SOLVING THE RUBIK’S CUBE

Some Designs you can make once

solved:

Terms and Notation Yes this sounds boring, but without it, you can’t

learn the: Algorithms, Permutations,

Orientations, Formulas, Tricks, whatever you want to call them. (the series of

movements)

TermsParts of a Cube

Corner Piece

Center Piece

Edge Piece

Notation F: Front side (side facing you) L: Left side (facing left hand)

R: Right side (facing right hand)

U: Up (or top) side D: Down (or bottom) side B: Back (or reverse) side

If holding the cube with two hands with one side facing

towards you

Notation (cont.)U

sideL

sideD

side

R side

F side

B side

For those of you who can picture

in 3-D well

Notation (cont.) F, U, L, R, B, D

Seeing any of these mean to turn the

side the letter represents 90°

CLOCKWISE

Notation (cont.) F’or Fi, U’or Ui, L’or Li, R’or

Ri, B’or Bi, D’or Di Seeing any of these mean to turn the side the letter represents

90° COUNTER-CLOCKWISE

Notation (cont.)

F2, U2, L2, R2, B2, D2 Seeing any of these

mean to turn the side the letter represents

180° (either direction, doesn’t matter)

So, can anyone figure out what:

“R-F’-U2-B2-D’-L” Is telling someone to do?

R - F’ - U2 - B2 - D’ - L

Right 90° Clockwise

Front 90° Counter

ClockwiseUp 180 ° Either

DirectionBack 180 ° Either

DirectionDown 90° Counter

ClockwiseLeft 90°

Clockwise

The Cube The Rubik’s Cube is solved

layer by layer by the average solver. Many professional solvers (speed-cubers), have their own special orders that they solve the cube in, but for today, we’ll go with simple.

Steps: Solve First Layer (FL) “Cross”

(edge pieces) Solve FL Corners Solve Second Layer (2L)

Edges Solve Last Layer “Cross” Then from there, there are

many orders you can solve in.

Now, Finally we can start

Step One: Solving the Cross on First layer

The pieces in between the center tiles on these pictures below are called EDGE

pieces. During this step you line up the EDGE pieces with a white tile on them between

the centers with the same colors. This is done on the first layer, usually the

white side.

Step Two: Solving the Corners on First Layer

From this: To this

To finally, this.

To Start: Take an edge piece with a white

(or whatever color you are starting with) tile on it.

Line up the piece so that the white tile is on the first layer.

Layer 2 Your cube should

now look somewhat like this:

And when the second layer is done, it will look like this:

Only Step: Putting second layer edge pieces into place

If this is the case:

U-R-U’-R’-U’-F’-U-F

If this is the case:

U’-F’-U-F-U-R-U’-R’

If this happens solve for case one or two

anyway, and then start at beginning of layer

two.At advanced levels, there is

a formula to fix this, but that’s for another day.

Case 1: Case 2: Case 3:

Visual Example of Second Layer Formulas