How to Solve a Rubik's Cube | WIRED

in a recent episode of almost impossible I looked at the limits of speed cubing an event in which people compete to solve a Rubik's Cube as fast as they possibly can and in the course of reporting that piece I actually learn to solve a Rubik's Cube myself with help from Tyson mouse co-founder of the world cube Association in a little under two weeks using the method now taught me I went from not being able to solve a cube at all to being able to solve it consistently in just under a minute now some of you asked us to post a step-by-step tutorial on how to solve the cube and maybe you've also heard it said the true mastery of a subject is achieved by teaching it to somebody else so in the spirit of that Maxim I'm going to show you the method that I used when learning to solve the cube in this video you're going to learn the fundamentals of cubing how to hold and manipulate the cube how to read cube notation and how to solve the cube in eight steps all you need to follow along is a scrambled cube now if this is your first time solving one I would budget about an hour plus or minus fifteen minutes to your first solve I know that's a long time but the more time you spend practicing the quicker those times will come down and they do come down pretty fast at least in my experience finally there are many ways to solve a cube this is just one of them it's not the fastest it's not the best it's not the easiest by any stretch it's just the method that was taught to me by a co-founder of the world cube Association and the method that I use to bring my times down to under a minute ready let's begin so before you move anything here are some concepts to keep in mind that will make solving the cube easier the more you practice number one when solving the cube try to bear in mind that you're solving four pieces not stickers what do I mean by that most pieces on the cube actually have more than one sticker on them so if you try to solve a cube by only solving four stickers you'll quickly find that while you might be able to solve for one face the other faces won't match and that's because not all pieces on the cube are alike there are three types edge pieces like this one have two stickers they look like this corner pieces like this one have three stickers and they look like this and center pieces at the middle of each 3x3 face have one sticker these centerpieces are attached to an axle inside the puzzle so they never actually move on this cube for example the white center is always opposite the yellow center the orange center is always opposite the red center and the blue center is always opposite the green center and that's an important thing to keep in mind because the fact that these centers don't move meaning that they actually dictate where all of the other pieces need to go now this concept was a little confusing to me the first time I heard it but I promise the more time you spend with the cube the clearer and more helpful this idea will become finally many people think of the cube is being comprised of six phases but another way to think about it is that it's comprised of three layers a top a middle and a bottom today we're gonna focus on solving the cube one layer at a time if you've already forgotten everything I just said that's totally fine you can just go back and re-watch it for now it's enough to have these ideas floating around in the back of your head so with all of that stuff in mind let's get started the first step in solving the first layer of the cube is to make what cubers call a daisy it's called making the Daisy because when you're finished you should have something that looks like this a yellow Center surrounded by four white edge pieces so how do we get from here to here well you start by finding the yellow center the goal of this step is to surround this yellow center with four edge pieces of the opposite color which in this case is white if you've never solved the cube before it is very tempting to just start turning faces at random in hopes of placing an edge piece where you want it to go but I want you to resist that impulse I'm gonna give you two tips that will help me position those edge pieces logically the first tip is that there are only four white edge pieces that's it remember you're moving pieces not stickers and there are only four edge pieces on this cube with white sides to find them all you have to do is inspect the cube in your hand once you find one pause think about the turns that you'll need to move to place it beside the yellow Center for example here's a white edge piece to place it beside the yellow Center all I have to do is this turn that right face 90 degrees here's another one to get it beside the yellow Center I need to turn it here and then up trust me the first few times I solved the cube this process was not intuitive to me at all but making the Daisy becomes second nature very quickly the more you practice the second tip is that once you have a pedal to the Daisy in place you actually won't have to remove it from beside the yellow center to put any of the remaining pedals in place that's what I'm going to do now and you should do the same when you're done your yellow Center will be surrounded on all four sides with white edge pieces like a daisy don't worry if you have a white corner piece as well we'll get to that in a second the second step to solving the first layer is to create the white cross when you're finished with this step you'll have a face with what looks like a white cross or a plus sign sort of depending on how you look at it start by looking at your Daisy if you've got white on any of your corners remember just ignore them for now we're gonna focus on the four petals that reside on the edge pieces each of these four edge pieces has two stickers one and two