I would love to be a cuber if only I could work out how to solve one. I have tried reading and watching videos but it does not make sense. I did have a lesson from a cuber but only got halfway. I hope you have fun cubing.
I tried when they first came out. I've never been able to understand them. Whatever it is you need to see, I don't see it. I expect it is a bit like sudoku or logic puzzles, once you see the patterns it is not so hard.
I tried when they first came out. I've never been able to understand them. Whatever it is you need to see, I don't see it. I expect it is a bit like sudoku or logic puzzles, once you see the patterns it is not so hard.
Discover them myself? God, no! Great minds have been working on this problem for decades and have come up with a huge variety of "algorithms". There's even a database of algorithms that lists many different ways of solving each of the little patterns. You can pick whichever ones feel most comfortable for you.
You start with a "beginner's guide" (or two), learn about 9 algorithms through repetition and then you'll always be able to solve the puzzle—just not particularly quickly, as you'll have to repeat some algorithms a few times to solve some patterns. The more algorithms you learn, the fewer of those repetitions you'll need, so the faster you'll solve the puzzle (on average).
As I mentioned below, my other tip is to buy a "speed cube". They are cheaper than the household-name brand and much, much, much nicer to use.
Give it a go. It's like fidget stimming with extra dopamine! Easily worth the investment of £5–£10 and a bit of your down time.
The basics are quite simple: you learn that when you see a particular pattern, you perform a particular "algorithm" (a sequence of moves). Keep doing that and you'll solve it. There's no magic involved.
The patterns are just simple arrangements, like two corner pieces on the same layer having the same colour, and things like that. You learn the algorithms off by heart and repeat them often enough that you don't have to think about them to do them (like touch typing). About 9 algorithms of about 6–10 moves each are enough to solve the puzzle. However, you can learn more if you want to solve it faster.
Where I mentioned about being able to solve some parts "by eye", I was referring to a more advanced technique used when trying to solve it quickly. Learning that takes a bit more time and attention to detail, but it's not rocket science.
