Win $100 for solving a 3x3 in under 5 minutes: history

[felix]

Now that you can restore the cube, do you think you would win a $100 prize by restoring it in less than five minutes? When a local department store offered that prize to promote sales of the cube, very few people could do it even though they knew a restoration method. On the other hand, many school students have average times of less than two minutes and there are several with average times of around 45 seconds per cube to restore a large number of randomly scrambled cubes! But pures speed does not usually idicate an understanding of the mathematics of the cube but rather dexterity, practice and a smooth-sanded well-greased cube.

-Handbook of Cubik Math by Alexander Frey and David Singmaster, 1982

It sounds like getting sub-45s was quite an achievement back in the days. I got my cube for about a month and I'm just using the 8355 method, not a speedcubing method. I didn't practise that much and still got a pb of 49 today. I would probably be getting sub-45s in a month. What happened in those 27 years that made cubing so much faster?

 

[byu]

Fridrich and DIYs

 

[Nukoca]

Probably the design got better over time, and people probably didn't think to lube until later. And lots of new methods are available now that are faster and better than the one(s) that they had then. Not that I know anything about it.

 

[idpapro]

woah i wish this still happend, i think id be semi-rich

 

[soccerking813]

Cubing is definitely a different sport today than it was back then.

 

[TomZ]

Back then the internet didn't exist the way it does now.

 

[blade740]

Nor did powerful computer programs that would calculate optimal solutions to positions to create decent algorithms.

 

[AvGalen]

Nor did powerful computer programs that would calculate optimal solutions to positions to create decent algorithms.

Optimal solutions are almost never used by speedcubers. Finding optimal algs by hand or by use of computers WAS done in the 80's. Finding sub-optimal, but faster algs has been greatly helped by computers although most have been found without that.

What really changed is internet (fora, text/image/java/video tutorials), DIY's, silicone, fingertricks and the WCA

 

[felix]

Reading your answers brought me more questions:
Were the cubes back then designed differently?
It seemed people did "grease" their cubes but it didn't help much?
When were fingertricks invented?

 

[qqwref]

I really think the biggest changes were the internet, and more knowledge about fingertricks and good cubes.

In the 1980s the only method you had was one you invented yourself or maybe learned from a friend or found in a book, so it was really luck as to whether you'd be able to learn a fast method since there wasn't much way to tell. Anyone who found a method would go tell people about it and maybe even publish a book, and it was very hard to optimize because the only way to find better algs was basically creativity. There was almost no cube community because the internet didn't exist. Nowadays even the most basic beginner methods are already designed to encourage fast turns and few rotations, so pretty much everyone who starts out now has an easier road ahead of them than someone in the 80s.

As for fingertricks... I think it's pretty safe to say that almost everyone in the 80s used wristing (and, at best, wrist tricks), so you start out with a huge edge because you can see everyone doing RUR' triggers and turning layers with just one finger. Of course good cubes (DIYs) and good lube helps a lot too for that - you couldn't just go out and buy a speedcube in the 1980s, storeboughts were all they had and even those turned very badly back then (I have a few cubes from the 80s and even wristing them is HARD).

 

[AvGalen]

Back in the 80's, cubes didn't have screws so they couldn't be adjusted. Cutting corners was almost impossible

Vaseline, oil and others were used for lubrication but didn't help as much as silicone

Fingertricks have always existed in some form, but not like now. If you look at "older" cubers you can see that they use more wristing.

Another factor that changes a lot is competition. If everyone you know is at 60 seconds and you are at 40 there is less motivation to get faster. There was a time (not that long ago) when Macky was considered "God" because he did sub-15 (first single, then average)
Not that long ago, doing a 2/2 in 27 minutes made me nr. 7 in the world (old multi-blind)

Cubing is still a "young" sport. The top cubers have been doing it for a while now and have a clear experience/practice advantage. But with motiviation and lots of training you can get to the top level in about 1.5 years (http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/p.php?i=2007VALL01 and http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/p.php?i=2007VALK01 for example)

Still, even back in the 80's there were people like Guus who could get 18 second averages at home (on their own cube)

 

[felix]

Wow, true.
Fridrich herself only uses wrist, and the first world record holder Minh Thai did it with only one hand.

 

[AvGalen]

Wow, true.
Fridrich herself only uses wrist, and the first world record holder Minh Thai did it with only one hand.

I cannot watch videos here, but I am very sure Minh Thai used both hands to solve the cube. Those cubes were brand new and not broken in so One-Handed solving was REALLY not an option. And Fridrich uses fingertricks nowadays

 

[a small kitten]

They didn't have +2s either lol. I remember that one solve in the WC had a slightly misaligned last layer and they had to get the judges out to check the cube haha

 

[TMOY]

Back in the 80's, cubes didn't have screws so they couldn't be adjusted. Cutting corners was almost impossible

I still have my old 1980 cube. It has screws, I already have adjusted them, and it can cut corners pretty well.
Good cubes exist from the beginning. Silicone was already used too (I didn't personally use it but it was mentioned in a cubing book I had back then). And modern solving methods are nothing else than improved versions of the ones invented in the 80s. IMHO what makes the biggest difference by far between the 80s and now is the Internet community; being able to exchange tricks and advices with other cubers worldwide and easily getting information about competitons and cubers'meetings definitely allow for much more improvement than having to figure out everything by oneself while cubing alone at home.

 

[brunson]

Did they have 15s inspection back then? I know Ton is a big advocate of getting rid of it and he's old school.

 

[Kian]

Did they have 15s inspection back then? I know Ton is a big advocate of getting rid of it and he's old school.

yes, even in the 1982 wc there was the 15 sec (i believe it was 15) of inspection time.

there is a video of the wc somewhere here...i'll see if i can find it.

edit: video of the wc can be seen here: http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6871&highlight=1982+world+championship

and yes, it seems they did have 15 seconds of inspection time.

 

[TMOY]

At the competition I attended in late 1981 I had some time to inspect my cube. But I don't remember if it was 15 seconds or something else.

 

[qqwref]

The modern "15 second" standard comes from the 1982 world championship, where that was the amount of time given. Unfortunately it's kind of an arbitrary limit.

Incidentally, the cubing community has almost NO information about 1980s competitions (except the 1982 one). We don't really know the times or any details at all for most of them, so it's really hard to compare what it is like to how they did competitions then.

 

[TMOY]

Well, in 1981 I was only 11 and I don't remember all the details of my competition, but the most noticeable differences with today's WCA competitions were:
- the competition cubes were provided by the organisators, we couldn(t use our own cubes;
- the format was best of 1 for the first round and best of 3 for the finals (for which I didn't qualify), instead of today's averages.