h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You state that very few people have seen inside the cube.

Everyone I knew who had a cube got fed up with the damn thing and took it apart and reassembled it in the finished manner.
So as far as I know, *everybody* has seen inside a cube!


Rubiks' revenge was a different matter, I had to buy a new one as you had to break that to take it apart

Solving them properly of course is much more satisfying.

I must say that I have in the past used all three of those named manoevers at the end of the article to solve the cube.
I never knew someone had given them a name.
A chance to look even more of a next time I see a cube!

Gnomon - thanks again for helping me solve the bottom layer

Reading this again I realise I use a quite different sequence to solve the middle layer. There is more than one way to skin a rabbit...

I tried your method and screwed up - it helps to practice and learn which cubies to concentrate on as you perform the sequence.

One aspect that could be my source of confusion is the direction to turn the Back or Down face when following a sequence.

I assume it is 'clockwise as if looking at the face in question' rather than 'clockwise with respect to the Front or Up face visible to the solver'. Of course if one becomes temporarily confused as to which face is which when turning another face forwards to decide which way is clockwise oh dear...

Pimms

Clockwise refers to looking at the face in question from outside the cube. If you were inside the cube looking out, it would be anticlockwise.

>>Reading this again I realise I use a quite different sequence to solve the middle layer. There is more than one way to skin a rabbit.

Pimms, the sequence I give here for solving the middle layer is not the one I use myself either. I invented this one specially for the entry, because it is easier to understand than my one, even though it is not quite as quick. The method of flipping the edges given in the entry was also invented specially for the entry.