Solving Rubik's Cube

Back to Helaman's Academy

Hints

The first hint I can offer seems a pretty obvious one: put the sub-cubes into their proper positions. Easier said than done of course but let me explain. Invariably when someone first attempts to solve the cube they start by trying to assemble a single side. (Incidentally, for some reason the white side always seems to be the one that people try and solve first.) Getting that first side is pretty easy. But invariably, once they think that they've solved that first side they really haven't solved anything at all. What people tend to overlook is that the first side consists of more than just all the white faces; it actually consists of all the sub-cubes that have white faces on them. If the corner sub-cube with the white, red and blue faces isn't next to the edge sub-cube with the white and blue faces and if that sub-cube isn't next to the corner sub-cube with the white and blue and orange faces, and so on, then you haven't really solved anything at all; all you've done is made a uniform pattern on one side of the cube. You're going to have to rearrange every sub-cube on that side before you can even begin to solve the rest of the cube.

When you set out to solve the cube, first solve for one side but make sure that you solve it correctly. When you've done it correctly you'll have all of the sub-cubes in the top layer correctly oriented with respect to each other. This shouldn't be too difficult for you and in fact it's so easy that I won't tell you how to do it at all. Just keep at it and you'll get it. When you're done it should look something like this:

The second hint that I can offer is to learn how the cube moves. A little experimentation can teach you a couple of useful things. For example, notice that the center sub-cubes on each face don't actually move in relation to the other sub-cubes. All they can do is rotate. That's very useful because it means that you can use those center sub-cubes as guides to where the finished faces will be when you've solved the puzzle.

Also notice that corner sub-cubes (sub-cubes with three stickers on them) will always be corner sub-cubes. They can't be exchanged with the edge sub-cubes (sub-cubes with two stickers on them) and vice versa.

The next hint that I can offer is (after you've solved one side) to disturb a piece, put it back a different way and observe what changed. Make a diagram of what the cube looks like before you start. Record what moves you made. Then diagram what the cube looks like when you're done. It helps if you have a good notation system. When I first solved the cube I had a lousy one but I've since been introduced to some very good ones and I'll describe my favorite on the next page.

As to how you go about solving the cube, perhaps this will help: take it in simple stages. There are many strategies for solving the cube but these are the two most popular: top down and corners.

Almost every solution booklet I've seen solves the cube using the top down method. That's where you solve the top slice, then you solve the middle slice, and finally you solve the bottom slice. Personally, I think this is the most difficult way to solve the cube.

The solution that I prefer (and the one that I first succeeded with) is sometimes called the corners method. First you solve the top slice, then you solve the bottom corners, next the bottom edges, and finally the middle slice. And when you get really good, and you want to solve it as quickly as possible then you can do the pure corners method where you solve just the corners first and save all the edges for last. It might seem counter-intuitive at first, but after a while you may come to realize that it's actually quite easy to solve it this way because all of the edges can be easily maneuvered without disturbing the corners.