Rubik's Revenge

I've got a Rubik's problem. Tom got me a Rubik's Revenge for my birthday. It's a 4x4x4 version of the evil cube. With 7.4E45 permutations possible for the 56 components of the cube there is a lot of twisting to do.

Interestingly, it's not too much different to solve than the 3x3x3 cube. Basically what you can do is reduce the 4x4x4 to the same problem as the 3x3x3 by solving the centers and pairing up all of the edge pieces. Once that is done, the two inner layers can be rotated in tandem and solved normally.

Solving the centers and edges only takes a handful of new algorithms. Once you solve a couple of centers that part becomes pretty easy. The first 6 edges are cake too because you have room to store them out of the way once you've matched the pieces. After that things get a little trickier.

It's sitting on my desk at work right now. I've got the cheat sheet for solving it in my "man purse." Sweet fancy Moses I am a dork.

Obsession of the Moment: Rubiks Cube

The new product that I've been working on for longer than I really care to admit is getting ready for it's big public debut at a trade show in a few weeks. As a part of the standard marketing hype, tptb have put the product's logo on a lot of random plastic things to hand out to people who have been sent to walk the show floor like mindless zombies. Most of the swag is bog standard, but one k3wl thing was created: a real live Rubik's Cube with the product logo on it.

Like most everyone alive in Amerika during the 80's, I had one or two of these before. I was more mechanical than mathematical as a kid, so instead of learning to solve the cube I learned to take it apart. I was wicked good at taking it apart too. I felt like I'd lost serious geek cred though when people at the office found out that I didn't know how to solve the cube. I was sort of redeemed when no one else seemed to be able to solve it either, but I think that some of them were faking.

It actually turns out that Joey can solve the thing and can be tricked into doing it in Rain Man fashion by merely leaving a scrambled one on his desk. This goaded me into action. A real geek must be able to show mastery over cheap plastic puzzles. Several google searches later I had read at least twenty "how to solve the cube" tutorials that ranged from memorize these transforms to seriously hardcore number theory.

I'm going with the "memorize these transforms" method. I can do two layers plus orienting the edges on the last face without thinking much so far.

Postscript: I don't know how long it will stick in my head, but I'm solving the cube repeatably in 5 to 7 minutes now without using my cheat sheet. The patterns are starting to make sense too. -- 2007-01-12