How To Solve Rubik’s Cube

Erno Rubik created the Rubik’s Cube in 1974 as a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry. It took him a month to figure out how to solve the Cube on his own. 

Over 350 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold worldwide, making it one of the all-time best-selling toys. For over 40 years, the Rubik’s Cube has tantalized and enchanted people.

Here are some facts about the Rubik’s Cube that you should be aware of. Some of these points may appear trivial at first, but each provides some insight that will become clearer as you spend more time with the cube.

• There are six sides to the Rubik’s Cube.

• The center of each face defines it. When the cube is solved, the face with the blue center will eventually be blue.

• The centers do not move. White is typically the inverse of yellow, blue is typically the inverse of green, and red is typically the inverse of orange.

• Corner pieces have three stickers, while edge pieces have two. When attempting to solve the cube, keep in mind that you are moving pieces rather than stickers. Another way to look at this is that a red sticker on a corner piece will never move to an edge position.

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Things to Consider Before Solving the Rubik’s Cube

You will need to turn the cube’s faces to solve it. Each face is represented by a letter. The presence or absence of a prime (‘) symbol indicates the rotation’s direction.

R is for Right Face.

Face on the left: L

U is an abbreviation for “upward-facing face.”

D is an abbreviation for Downward-pointing Face.

F for the front face

B on the back face

R, L, U, D, F, or B denotes turning the corresponding face 90 degrees clockwise.

R’, L’, U’, D’, F’, or B’ denotes a 90-degree counterclockwise rotation of the corresponding face.

R2, L2, U2, D2, F2, or B2 denoted a 180 degrees rotation of the corresponding face.

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Steps On How To Solve the Rubik’s Cube

Step 1: Wrap the yellow center with four white edge stickers.

Step 2: Match the non-white sticker to the center piece of the same color for each petal. Turn the face with the matching center two times after it has been matched. Repeat this process three times more, the cube’s bottom face will have a white cross when you’re done.

Please keep in mind that the white cross will be at the bottom of the screen for the remainder of the solution. Something has gone wrong if you find the white cross elsewhere.

Step 3: Look for white stickers on the top layer that face the sides; each white sticker should be on a three-sticker corner piece. Rotate the cube’s top face so that the sticker next to the white sticker that is also outward facing (but not the top sticker) diagonally matches the center of the same color.

When you’ve matched them up, turn the color-matched stickers toward you. Perform the Right Trigger if the matched sticker in the top layer is to the right of the center. Perform the Left Trigger if the matched sticker is to the left of center.

If you have a white sticker facing up, place it over something that isn’t white (because it will disrupt whatever is underneath) and, depending on whether the piece is on the right or left, run the following algorithm:

R, U, R’, R, U, R’

Or

L’, U, L, L’, U, L

If you have an outward facing white sticker in the bottom layer, face it toward you and position the cube so that it is in the bottom left or bottom right corner of the side facing you, then perform the left or right trigger to relocate it to the cube’s top face.

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Step 4: Identify top-layer edge pieces that do not have yellow stickers. (If it has a yellow sticker, it should be on top, not in the middle.) When you come across an edge that does not have a yellow sticker, rotate the top face of the cube until the outward facing sticker on that edge piece is directly over the center piece of the same color.

Look at the upward-facing sticker on that edge piece once it matches. That sticker will go in the center of either the left or right side.

If it is on the right, use the following algorithm:

Right Trigger + U

This will cause the first layer to be disrupted. As in step three, replace the displaced white corner sticker.

If it is a match on the left, run the following algorithm:

U’ + Left Trigger

This will cause the first layer to be disrupted. As in step three, replace the displaced white corner sticker.

There are times when there are no edge pieces in the top layer without yellow stickers, but the middle layer is not solved. In such cases, perform the left or right trigger to displace the is-matched middle-layer edge piece. There should now be an edge piece in the top layer that is not covered by a yellow sticker. Solve the problem as described above.

Step 5: If your top face has no yellow edge pieces, perform ***F U R U’ R’ F’. If the two yellow edge pieces on your top face form a line with the center yellow piece, orient the cube so that the three yellow stickers form a vertical line and perform ***F U R U’ R’ F’. If your top face has two yellow edge pieces that form a backwards L, rotate the cube until the edge pieces are at the 12 and 9 positions on a clock and perform ***F U R U’ R’ F’. The top face of your cube should now resemble a yellow cross.

Step 6: Inspect the top face of your cube, how many corners have yellow stickers affixed to them?

If you have zero or two, hold the cube with your left hand so that a yellow sticker is in the upper right hand corner of the face, and perform the algorithm R U R’ U R U2 R’.

If you have one yellow corner on top, it will appear as if there is a fish on the top face of your cube. Rotate that face until the fish is pointing down and to the left, then run the R U R’ U R U2 R’ algorithm.

You may need to reorient the fish and run the algorithm one more time. Once you’ve done that, the yellow face will be completely gone.

Step 7: The algorithm L’ U R U’ L U R’ R U R’ U R U2 R’ swaps corners A and B. It is worth noting that the eighth step of the algorithm reverses the seventh. This is done on purpose to make memorizing the algorithm easier: R U R’ U R U2 R’ is the same algorithm that you used in step six.

Use this new algorithm to place all four corners correctly. If you need to switch two corners diagonally, run the algorithm once, then reposition and run it again.

Step 8: The following algorithms will cycle the positions of the edge pieces labeled X, Y, and Z clockwise or counter-clockwise:

F2 U R’ L F2 L’ R U F2 (clockwise)

F2 U’ R’ L F2 L’ R U’ F2 (counter-clockwise)

If one face’s edge pieces are already correctly positioned, rotate that face away from you and run the algorithm that will cycle the remaining edge pieces in the appropriate direction.

If all four edge pieces are misaligned, run the counterclockwise algorithm once, then move the side with the solved corners away from you and run it again.

Originally posted on March 22, 2022 @ 9:25 am