by rotating the top face of the cube match the non-white sticker from each of those edge pieces to the center piece of the same color so for example the non-white sticker on this edge piece is orange I'm gonna turn the top face until the orange sticker is aligned over the orange center like so once you've matched the sticker to the same color Center rotate the face with the matching Center two times moving a white daisy petal from the top face of the cube to the bottom I'm now going to repeat this step three more times once for each of the remaining Daisy petals so I've got the red center I'm gonna match that with this red edge piece here turn it twice I've got this green edge piece I'm gonna match it with the Green Center and turn it twice and I've got this blue edge piece that I'm gonna match with the blue Center and turn it twice when you're finished you're gonna have a white cross on the bottom of your cube like I said before don't worry if you've got white corners as well for now you're just looking for this configuration right here one more tip to keep in mind that white cross is gonna stay pointing down for the entire remainder of the solve we are finally ready to solve the very bottom layer of the cube when we're finished with this step the bottom layer of the cube will be solved and as a bonus the bottom face will be solved as well but before we start let's pause for a quick lesson on organ onyx that's how to hold and manipulate the cube with the white face pointing down place your left thumb over these four squares and your middle and ring fingers over the four squares on the opposing face now position the middle and ring fingers of your right hand on these two stickers up here and your right thumb on the underside holding the cube this way allows you to do two things first it lets you rotate the right face freely and easily conversely swapping the position of your hands allows you to rotate the left face as well and second it lets you use your index fingers to rotate the top face when you string these rotations together you get two of the most fundamental moves in cubing the first sequence is called the right trigger it looks like this using your right hand rotate the right face ninety degrees away from you use your right index finger to pull the top face towards you by 90 degrees then use your right hand to rotate the right face ninety degrees back towards you with your left hand it looks like this use your left hand to turn the left face away from you by 90 degrees use your left index finger to pull the top face towards you by 90 degrees then use your left hand to turn the left face back 90 degrees towards you now calls this three move sequence the left trigger the right and left triggers are the most fundamental moves in cubing the more you practice them the faster you'll get we're also going to use these triggers a lot for the remainder of the solve starting right here in step three remember the goal of this step is to solve the bottom most layer of the cue and to do it we're gonna search for white stickers on the top layer that are facing outward we want to solve the parts of the first layer that aren't already solved which are the corners that have white stickers so we'll be looking for those and placing them one at a time now you might find that the cube you're holding has a white sticker on the top face of your cube in fact we actually see that here on this one you also might have a white sticker in this bottom layer if you see either of those things don't worry about it we'll get to those in a second for now just focus on white stickers on the sides of your top layer so you have a white sticker it's on a corner piece corners have three stickers ignore the top one instead identify the color to the side of your white sticker in my case that sticker is green and it is diagonally matched to a red Center what I want you to do now is rotate the top face until the color beside your white sticker which in this case is green diagonally matches to the center of the same color if your corner sticker is oriented to the left of your Center sticker you're going to use your left hand to perform the left trigger by rotating the left face away from you pulling the top face towards you with your left index finger and then rotating the left face towards you if the corner sticker is oriented to the right of the center sticker you're going to use your right hand to perform the three move sequence by rotating the right face away from you pulling the top face towards you with your right index finger then rotating the right face towards you you're gonna perform this move again search the top layer for outward facing white stickers like this one identify the color next to it align that color until it is diagonally matched to the center of the same color and perform the appropriate right or left-handed trigger move here it's to the left of the center sticker so I'll use the left trigger same thing here left same thing here now there are a couple unusual situations that can arise during the third step and they didn't actually happen on the cube I was using to solve so I'm gonna use a demo cube to show them to you here the first is an outward facing white sticker on the bottom layer instead of the top if you run into this situation simply find the sticker and determine whether it's on the right or left side of the face you're looking at if it's on the right side perform the right trigger by turning the right side 90 degrees away from you pulling the top 90 degrees towards you and then rotating the right face back 90 degrees towards you this reposition is the white sticker from the outside of the bottom layer to the top of the first layer which is actually edge case number two if you find a white sticker on the top face rotate that top face until the white