Every position of Rubik's Cube can be solved in twenty moves or less
cube20.org
cube20.org
When I heard that the solution came from using 52 CPU-years of processing, I guessed that the code was a relatively boring brute-force search. But it appears I couldn't have been more wrong about that.
Approach it very methodically. Learn the algos. Practise. And that's really all. Here're two videos to get started: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvhKNXHQqyM - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaltgJGz-dU
Give yourself about 20 hours to learn and play around, by then you'll have gotten the hang of it and will probably be able to solve most arrangements with ease.
Then, experiment with commutators on the cube to look for ones that have very localized effects. Those are those 'algos' others want you to learn from a book. For example, check the simplest commutator LTL'T' and figure out how to use that as part of a larger commutator that permutes the three corners of a cube.
Yes, it will probably take more than those 20 hours (that can be done faster, I think. You need at most 4 tricks (permute three corners, permute three edges, flip two corners, flip two edges should do), each maybe ten turns to solve any cube), but it will be more fun.
It took me way more than 20 hours to solve my first cube, but the first two times I did it, I didn't even know how to solve it yet.
I've heard mine is not the normal algorithm people are taught. The one I use is totally suboptimal - but that's a wonderful thing. There's forever more to discover. It's actually a brilliant problem for the types of people that haunt HN. I implore those of you who have never tried to give it a shot. And remember, if you look online, you're only cheating yourself.
http://www.wikihow.com/Solve-a-Rubik%27s-Cube-%28Easy-Move-N...
A few years ago I was determined to learn for some odd reason. From watching videos like those linked, I took a week of 2-3 hours after work to be able to reliably solve a cube using one popular simple method.
Now I seem to be able to get close, but can't remember the last couple of steps. Meh.
The accompanying Ruby Gem is pretty useful for learning the two-cycle solution (only requires memorizing 4 algorithms)
Though not everyone has easy access to this resource, this project is meaningful enough to get approved for the resource allocation.
His office is full of puzzle cubes. Now that I've got my own office, so is mine. They're kind of addicting.
There's also a 5 dimensional one and links to all kinds of crazy.
Interestingly, solving higher dimensional cubes isn't more difficult from an algorithm view. Understanding what you're looking at might be a different story!
There used to be a solution online called the "Ultimate solution", the web page I got it from is now sadly defunct. It showed you how to solve the cube with only two moves. The first was a simple commutator, of form FRF'R' and showed how you can use just this one move to get all the edges in place.
If you then place two of these moves together with a similar structure, you get a move that cycles corners. This is of the form (X)U(X')U', where X is an edge commutator like FRF' (example (FRF')D(F'R'F)D'). This one move properly applied will move 3 corners without disrupting edges.
So, the trick to the fourth dimension is to learn a move on the order (C)W(C')W', where C is the inner part (no final move) of the corner commuter above. And so it goes, each dimension only requiring one more move in the same fashion.
Of course, figuring out exactly how to make that move with the interface is the hard part. And the fun.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optimal_solutions_for_Rubik%27s...
Good scientist.
There. Happy?
For example, you have two parents, but that does not imply that, combined, you and all your siblings have more parents than there are in that group of siblings.
Stats: http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/e.php?i=333fm
Speed cubists win despite having to make more moves because calculating these moves can be done very efficiently (and almost instantaneously) by our brains.