Does anyone here know how to solve Rubik’s cube? If so, when and why did you learn it?
I’ve been trying all my life, on and off, not enough to succeed in anything more than one layer, but more than enough to feel i should have mastered it by now.
My 11yo son, on the other hand, taught himself through a book and some YouTube clips and he is now disappointed whenever he solves it in less than 30 seconds.
He’s the only one i know who can solve it (apart from his best friend, that is), and every time he does, i feel like I’m watching magic. Chaos chaos chaos chaos … oh it’s finished!
Should i be proud of him or worried by own cognitive abilities?
Speedcubing is a fun hobby. I don’t know anyone who has solved a cube fully without instructions.
I took the stickers off and put them back on in order when I was a kid lol
I solved it by memorizing the steps when I was an adult. My son solved it at 8 years old. The young take over from the old. It’s the way of things.
I learnt from instructions in a booklet I found at grandma’s house when I was in my early teens. I have since forgotten how to do the last layer.
This is kinda off topic but I recently started lock picking. It’s fun and challenging, and it gives me something to fidget with. I feel like it’s less challenging than a Rubik’s cube, plus it can be useful if you lose a key. Lots of good how to videos on YouTube as well.
Regarding his disappointment, there are bigger and more complicated cubes. He can also be challenged to create patterns in the cube, like you mess up a cube and he has to match the randomness you created. That’s a fun way to keep practicing those cube skills without the monotony of solving the same puzzle over and over.
You can solve 2 layers with logic. The 3rd requires patterns. You can discover patterns on your own by doing repeated motions until the cube returns to its original state. I came across a pattern that swapped colors on one side. That got me all the way to everything but 2 corners that needed to be rotated. On my own, I never discovered the pattern that rotated corners.
I learned how to do it over 10 years ago but I’ve forgotten since. And I only knew a slow method.
It’s a matter of memorizing a few algorithms, I did it when I wasn’t much older than him. It’s pretty easy to solve the first two layers unaided, but you’re likely to get into the weeds on the last layer without algorithms.
Took me a weekend watching youtube back in highschool. Its not SUPER hard to get it consistent. Look for the pattern, do the right moves.
To do it faster you need to learn even more patterns, which i have not learnt. Like my best time is 59 seconds. No idea how to do your sons 30 second time.
