Tag Archive for 'cube'

When my brother told me about his obsession with solving the Rubik’s cube, I coul not understand what made the 26 cube faces so special and addictive.  used to mock him for having chosen such a boring hobby. I could not have been more wrong!

This winter, during the holidays, he taught me the easiest and basic trick to solve the puzzle. It was fascinating to learn the algorithm. The first two layers appeared logical and I could understand the sequence of moves easily. The third layer however proved to be the most tricky one as it required me to learn the steps instead of deducing them logically. I had to write them down on a piece of paper, so that by repeated application of the same steps I could memorise them.

Now, having practised the same moves for days, I feel confident of solving the cube. What more, my fingers have got used to rotating the faces so as to align the cubes properly. I hardly ever stop to think. However, I do not think I can yet compete with my brother for speed, he’s much too quicker than I am.

The next step would be to move on to a better and faster algorithm. My brother has been trying it out for a few days now – a method by which you can properly align two faces at the same time, instead of doing them one after another. Probably in a day or two he might tell me the new trick of his.

Let me now get back to my cube …