[This is the premise behind my blog.
Originally posted to "Solving Cubes" on Tumblr, Feb 10, 2013]
When you first pick up a Rubik’s cube and have the object of the puzzle explained to you, for a moment or two in your ignorance, you may think, “Sure, I can probably do this. Hand it over”
You take it in hand and give it a few turns, get the feel of it, loosen it up a bit. You get one or two squares into what look to be the right places, and you think you’re getting somewhere, if just for a few seconds.
Then you start to realize that when you seek to solve one square, another is thrown out of place, derailed from where you thought it should go. This happens to you several times, and the more you end up thinking about the cube, the less you feel you know. Perhaps you’re the type to persevere for a while, but at some point it is likely to become frustrating enough to put down.
“Fakkit,” you say as you drop it in disgust. “This is impossible.” A statement you almost believe.
“Fakkit,” you say as you drop it in disgust. “This is impossible.” A statement you almost believe.
But then again, on occasion you may find yourself strolling about the world and stumble upon a few people who seem to have it down. Some can even solve it in a matter of seconds, shuffling their fingers around with amazing prestidigitation until, out of nowhere, every square is in its right place.
What have these people figured out that you haven’t? Are you stupid beyond redemption? Are the others just abnormally intelligent, maybe even in a debilitating way?
If you’re really dedicated, you may educate yourself and find that cube-solving techniques are available in abundance. People write books about this stuff, compete with it, debate about which techniques work best, design entirely new, similar puzzles. The cube is an industry. All of this information is suddenly at your disposal.
First you learn how to solve it. You finish your first cube and hold it in your hand, staring at it. You avoid shifting anything out of fear you’ll never see this object so perfectly organized again. But eventually you take the plunge and challenge yourself to repeat history, and, perhaps with some difficulty or a few failures, you succeed again.
After a few months solving the cube out of boredom, you start to realize that it’s not much better than a conversation piece, something to make you looksmart, and you wonder what else you can do with it. You work on solving it faster, learning finger tricks and new algorithms, using lubricants to make it all go more smoothly. Your solving time drops, and then you start learning how to make interesting patterns with it. Can you memorize those, repeat them on command? How fast can you create them, in how many different arrangements of color? Can you create your own pattern? Come up with even faster ways to solve it?
-www.ibnlive.in.com
You come to look at the cube from so many angles. What are the mathematics behind it? What is the psychology behind its being such a significant cultural phenomenon? In what ways could you use it as a form of art? Would exploring Rubik’s cube physics be useful? How might it inspire literature? Are there innovative uses for Rubik’s cube technology that could be harnessed in various fields of expertise? How might it inform philosophy?
- thatslikewhoa.com
Sometimes it feels like your knowledge of the cube is expanding, filling the void that was there before. Other times it feels like the void is larger than you ever thought a void could be.
Sometimes the search is deeply disheartening. Other times it is tremendously invigorating.
We’re all solving our own cubes. Join me, share your tricks, and let’s solve them together.
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