Did Rubik invent a method?

[Kyashan]

Hi, I'd like to know if the professor Erno Rubik, when invented the 3x3, invented a method for solving it, too.

 

[Rama]

Well he solved the cube all by himself before selling the cube, that is what I am aware of...

 

[joey]

Well he solved the cube all by himself before selling the cube, that is what I am aware of...

I think that that is correct, so yeh, he would have invented a method!

 

[AvGalen]

Probably commutator based, but I never read anything about it. I read he could solve it in about 4 minutes, but I also heard he could solve it in about 1 minute.

I guess he learned a "beginners"-method later

 

[watermelon]

I don't remember where, but I heard he invented his own corners first solution...

 

[doubleyou]

I heard it took him mothns before actually solving it.

I could have never found a solution on my own thats for sure

 

[Lt-UnReaL]

I think it took him 1 month.

 

[joey]

I heard it took two weeks!

 

[Jason Baum]

The alg that flips two edges (M U M U M U2 M' U M' U M' U2) is commonly known as Rubik's Move, because Rubik came up with this alg whenever he first solved the cube. He solved the cube using a corners first solution in a little under a month.

 

[AvGalen]

Do you have a source for that Jason? I would like to get an idea about his entire method.

 

[Jason Baum]

Do you have a source for that Jason? I would like to get an idea about his entire method.

He briefly talks about how he first solved the cube in an interview which you can read here:

http://www.puzzlesolver.com/puzzle.php?id=29&page=15

 

[AvGalen]

I read that article about a year ago, but I missed the part about his method.

quote from that interview:

Rubik had only an intuition that there must be a method. He started out by aligning the eight corner cubies correctly, and he discovered certain sequences of moves for rearranging just a few cubies at a time. One sequence of four twists, for instance, would temporarily scramble the cube, exchange the positions of three cubies, and then restore the rest of the Cube to its previous state. Other sequences took twelve twists--with chaotic results if he lost track of what he was doing halfway through

"He started out by aligning the eight corner cubies correctly" definately corners first.

"One sequence of four twists, for instance, would temporarily scramble the cube, exchange the positions of three cubies, and then restore the rest of the Cube to its previous state" This could refer to a 3 edge-cycle in a slice (like it is used in Roux), but it could also be a bad descriptionn of commutators (4 moves, 1 move, restore the moves). I think it is more likely to be the first option.

"Other sequences took twelve twists" combined with the rest of the knowledge about his method I think that refers to (M U M U M U2 M' U M' U M' U2) to orient 2 edges. However I don't see any reference to those moves in this article, it would just make sense.

So basically:
Corners first (unknow how. My guess would be intuitive permutation and "one-at-a-time orientation")
Setup-moves + Edge-cycles for edge permutation
Setup-moves + 2-flipt for edge orientation
This is very simular to 3-cycle blindfolded that is still used a lot!

Doing that in 4 minutes is definately possible, but I don't think he used that method to do it in 1 minute like he claimed in the tv-interview around 1999/2000. In the written interview he is portrayed like a shy/weird/asocial genius. In the television interview he didn't look asocial/shy at all.