

(which will, with the center tile, form a cross) The path, for example, of a typical solution for beginners is: The purpose of each step is to (1) place a set of (typically 4) cubes on a target face or an " equator" (located between two faces), (2) in their home position, and/or (3) with the 2 edge tiles or 3 corner tiles all properly oriented so that they match the color of the center tile of each face.


Any (non-trivial) solution involves several steps. There are many ways to solve a Rubic Cube. When all of the corner and edge cubes are in their home positions and properly oriented, then the 9 tiles on each of the six faces will be of the same color (the color of the center tile). Those colored tiles also identify their home position-at the intersection of the 2 or 3 faces which have those colors (on their center tiles). Likewise, each edge cube can be identified by the two colors of its 2 tiles. In this orientation Blue-Green is the verticle dimension, Orange-Red is the left-right horizontal dimension, and White-Yellow the horizontal dimension of depth.Įach corner cube can be identified by the three colors of its 3 tiles.

These color pairs can be used to designate the 3 dimensions of the cube. The blue/green pair, for example, can be top/bottom, left/right, right/left, back/front, etc., but they will always be on opposite sides. Red (right side) and orange (left side) will also be on opposite sides of the Cube. If the front face is white, then the back face is yellow. If the top face is blue, the bottom face will be green. On my Cube the blue and green faces are opposite each other. Therefore we can refer to a face by the color of its center tile. They never move from one face to another. On the other hand, the center tiles-on the center cubes-only spin in place. Here are some examples of a spin on the front face (F): The notation we will uaually use to indicate a spin will be the letter of the face followed by the number of quarter turns clockwise. You can solve any mixed Cube by spinning individual faces 1 quarter turn, 2 quarter turns, or 3 quarter turns clockwise (or counter clockwise). If you spin the F face a quarter turn clockwise, then tiles from the T, R, Bo, and L faces move to the R, Bo, L, and T faces respectively. To facilitate discussion it is usually best to have the Cube's 6 faces oriented in a (temporarily) fixed position-one at the top (T), one at the bottom (Bo), and 4 vertical sides (L=left, F=front, Ba=back, R=right). Corner and edge cubes move separatly (but not independently, of course). That is, for any move and any combination of moves, corner cubes always replace other corners and edge cubes always replace other edges. The entire layer, of course, moves along with the face so that corner and edge cubes also move, rotating around the center. When you spin a face of the Cube, some tiles move from the adjacent faces to other adjacent faces. The Cube appears to be made up of 27 smaller cubes (8 corner cubes, 12 edge cubes, 6 more cubes-one in the center of each face, and 1 cube (which doesn't actually exist) in the center of the Rubik Cube). Each face has 9 colored tiles in a 3 by 3 arrangement.
