a screwdriver. That was my first reaction. Second reaction to this was "Nah, this is brute-forcing like running through all permutations that's not possible I'm not worthy." My third reaction was https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/
- flaminHotSpeedo 3y ago
  My brute force Rubik's cube solving algorithm is to find someone who knows how to solve them and threaten them with brute force until they solve it
DonHopkins 3y ago
Or peeling two stickers off a corner piece and swapping them to change the parity and make it impossible to solve.
- timjver 3y ago
  Simply twisting a single corner piece or flipping a single edge piece achieves that already, without having to mess with the stickers.
  - DonHopkins 3y ago
    Messing with the stickers makes it impossible to solve by simply twisting the corner piece back!
    - dp-hackernews 3y ago
      Not true. Take a solved cube and twist a corner. Now jumble the cube and try to solve. Do you see the problem Now?
      - Karellen 3y ago
        I think the parent commenter's point was that if you change stickers, you can't solve the cube, even if you twist corners. But if you twist corners, you can still "solve" the cube by changing stickers. i.e. changing stickers is "more powerful" than twisting corners.
        deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
        hgsgm 3y ago
        Stickker lermutation a larger algebraic group. Sticker permutation is S_54. The largest you can get whike still looking like a standard twisty cube.
    - dp-hackernews 3y ago
      ...the same is true for swapping two stickers on a corner. If you alter the sequence of colours, you alter the finished pattern. Therefore rendering the cube unsolvable. QED
      - reikonomusha 3y ago
        To be pedantic, we can "alter the sequence of colors" of a solved state into a solvable state, so it's not quite QED. Anyway, I think you're agreeing with the person you're responding to; they're suggesting it's more fun to peel and re-stick stickers precisely because that's a way to achieve states that even mechanical disassembly can't solve.
        dp-hackernews 3y ago
- opan 3y ago
  The good cubes these days are stickerless, using colored plastic.
- jgalt212 3y ago
  I think most folks did this by accident.
  - dp-hackernews 3y ago
    Indeed! I especially liked the exploding Rubik's cubes! - you know, the cheaper ones that you had to put Vaseline onto make them twist easier. Therein lies the problem, if they jammed mid twist, they ran the risk of spontaneous disassembly! :-)
    - DonHopkins 3y ago
      Vaseline will destroy the plastic, so better to use water based sex lube. (If you're a Jordan Peterson fan, you probably don't need it for sex with real people, anyway.)

I'll admit that when I saw the title I thought to myself "yes, I used to brute-force Rubik's Cubes all the time when I was a kid by taking them apart and reassembling them into a solved cube."

watersb 3y ago

Exactly: we would use a screwdriver. That was my first reaction. Second reaction to this was "Nah, this is brute-forcing like running through all permutations that's not possible I'm not worthy." My third reaction was https://xkcd.com/538/ https://xkcd.com/538/

flaminHotSpeedo 3y ago
My brute force Rubik's cube solving algorithm is to find someone who knows how to solve them and threaten them with brute force until they solve it

DonHopkins 3y ago

Or peeling two stickers off a corner piece and swapping them to change the parity and make it impossible to solve.

timjver 3y ago
Simply twisting a single corner piece or flipping a single edge piece achieves that already, without having to mess with the stickers.
- DonHopkins 3y ago
  Messing with the stickers makes it impossible to solve by simply twisting the corner piece back!
  - dp-hackernews 3y ago
    Not true. Take a solved cube and twist a corner. Now jumble the cube and try to solve. Do you see the problem Now?
    - Karellen 3y ago
      I think the parent commenter's point was that if you change stickers, you can't solve the cube, even if you twist corners. But if you twist corners, you can still "solve" the cube by changing stickers. i.e. changing stickers is "more powerful" than twisting corners.
      - deleted 3y ago
        [deleted]
      - hgsgm 3y ago
        Stickker lermutation a larger algebraic group. Sticker permutation is S_54. The largest you can get whike still looking like a standard twisty cube.
  - dp-hackernews 3y ago
    ...the same is true for swapping two stickers on a corner. If you alter the sequence of colours, you alter the finished pattern. Therefore rendering the cube unsolvable. QED
    - reikonomusha 3y ago
      To be pedantic, we can "alter the sequence of colors" of a solved state into a solvable state, so it's not quite QED. Anyway, I think you're agreeing with the person you're responding to; they're suggesting it's more fun to peel and re-stick stickers precisely because that's a way to achieve states that even mechanical disassembly can't solve.
      - dp-hackernews 3y ago
opan 3y ago
The good cubes these days are stickerless, using colored plastic.
jgalt212 3y ago
I think most folks did this by accident.
- dp-hackernews 3y ago
  Indeed! I especially liked the exploding Rubik's cubes! - you know, the cheaper ones that you had to put Vaseline onto make them twist easier. Therein lies the problem, if they jammed mid twist, they ran the risk of spontaneous disassembly! :-)
  - DonHopkins 3y ago
    Vaseline will destroy the plastic, so better to use water based sex lube. (If you're a Jordan Peterson fan, you probably don't need it for sex with real people, anyway.)