The Return of the Rubik's Cube

SFGATE.com ^ | 8.8.03 | Peter Hartlaub,

[freepatriot32]

Dan Knights has about 150 pounds and a few gazillion brain cells on his Rubik's Cube, but it's not always clear who has the upper hand in the relationship.

Like some kind of time-traveling ambassador from 1982, the 24-year-old takes his cube everywhere, whether he's visiting a friend or his favorite cafe or just walking down the sidewalk near his North Beach home.

[freepatriot32]

i remeber spending hours in my room trying to solve this thing only stopping long enough to go downstairs and watch the cartoon and never did solve it and these damn b*stards can do it in 20 seconds ?

I hope they all get arthritus not that i'm bitter :-)

[AntiGuv]

[Dane]

Oh sheesh, not that thing again.

Next thing you'll know there will be a revival of "That's Incredible" on TV with a Rubik's cube contest, with a rap version of "Pac-Man Fever" as a musical background.

[Welsh Rabbit]

Does anyone remember that horrible cartoon about that family with a talking Rubik's cube with magical powers?

[TrappedInLiberalHell]

My method of solving the cube had a "Captain Kirk/Alexander the Great" kind of quality. I merely peeled the stickers off and put them on to match a solved cube.

[LibWhacker]

'Ya gotta get systematic. You know how you need n independent vectors to build up an n-dimensional vector space? Same thing here: You need a series of small independent manuevers, each of which can accomplish some little thing that all the others combined can't. At least that's my theory and I used it to come up with an algorithm (but a terribly inefficient one) to solve the cube. Took me a couple of hundred moves and about 3 minutes, lol.

I don't know what these guys are doing to solve it in AN AVERAGE time of 17 seconds, though! I was happy just to be able to solve the darned thing. These guys are on the hunt for the ultimate algorithm.

[mtbopfuyn]

Some people need to get a life!




and here I sit at the puter....

[Bubba_Leroy]

Actually, all you have to do is memorize a couple dozen steps and you can solve it without any problem. That's what I did back in the early 80s.

Two different solutions are posted HERE. The second one looks like the one that I memorized.

[Tench_Coxe]

There is another 80's cube that perhaps should make a comeback:

"What's your pleasure, sir?"

[LibWhacker]

Hi, BL . . . thanks for the link! It's interesting to note that this little toy spawned a whole series of unsolved problems in algebra and group theory, and mathematicians still haven't found "God's Algorithm," though it's out there, waiting to be found. The question is how much faster will God's algorithm let you solve the cube on average, 16 seconds?, 5 seconds? Nobody knows.

[WKB]

I bought the book, figured out how to do it, and then threw it and the book away.

[tet68]

I got tired of solving it in 7.62 seconds.

[DonQ]

Actually Rubik did not invent the puzzle, as such. The puzzle already existed - using tiny magnets to hold the blocks together. I don't know who originated that. But Rubik had invented the unusual multiple ball-and-socket joint that is the center of the puzzle. Having invented the joint he needed something to demonstrate it, so he re-produced the puzzle using his joint instead of the magnets.

[Vesuvian]

I think the cartoon was called "Rubik the Amazing Cube."

The sad part is I didn't have to look that up....

[Destro]

Who was smarter? The ones that solved the cube by rearanging the blocks accoridng to the rules? or those that followed Alexander the Great's Gordian Knot solving techniques?

Those of us who popped the cubes out of their slot laughed at those that peeled off the stickers.

[Destro]

You know what sucks? You made me remember it. Damn you!!!

[Vesuvian]

Now you on the other hand had a great show.

How's the Baroness, btw? ; )

[Destro]

Hot, as always!

[Destro]

and treacherous......(I should have added).

[LibKill]

My youngest brother could solve that cube in 60 seconds.

I watched him do it and felt obsolete.