sticker is directly above that is to say opposite a non white sticker on the bottom face of the cube to help you see what that looks like this is what I mean this white sticker on the top face of the cube is currently directly opposite another white sticker on the bottom face of the cube you don't want that so what I want you to do instead is rotate the top face until the white sticker on the top is directly opposite a non-white sticker on the bottom in this case that sticker is blue next determine if the white sticker is on the right side of the cube or the left side if it's on the right side like it is here perform the appropriate trigger move but instead of doing it just once do it twice once twice now the white sticker that was right here is on the top layer facing outward and I can solve it by matching the adjacent sticker to its coloured Center and performing the appropriate trigger move which in this case is a right trigger continue performing the appropriate moves until there are no more white corner stickers to solve for I'm going to do that on my cube now I have two that are facing up so I'm going to match this over a non white side pull the trigger two times repositioning them to the side this is to the side of a blue sticker which is diagonally matched on the right to this so I'm going to perform the right trigger this is beside an orange sticker and to match that to it's orange Center it's to the left so I'm going to perform the left trigger and I'm done when you're done the entire bottom layer will be solved and as a bonus so will the bottom face on to step four the goal of this step is to solve the second layer of the cube when you're done your cube will look something like this these first two layers completely solved first search the top layer for edge pieces with no yellow stickers once you find one match the edge piece that's facing towards the side with the center piece of the same color when this top sticker is appropriately matched you'll have an upside-down T so for example this is an edge piece with no yellow stickers the sticker facing the side is green I'm gonna rotate this top layer until the green piece is Center matched over the same color I've got my upside-down T so I'm gonna look at the sticker on the top of this edge piece and see whether it matches the left center or the right Center in this case it matches the right center so I'm gonna use my right hand to first pull the top face towards me 90 degrees and perform the right trigger I've displaced the white sticker so I'm gonna use the sticker beside it orange diagonally match it to the center of the same color and because it's on the left side I'm gonna use the left trigger to place it back on the bottom just like in step 3 if at any point the sticker on the top of your edge piece is color matched with the sticker on the left side instead pull with your left index finger then perform the left trigger and fix the displaced white sticker as you wouldn't step 3 continue solving for edge pieces on the top layer without yellow stickers until the second layer is completely solved occasionally you'll run into an edge case like this one where there are no edge pieces in the top layer without yellow stickers and yet the middle layer is not solved in cases such as these you need to pull these middle pieces out by performing the left or right trigger and then solve for the edge pieces without yellow stickers as you normally would here's what that looks like there are no edge pieces in this top layer that don't have yellow stickers and yet the second layer is not solved so we need to fix this piece here it's on the right side of the cube so I'm gonna use my right trigger to pull it out I'm gonna fix the white piece that we just displaced by diagonally matching with the red Center here it's on the left side so I'm gonna use my left trigger now I should have an edge piece in the upper layer that doesn't have a yellow side that's this one right here notice it's the one I just kicked out like before I'm gonna take the side that's facing out and match it to the same Center got my upside down tee I'm gonna look at the top sticker it's red it's red on the right face so I'm gonna use my right hand to pull the top once towards me then perform my right trigger again I've displaced this white piece so I'm gonna move the red diagonally match here it's on the left side I'm going to perform my left trigger and now my second layer is entirely solved alright that brings us to step five the goal of Step five is to create a yellow cross on the top of your cube but before we do let's pause for a second to discuss cube notation cube notation is what cubers use to describe algorithms and algorithms are the memorized sequences of moves that they use to solve the cube quickly F stands for the front face of the cube relative to you B stands for the back l stands for left R stands for right D stands for down and U stands for up if you see a letter it means to turn the corresponding face clockwise by 90 degrees relative to the perspective of somebody looking at that face head-on so this and this are clockwise rotations of the right and left faces respectively similarly if you see a letter followed by the number two it means to turn the corresponding face two times for a total of 180 degrees so for example you two would mean to turn the upper face two times if the letter is followed by an apostrophe that is to say a prime symbol it means to rotate the corresponding face counterclockwise by 90 degrees for example L prime means to turn the left face 90 degrees counterclockwise like so I know all of this sounds like a lot and that's because it is but with practice reading and following notation becomes a lot more straightforward so now that you know cube notation it's time to learn an algorithm the notation for