I'm writing a group theory essay.

[chris410]

Here is a paper you may find helpful:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...DA34OQ&cad=rja

[Cielo]

I've read Inside the Rubik's cube and beyond(by Christoph Bandelow) and Handbook of cubik math(by A.H.Frey & D.Singmaster). These might help.

That's false.

I tried and solved, turning only L-U-R.
At first, I only thought of the alg I used: R' U L' U2 R U' R' U2 R2. Then I realized that L' R, then F turns into U.

[Lucas Garron]

Anyone up for starting a wiki with references and links for (group) theory resources?

[macky]

List of Puzzle Theory References
Go crazy.

[cmhardw]

Jaap's articles on puzzles are very interesting. I found this one particularly interesting. In particular I like his discussion about the center of the cube group. I've used the trick he describes here on kids, and they find it very neat (plus the math supporting why it works is very interesting).

[Ilkyoo Choi]

Group Theory is soooo boring.

Do a essay on proper math, like nonlinear analysis!?

Oh, such a delicate topic.

[blah]

nonstandard analysis

[mrCage]

Group Theory is soooo boring.

I found GT boring also at uni, mainly because there was no good real work examples to demonstrate the theory. The cube and other puzzles are great visual aids!!

Per

[Jude]

lots of great ideas here, thanks guys! i'll let you know how it turns out

[Jude]

Hm, so I have a conjecture which I'm not keen to focus on because it's not very interesting, but just out of curiosity is it true that the group of all the states reachable by peeling off the stickers and sticking back on them anywhere is isomorphic to S56/S9? I think the cardinality of that group is right and there's what appears to me to be an intuitive isomorphism but I haven't tried proving it at all.

FWIW by S56 I mean the Symmetric Group on 56 letters.