Orientation scramble?

[Dyste]

If you mis-oriented all the cubies while putting them back in, is it possible to correctly re-orient them and solve the cube?

 

[dRaGoN]

Yeah. On official solves you can, as long as it doesn't help you solve it in any way. It's somewhere in the WCA Regulations. I'm pretty sure you are atleast. Someone can confirm this for me.

 

[pajodaep]

hmmm.. i'm also wondering about that. my cube popped badly once in a competition but i decided to go for a dnf. next time, if it pops again, i think i'll fix it...

 

[Dyste]

I meant in general, if you took the cube apart and put the cubies back in with all of them in the wrong orientation, would you be able to fix it? Or, is this question lacking in point, because all solves deal with orienting them, and a good scramble would give just about the same outcome?

 

[pajodaep]

it depends. sometimes, you can solve it if it happens to be oriented correctly. sometimes, you can't. when i clean my cubes, i usually remove all the pieces and once i'm done cleaning, i return all the cubies randomly, then i solve the cube. most of the time, it's unsolvable since the cubes were not properly oriented... so i remove the problematic cubies and return them with the correct orientation.

 

[TimMc]

Is it possible to stuff up the orientation of more than one edge or corner when you assemble a cube a solve it?

So far, I've only been able to have cases where one top LL edge is flipped the wrong way or one top LL corner is flipped the wrong way.

Tim.

 

[fw]

So far, I've only been able to have cases where one top LL edge is flipped the wrong way or one top LL corner is flipped the wrong way.

For every legal cube position, the number of flipped edges is always even. So of course, the case you mentioned is the only one possible (since the number of flipped edges is not even in that case, but flipping one more would make it even). With corners its not much more difficult. Have a look at Ryan Heises "Laws of the cube" page.

That means for example: If you pull an edge out and put it back in the wrong orientation, the cube will not be solveable. But if you do that with any second edge too, it will be again!

 

[Demon Parasite]

Well, there are 12 edges, and you can flip any even amount. So yes, you can. And I believe it's called a superflip.

 

[AvGalen]

If you take apart the cube and put it back together randomly, these are the odds:
Edges-Orientation: 1/2
Edges-Permutation: 1/2
Corner-Permutation: 1/2
Corner-Orientation: 1/3
Because edges and corner permutation are interchangeble, the total chance of getting a possible permutation is 1/2

this means that you have a 1/2 * 1/2 * 1/3 = 1/12 chance of a solvable cube.