it is as follows F u R u prime R prime f prime if you're looking for a mnemonic you can call it for Earth the goal of step 5 is to make a yellow cross and when you're done the top of your cube should look like this if you have no yellow edge pieces perform fir earth f u R u prime R prime F prime if you have two yellow edge pieces such that they form a line with the center piece orient the line so it faces up and down relative to your perspective and again perform f u R u prime R prime F prime if you have two yellow edge pieces such that they form a backwards L turn your top layer until the edge pieces are at the 12 and 9 positions on a clock and perform f u R u prime R Prime at this point you should have a yellow cross on your top face on to the next step the sixth step is to solve the entire yellow face begin this step by inspecting the top face of your cube how many corners have yellow stickers you'll never have three but you'll have either 0 1 or 2 if you have 0 or 2 rotate the top face of your cube until there is a yellow sticker in this position right here if you're holding it in your left hand it's in the upper right hand corner of the left face like that once that yellow sticker is in position perform the following algorithm R u R prime u R u2 R prime again if you have either 0 or 2 corner stickers like we do here position this top layer such that there is a yellow sticker in the upper right hand corner of the left face and again perform the algorithm R u R prime u R u2 R prime if you have your yellow cross and only one yellow corner it'll look like there's a fish on the top face of your cube rotate that top face so that the fish's mouth is pointing down and to the left relative to your perspective and perform the algorithm again R u R prime u R u2 R prime you might have to orient the fish and perform this algorithm one last time but once you do you'll have solved the yellow side onto step 7 the goal of step 7 is to position the corners of the cube to perform this step inspect the top layer of your cube you want to be looking at the uppermost corner pieces of each face so here and here here and here here and here and here and here for step 7 we're gonna be learning a new algorithm I'll be using this cube to demonstrate it goes like this l prime u are you prime L u R prime R u R prime u R u2 R prime now you'll notice that the 8th step of this algorithm actually undoes the seventh step which is weird but it actually makes this algorithm easier to remember and that's because the entire second half is exactly the same as the algorithm we learned in step 6 got it good now occasionally you might find that none of your faces have matching corner pieces like on this demo cube and if that's the case just perform your new algorithm l prime u R u prime L u R prime R u R prime u R u2 R prime if one of your faces has matching corner pieces like we do here hold that face in the left hand and perform the algorithm l prime u R u prime L u R prime R u R prime u R u2 R prime now look you're definitely gonna have to memorize all of these algorithms if you want your time is to really come down but the more you practice the less sort of clunky and the more natural they'll become at this point all of your corner pieces should match if they don't you might need to perform step 7s algorithm one more time now rotate the upper face so that the corner pieces match up with the rest of the cubes faces there's just one step left to go alright this is it the eighth and final step the goal of this death is to position the edges of your cube if none of the sides is solved just hang tight and we'll address that in a moment but for now if one of the sides is completely solved like we have here face it away from you now inspect the edge pieces on the remaining three sides they should be just slightly out of position so for example this orange piece really wants to be here this green piece really wants to be here and this blue piece really wants to be over here to swap these three edges in a clockwise fashion you'll be performing a new algorithm it goes like this f2 u R prime L f2 l prime R u f2 to swap the three edge pieces in a counterclockwise rotation perform the algorithm f2 u prime R prime L f2 l prime R u prime F - alright so what do you do if none of your sides are solved simple perform the counterclockwise algorithm once reposition the cube and the performance again that looks like this f2 u prime R prime L F - L prime R u prime f2 now you'll have one solved face point that away from you and perform the counterclockwise algorithm a second time f2 u prime R prime L f2 l prime R u prime f2 now your cube should be solved and that's it you're done you solve the cube like I said at the top this might be the kind of thing you have to watch multiple times and really try several times over before you really start to get the hang of it but I'd say after about the first half dozen solves you should be able to do this without watching the video and the more consistently you solve it after that the more dramatically your times will start to come down

Channel: WIRED

Views: 18,733,132

Rating: 4.7201324 out of 5

Keywords: rubik's, how to solve a rubiks cube, rubik's cube, rubik's cube solve, rubik's cube how to solve, solving a rubiks cube, rubik's cube solving, rubiks, rubiks cube cubing, cubing, rubiks cube tutorial, tutorial rubiks cube, wired rubiks cube, rubiks tutorial, how to solve a rubiks, rubiks cube solve, rubik, rubiks cube solveing, how to solve rubiks, rubiks cube solution, how to do rubiks cube, rubiks cube help, rubiks cube strategy, rubiks cube lesson, rubiks cube wired, wired

Id: R-R0KrXvWbc

Length: 24min 12sec (1452 seconds)

Published: Thu Sep 05 2019

Reddit Comments

[u/cubbiesworldseries]

Really like this, but want a slower version of some of those moves.