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How To Solve The Rubik's Cube: Notation
How To Solve The Rubik's Cube: Notation
com/how-to-solve/
The necessary steps are listed below. Click on a cube to jump on the page to the selected chapter:
An important thing to note is that this task is not a light one. It may require several hours of attempts. If
you'd rather just solve the cube in your hand and forget about it rather than being able to solve any
cube you're given, there are plenty of solvers available on the web. However, the satisfaction of holding
a completed Rubik's Cube in your hand and thinking “I did that, and I can do it again” is greater than
most, mainly due to the fact that the puzzle has been present in all our lives at some point. By the mid
1980's, an estimated fifth of the world's population had attempted to solve the cube. If you want to
stand out and say that you can defeat the puzzle, time and determination is a large factor.
Notation
If you're still reading, congratulations on not being
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How to Solve The Rubik's Cube https://rubiks-cube-solver.com/how-to-solve/
There are six sides on the puzzle, referred to as Up – Down – Left – Right – Front – Back
faces, all of which can be turned individually: Up,
Down, Left, Right, Front and Back.
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How to Solve The Rubik's Cube https://rubiks-cube-solver.com/how-to-solve/
There is an advanced notation which includes turns of the middle layers, rotations and “double” turns,
but these aren't needed for this guide. If you're still interested in learning them, check them out in the
advanced Rubik's notation.
Try it yourself! Take your cube and perform the following short algorithm:
The left, back, and lower faces might be confusing at first when trying to figure out the clockwise
direction, but with a little practice you'll get used to it.
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How to Solve The Rubik's Cube https://rubiks-cube-solver.com/how-to-solve/
For now, just get each white edge on the top layer.
It doesn't matter if the white bit is on top at the
moment. For example, your cube could look like the
one pictured. It doesn't matter if all of the white bits
are facing up or none of them are.
F R' D' R F2
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R2 L2 U2 R2 L2
Now you've done the edges on the white face, all that's left are the corners. This step is much
simpler, as it only requires one algorithm. The picture shows the end goal of this step.
Bottom
If the corner is on the bottom of the puzzle, perform
the required D moves so that the corner is in the
position marked in pink on the picture. Perform this
algorithm as many times as is needed to put the
corner in its place:
R' D' R D
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Top
If the corner is on the top of the puzzle, hold the
cube so that the corner is in the position marked in
purple on the image, and perform the same
algorithm as before:
R' D' R D
Repeat this process for each corner until the top layer is solved. I suggest you to start with the corners
in the bottom layer because solving these first might pop out some white pieces from the top layer and
you might save a couple turns.
Look for an edge that is on the top face and doesn't have yellow on it. There's a very small chance that
there won't be any, but there are instructions for that case below. Perform a U move so that the colour
on the front face of the edge is matching with the centre. There are two directions that the edge could
go, left or right.
Left: Right:
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If the edge needs to go in the gap to the left of If the edge needs to go in the gap to the right of
it perform the following algorithm: it do this:
If there are no more edges left on the top layer, then they are probably either inserted in the right place
but flipped, or inserted in the wrong place. To get an edge out of somewhere it shouldn't be, just insert
one of the yellow edges into that slot. This should get the edge out and on the top layer, ready for you
to use the above instructions to insert correctly.
We're going to solve the top layer edges in two steps. In this step will orient all of the pieces so
that the yellow face is facing up for all of them. The next will move these pieces around and thus
solve the cube.
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Ignore the corners for now. You want to look at the edges only. Either none, all, or two of the edges will
already be oriented correctly (the yellow part is facing up).
These are the four possible edge positions that you can have:
If the edges are solved in a plus shape like the cross we made at the start (the last image), you can
skip this stage.
Beside the solved cross you can also have a “Dot”, an “L” shape or a “Line” as pictured above. To
transform the Magic Cube from one state to the other, you have to apply the following short algorithm,
watching out for the L shape and the line to be positioned as required:
If you are in a hurry you can speed up the process by doing two jumps at once with this:
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When you have an “L” shape, where the two yellow pieces showing are adjacent one another. Do the
required number of U or U' moves to get this L as shown in the picture: the corner that the two edges
trap needs to be in the top left. Then perform this algorithm:
The third image shows the “Line” shape, where the two yellow pieces showing are opposite one
another. Make sure that the yellow bar (the two edges and the middle sticker) is horizontal, then do:
For the “Dot” case shown in the first picture, just do either of these algorithms to get a different case.
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Here, we're looking at the colours that aren't solved. There are 21 different cases for the top layer, but
we only need a couple of algorithms to solve them all. The first thing we want to find is headlights. Only
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Sune and antisune Headlights are fairly simple to spot. Looking at the
image, we can see on the right hand side that the
orange edge has a green corner on either side of it.
That is a set of headlights. The left hand side has
two different colours on either side, so that is not a
set of headlights. It is very important to note that a
full bar (a blue edge has a blue corner on either
side of it, so all three pieces are blue) is also seen
as a set of headlights. This is only seen in one case
of the 21 though, so you won't see it often. If you
have a set of headlights on each side, ignore this
part and read the section titled “The U
Permutation”.
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You want to hold the cube so that the set of headlights is facing away from you (do the required number
of U moves so that the headlights aren't on the front, left or right). Then, do the following algorithm:
You should now have either a solved cube or a pair of headlights on all sides.
The U Permutation
If you have a solved bar, put it at the back and do this algorithm:
If your cube isn't solved, do it one more time, making sure the bar is still at the back.
If you don't have a solved bar, do the same algorithm from any angle. This will leave you with a solved
bar, so you can do the above.
Congratulations! You've solved the Rubik's Cube. Wasn't that hard, was it?
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