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Finding an old method from the late 1970s

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Sep 4, 2010
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Texas
I've decided to pick up a Rubik's cube again to solve with my youngest granddaughter. Back in graduate school in the late 1970s I was fairly quick. Most all of the time I could solve the cube in less than a minute. Around 40% of the time I could do it in 20 to 30 seconds. I'm trying to find the method I used back then. I've been searching around on the internet and I'm finding all sorts of solutions, but not the one I used. I'd like to stick with the same one, (1) just for fun and (2) because I believe I'll pick it up quicker. I'll describe what I can remember. If anyone can point me to instructions on the method, I'd be appreciative.

It went something like this:
  • Solve the top completely.
  • Solve the bottom middles, leaving one top middle out of place.
  • Solve the bottom corners.
  • Put the one out of place top middle back in position (so both top and bottom are solved).
  • Solve the middle edges.
My recollection may not be totally accurate. I do recall it was a pretty simple set of steps. It was only something like three, maybe four, algorithms (not counting solving the top and the bottom middles).

Can anyone point me to instructions on this method?

Thanks in advance,
Andrew
 

xyzzy

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Sounds similar to the Waterman method, which used to be one of the more prominent methods in the early days of cubing (before CFCE/CFOP took over).
 
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Thank you. The Waterman method sound similar, but there was no complex third step that had 80-ish algorithms. I do recall once seeing a published booklet, in color, with the method. It was only 6 or 8-ish pages.
 

Mike Hughey

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Is it possible you're remembering The Ideal Solution? It seems to really match the description of what you're saying (except that there's no claim it could be solved in 20 to 30 seconds with the method, but perhaps a few optimizations would fix that?), and it is a color brochure that was fairly available at one time early on. But it is 16 pages, not 6 to 8.

Interestingly, I've just been watching conspiracy videos about the Mandela Effect. Perhaps this is a little like that? (And I think the Mandela Effect is just tricks played on people by their memory, not some sort of transdimensional phenomenon. But that's just my opinion. :) )
 
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The Ideal Solution does seem to match my description. I'll need to search for the brochure later today. (I'm working now and don't have the time.) Thank you.

Regarding the 16 pages, more than the Mandela Effect I believe it's called being 62 and 14,610 nights of sleep since. :)

PS. I got pretty good at manipulating the cube and with familiarity came some understanding. I didn't use any set formulas or algorithms outside of the method, but sometimes (often?) I could "see" a shortcut and I would take it. My friend, who used the same method as I, often took two to three times as long to solve a cube.
 
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Location
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UPDATE:

Whoops! I missed the link to the PDF at the bottom of the Wiki.

The Ideal Solution is indeed the method we were using. But we didn't have a pamphlet at the time someone taught us to solve the cube. After reflecting on it, I think it was the summer of 1980. I don't think it was '79 because I wasn't in school until the fall, it was definitely the summer when we were doing it, and I was out of school by the winter of '80. I didn't see the pamphlet until the next year, although it was exactly what we had been doing. The PDF of the pamphlet shows a date of 1981, which fits my memory. I wonder if they had a similar publication in 1980.

Thank you! (Now to print it and learn it again.)
 
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