From mark.longridge@canrem.com Thu Feb 15 15:18:57 1996 Return-Path: Received: from itchy.crso.com (itchy.canrem.com) by life.ai.mit.edu (4.1/AI-4.10) for /com/archive/cube-lovers id AA21477; Thu, 15 Feb 96 15:18:57 EST Received: by canrem.com (PCB-UUCP 1.1f) id 20AE8D; Thu, 15 Feb 96 15:13:47 -0500 To: cube-lovers@life.ai.mit.edu Reply-To: CRSO.Cube@canrem.com Sender: CRSO.Cube@canrem.com Subject: Re: Resolution of the cub From: mark.longridge@canrem.com (Mark Longridge) Message-Id: <60.1299.5834.0C20AE8D@canrem.com> In-Reply-To: <199602151620.LAA03366@chara.BBN.COM> Date: Thu, 15 Feb 96 15:07:00 -0500 Organization: CRS Online (Toronto, Ontario) -> Date: Thu, 15 Feb 1996 12:06:18 GMT -> From: "Thomas H. Martin" -> -> My son has dug out my cube and has a burning interest in it now. -> Also, he -> has revived my interest in it. My question is, is there somewhere I -> can get -> the solution for him? -> -> Tommy Martin -> Dublin, GA -> tmartin@accucomm.net -> -> Now you've pushed my button. -> -> When the cube first came out, a bunch of us at MIT were wild to solve -> it. There were _no_ published solutions. At least three or four of -> us solved the cube by ourselves, independently. We twisted and -> turned, drew arcane diagrams to show what went where, and although it -> sometimes took a couple of weeks, we each managed it. -> -> Then the books started to come out, and as far as I can tell, no one -> ever solved it independently again. Bzzzzzz ...... wrong. I do understand that Allan Wechsler was one of the original solvers, before the glut of books on the subject, however I solved the cube and the megaminx independently. Even though there were many cube books, there was only one megaminx (rubik-type dodecahedron) book, and it was rather hard to follow. My advice to anyone who likes puzzles of this type who is already adept at solving the cube is to solve it using a subgroup like < U, R > or < U, F, L >. One of the problems I'm working on is how to get the spot patterns on the megaminx. To the best of my knowledge this information is not recorded anywhere on the planet. (Yes, I can just solve it that way, I'm looking for a short algorithm, and no one and no program can help!) So even though we can make mincemeat of the pyraminx, dino cubes, square 1, Fisher's Cube, Skewbs, The UFO, Rubik's Revenge, Rubik's Wahn, etc etc there are still a couple of exceptional difficult problems: Spot Patterns on the Megaminx in a short number of moves. Dan Hoey's Tartan Cube. God's Algorithm on the standard cube. -> Mark <-