I learned how to solve a Rubik's Cube

The Rubik’s Cube is an iconic 3D combination puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. The cube is a rotatable 3D grid of rows and columns of brightly colored mini cubes, solved when every cube face has the same colored squares. It has a fun minimalist geometric design similar in appeal to other modern pop culture hits like Lego, Tetris, and Minecraft. Hundreds of millions of the cubes have been sold worldwide, making it one of the world’s best-selling toys.

The original-size (3x3x3) Rubik's Cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible permutations, but only 1 solution. Having 43 quintillion configurations means that if you made 10 random turns per second, it would take an average of 137 billion years to solve the puzzle by chance. In competition, elite speed-cubers average just shy of 10 turns per second, so our theoretical cube solver would have to turn even more nimbly than the most brilliantly honed cube solving minds on Earth can do… but for over a hundred billion years. No sleeping, no eating, just twisting the cube at elite blinding fast speed forever and ever, watching stars explode into supernovae, solar systems collapsing, and the heat death of the universe. So, randomly twisting and turning will clearly lead you nowhere in a mere human lifespan. Clearly some thought or knowledge must go into solving the puzzle.

I got a Rubik’s Cube for Christmas when I was a kid, probably in a stocking as a little mini gift next to a pack of gum and some socks. I may have twisted it around a couple of times, getting absolutely nowhere, and joking about taking all of the stickers off and rearranging them to complete the puzzle. It’s a satisfying tactile experience to twist the rows and columns around, but I gave barely an ounce of thought to actually solving the puzzle. Puzzles like that were outside my comfort zone and I didn’t even know where to begin with solving it. So, I put it on my shelf as a fun retro decoration (the Rubik’s Cube reached its peak in popularity in the 1980s) and let it collect dust for years and years.

Stumbling upon Mike Boyd’s Youtube channel and the many challenges he has taken on with cubes made me feel like I could and should learn to solve the original cube. Watching him, a self-proclaimed “average guy”, go from solving the simple 2x2x2 cube to learning to solve the 5x5x5 cube and the 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube blindfolded (!) made me feel energized to give it a try myself. Mike explains that cubers use memorized algorithms rather than pure genius level problem solving to solve the cubes. As long as I put in a little effort and memorized some sequences, I could have ownership of a cool party trick for the rest of my life.

I decided I wanted to solve the standard 3x3 cube in under 3 minutes like Mike did. I thought it would be cool to have the cube go from a complete mystery to something I am capable of solving. I mean, it’s kind of sad to have an unsolved puzzle just laying there for over a decade on your shelf with no serious effort ever put into it. I wanted to satisfy my curiosity, get those squares perfectly lined up, and unlock a new skill. I looked online for a tutorial and found an excellent guide from Wired. This video taught me how to solve any 3x3 cube consistently in under 3 minutes:

The WIRED video teaches you an algorithm that has eight steps:

1. Make the daisy (3:05 in the video)
2. Make the white cross (4:45 in the video)
3. Solve the bottom layer (8:09 in the video)
4. Solve the second layer (12:22 in the video)
5. Create the yellow cross (14:57 in the video)
6. Solve the yellow face (17:36 in the video)
7. Position the top layer corners (19:11 in the video)
8. Solve (21:31 in the video)

The video teaches you cube notation (15:05 in the video) and teaches you 4 algorithms to memorize:

1. F U R U' R' F' (Step 5)
2. R U R' U R U2 R' (Step 6)
3. L' U R U' L U R' R U R' U R U2 R' (Step 7)
4. F2 U R' L F2 L' R U F2 (clockwise situation) or F2 U' R' L F2 L' R U' F2 (counterclockwise situation) (Step 8)

The video contains an overwhelming amount of information. When presented with complicated projects, I think it's smart to just focus on one step at a time. So when I was learning, I just tried to master each step one day at a time. I got down step one until I could do it in my sleep. I then built upon that foundation by completing steps one and two over and over again on day two. Steps one, two, and three on day three. And so on. I'm sure many people could learn it all in one day, but I like to make things a little less overwhelming for myself by learning bite sized chunks and letting the power of time accumulate skills. It's way easier to show up and stay consistent when you have a small task to face rather than a big nasty mess of things to do.

Each step was so satisfying to accomplish. Learning the steps gave me a rewarding buzz. The first time I got the entire thing done was extremely satisfying, seeing all of the colors lined up perfectly in order. Eventually I memorized all the steps and didn't need to reference the video anymore. I built my muscle memory until I didn’t have to think about the algorithms. With practice you can solve it almost unconsciously, barely even registering what your fingers are doing anymore. It is so cool to see how something as cryptic as F2 U' R' L F2 L' R U' F2 can go from being something you have to strain to remember to becoming unconscious muscle memory in your fingers.

Once I could consistently solve it with muscle memory, I started timing myself. I tried to beat my time each day subsequently until I could reach my goal time of 3 minutes. I got there and then eventually got to where I could solve it in about a minute and a half. The host of the WIRED video says the algorithm got him to consistently solve cubes in under a minute. My cube is old and has a lot of friction between turns, so maybe I could get there if I had a cube that serious cubers use. It might take a bit more practice to reach the world record of 3.13 seconds though:

I have really enjoyed my introduction to the world of cubing. It has shown me yet again that hard problems can be broken down into small steps and tackled one at a time until a seemingly magical skillset is developed. I am impressed with humanity and our ability to solve problems and learn complicated things. There are a ton of amazing videos of people solving cubes on the internet that blow me away. There are people that can solve 3 cubes while juggling them at the same time, there is a 3 year old girl who can solve it in 47 seconds, there are people solving 21x21x21 sized cubes, and more. It's a fascinating rabbit hole to go into on the internet. After learning how to solve the puzzle in a beginner friendly way, I can see the appeal of cubing. I look forward to taking on more puzzle challenges in the future.