From cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Mon Aug 31 17:11:38 1998 Return-Path: Received: from sun28.aic.nrl.navy.mil by mc.lcs.mit.edu (8.8.8/mc) with SMTP id RAA10141; Mon, 31 Aug 1998 17:11:38 -0400 (EDT) Precedence: bulk Errors-To: cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Message-Id: <35E8A9ED.72BA@ameritech.net> Date: Sat, 29 Aug 1998 20:25:01 -0500 From: Hana Bizek Reply-To: hbizek@ameritech.net To: cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Re: Depicting a cube References: <006a01bdd226$d0495920$551a2bcb@mercury> Bill Webster wrote: > > If static, generated images are acceptable, (i.e. if the pattern is more > important to your sculpture than its physical realisation in plastic), Oh no! Please remember that those are Rubik's cubes. Their "physical realization" is usually that they are stacked together to form larger cubes. If *that* was all to the design problem, I wouldn't have the nerve to make a posting to the cube-lovers msiling list. Some of its members are first-class mathematicians. I feel that an explanation of what I call the design problem is in order. Ther goal of this problem is to create, by conventional cube manipulation, a composite pleasant geometrical design on a set of Eubik's cubes. The basic algorithm consists of three simple steps: 1} construct patterns on individual cubes 2} make sure that the colors match properly from cube to cube {color control} 3} stack the cubes together. You start with a set of solved cubes. If you have scrambled cubes, you need to solve them. That is just one excellent reason why you *must* solve the Rubik's cube comopletely. Being able to solve only one side is woefully inadequate. Don't forget color control. Without it you don't have a design. This unavoidable aspect of the design problem further complicates the design algorithm. It is a little bit like chess. You try to consider two or three moves ahead of your opponent to achieve a winning strategy..,. or create a viable design from a set of Rubik's cubes. The last step is easy. It is sort of like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. The patterned cubes you constructed are part of this jigsaw. Here, in a nutshell, is a description of the design problem. Please, get our your Rubik's cubes and start twiddling. Good luck, Hana