Insight into the world of cubing!

ADVAITH.U
IX A
KENDRIYA VIDYALAYA, SULUR

Cubing!
Ernő Rubik from Hungary invented the magic cube in 1974. When you initially start to learn
the cube, you have to analyse the moves and get into the flow gradually. After you are able to
solve the 3x3x3 cube, the other cubes are comparatively easier. There are officially 45
different types of Rubik’s cubes but hundreds of custom cubes, and I own only 9. If you are
more into creativity then a snake cube is more of your type.
The record for solving the 3x3x3 cube is 3.47 seconds by Yusheng Du from China. I
categorize cubers into 2 types. The first type is, those who learn to solve one cube and focus
on improving their speed on that particular cube. The second type is, those who learn how to
solve a cube and moving on to solve other cubes, trying to cover many cubes but speed is not
their priority. I am more of the second type, I can solve around 9 cubes and I am not too fast
in more than 2 cubes.
Puzzle cubes help in improving the cognitive, hand eye cordination and problem-solving
abilities. They also help in teaching life skills like patience, perseverance, and focus. Any-
hoo if you want to improve the following skills, buy a cube from cubello.com and watch its
tutorial from bright side for best understanding.

My hands on deck experiences.

I got in solving a Rubik’s cube at the age of 11, when my mother was trying to solve a 3 by 3,
which was older. My mother got into the second layer where she got stuck. I caught up with
her as I knew how to solve just a side, since I was 7. As she saw my interest in cubing she
brought me a good sticker less 3 by 3, which I learned with the link given above. I aced
through all the steps but just other than the last step which was hard to do and even harder to
remember it. When I did it for the first time, I over exaggerated that movement. That’s when
I realised my potential with this, so I begged my mother to order 1 more cube and I got 3 for
my 12th birth-day. It was a paramix, a mirror, and a 2 by 2. I did the mirror right away as it is
similar to a 3 by 3.then the 2 by 2 which was a shortcut of a 3 by 3 but one extra formula
which was always hard to remember. So I did the previous step over and over again to skip
that 1 step. Then I came up with a hand movement practice step which proved effective and
time saving. Then the paramix. I didn’t know what it was so I gave it my luck test and got to
the last step where I got stuck .
So I watched a tutorial and learned to solve it under 20 seconds! Then I brought a snake cube,
4 by 4, barrel, skube, fisher cube, megamix. I am not expanding the story of these as the
movement I got the cube, went to my bedroom, took my tab and opened a tutorial. I will be
getting out on after I learn it completely. But not the snake cube as it was a ASMR toy for
creativity. Now I am trying to master the skube for a satisfyingly fast solve. At the age of 14,
still continuing my cubing as my hobby.