3.1 Memorizing The Cube We can not assume that a corner has already been solved as was the case with the 2x2x2 cube because there are fixed centres on the 3x3x3 cube. To make memorization easier and faster I recommend that you always start o? with a particular face as U face and a particular face as F face (unless the cube looks particularly easy from another point of view - e.g. corners already oriented et cetera) - I use White as Up face and Green as F face. I already discussed memorizingcorners for the 2x2x2- the same principles apply here except you have to remember at least 7 corners as the last one is no longer fixed. I just remember the whole 8 of them as it isn’t too much extra work and provides extra security. Therefore, I will begin here by talking about the edges. First the numbering of the edges. The edges are numbered 1-12 by the following scheme: the edges belonging to the U face are numbered 1-4 according to UF=1, UB=2, UR=3, UL=4; theedgesbelongingtotheDfacearenumbered5-8accordingtoDF=5,DB=6, DR=7, DL=8; the other edges are labelled 9-12 according to FR=9, FL=10, BR=11, BL=12. If you have read the section on 2x2x cubing you will see that I have labelled them according to priority. Thus the U,D faces have high priority (and within these ImakeU have higher prioritythanD), the F,Bfaces havemedium priority (and within these I make F have higher priority than B) and the R,L edges have low priority (and within these I make R have higher priority than L). Then the edges are ordered according to prioritywith a lexicographic order (given 2 edges GH and IJ, GH comes before IJ if G has higher priority than I or if G=I but H has higher priority than J - so UL comes before DF because U has higher priority than D (irrespective of F having higher priority than L) and UR comes before UL because R has higher priority than L). The edges should be memorized in the order that would give 1-12 in the solved cube. Sotheedgepermutation211781210519643hastheUBedge(edge2)inthe UF position(position 1) and the BR edge (edge 11) inthe UB position(position 2) and the DF edge (edge 5) in the DL position (position 8) for example. Technically, you only need to remember the position of the first 11 edges (as the last one is then automatically predetermined). In fact, it is possible to remember only the first 10 edges (or the first 11 edges and the first 6 corners) because the permutations must both be odd or both be even (you’ll be OK if the cube can be solved - i.e. is put together correctly - as the other 2 can then be worked out). If that doesn’t make any sense don’t worry, it’s not essential and in fact for peace of mind it’s better to remember all 12 anyway. In any event you have to remember at least the first 7 orientations (corners) and 11 orientations (edges). So much for position, now we come to orientation. An edge has distinct colours and one of these is higher priority than the other (even using the more primitive priority scheme of high, medium, low - that’s because the priorities are chosen so that the two colours of high priority are on opposite faces (so edges and corners can’t have 2 colours of high priority) and similarly for medium priority and for low priority). Given an edge in a particular position the edge lies in 2 faces (for instance if the UF edge is in the BR position it is lying in the B face and the R face). If the higher priority colour of the 2 edge colours is in the higher priority colour of the 2 face colours (which we take to be the colour of the centre square) then we say that the edge has orientation 1 (is incorrectly oriented) otherwise it has orientation 0 (is correctly oriented). Note that in the solved cube the colour of an edge matches the colour of the face in which it lies so that higher priority,matches higher priority and each edge is correctly oriented. In the parenthetical example above the UF edge is correctly oriented if the U part of the edge is in the B face (as U has higher priority than F and B has higher priorty than R) and is incorrectly oriented otherwise. The total number of incorrectly oriented edges is always even (for a cube that can be solved) so if it isn’t like that then the cube can’t be solved. Memorize the orientation of the edges in the same order as the position of the edges. Thus,ifyouhaveorientation100111010100thentheedges in positions 1,4,5,6,8 and 10 are incorrectly oriented and the edges in position 2,3,7,9,11and 12 are correctly oriented (not that the UF, UL, DF, DB, DL and FL edges are incorrectly oriented et cetera although that may also be the case). Theorientation100101001111doesn’tcorrespondtotheorientationof a cube that can be solved as 7 edges need orienting and 7 is not even - that is 7 isn’t divisible by 2. (Aside: a 3x3x3 cube can be solved if and only if the following conditions are satisfied * The stickers are on correctly (so that if you took it apart it would be possible to assemble into a solved cube). * The sum of the corner orientations is divisible by 3. * The sum of the edge orientations is divisible by 2. * The corner and the edge permutations are either both even or both odd. (A little more technical - if you don’t know what this means don’t worry, you won’t be able to do the neat trick but at least half of the time you should be OK.) (A 2x2x2 cube is solvable if and only if the first 2 conditions here are met.) Thus it is possible to determine just by looking at the cube whether it can be solved and, if not, what needs to be done to make it capable of being solved. Each step is fairly easy to verify (except the last). As a smugness bonus you can take on cubes that can’t be solved blindfolded, get as far as possible (up to one edge badly oriented, up to one corner badly oriented and up to 2 corners needing swapping, which you can assume to involve only the UFR and UFL corners and the UF edge) then if necessary take out the UF edge and do the necessary adjustments to each piece and stick it back in. You need to be careful to get the edge back in the correct way but if someone is tryinng to set you up it should put egg on their faces. Aside 2: Ifyouare curious, thisis howto tell ifapermutationis odd oreven. I’ll just give an example and hope the general technique is clear. It really doesn’t matter about this for blindfold cubing. Saygivenapermutation211781210519643asabove. Start o? with 1 and see what lies in position 1, in this case 2. Then go to that position (in this case posiition 2) and see what lies there, in this case 11. Go to that position and see what lies there - in this case 4. Keep going until you get to 1. This gives what is known as a cycle - in this case we’d write (2 11 4 8 1),finishing at 8 because 1 is in position 8. Next go to the first unused number on the list (if any) and make a cycle from that. In the present case it is 7. 5 lies in position 7, 12 lies in position 5, 3 lies in position 12 and 7 lies in position 3. We get the cycle (7 5 12 3). The next unused number on the list is 10 and we get a cycle (10 6). Finally we get a cycle (9). Theentirepermutationhascycledecomposition(211481)(75123)(106)(9). The order of the cycles is not important, we could equally well write (10 6)(2 11 4 8 1)(9)(7 5 12 3). Also in a given cycle it doesn’t matter where we start so (75123)isthesamecycleas(51237),as(12375)andas(37512),but notas(57312). A cycle is a transposition if it has length 2. Some cycles have even length and some have odd length. A cycle is odd if it has even length. (This is because such a cycle can be written as a product of an odd number of transpositions in the symmetric group.) The permutation is even if it has an odd number of odd cycles - otherwise it is even.Thus211781210519643isanevenpermutationsinceithas2odd cycles, (10 6) and (7 5 12 3). If a cube can be solved then the corner and edge permutations must either both be odd or both be even. (If you are really up for it, their product in the sym- metric group S12 has to be even.) Anyway, enough of the asides - they aren’t necessary for blindfold cubing. Once you have memorized the corner and edge permutations (positions) and orientations you are ready to don the blindfold. I recommend memorizing them in the followingorder - edges first then corners - end with the corner orientation. The exact order of memorizing the edges (ori- entation then permutation or permutation then orientation) isn’t too crucial. The hardest to remember is either the corner orientation or the edge permuta- tion. You should also try to keep in mind pairs of incorrectly oriented edges that you might want to flip together. If you do this you may not have to remember a sequence for the edge orientation - just which pairs to flip.
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