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Intuitive solve of the yellow cross help

Raven72

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Joined
Oct 4, 2017
Messages
10
Just wondering if anyone has a system or tips on solving the yellow cross when the 4 yellow cubies are arranged randomly with the middle layer complete...I tried for 4 hours today to come up with one and was unsuccessful.

I know it can be done easily with algorithms but I'm looking for a solutions with out algs.

An example might be, say the blue face is on the right, align blue/yellow cubie in top face to blue center, turn right face 1 quarter clockwise (R), align red/cubie in top face to red centre, etc....
 

xyzzy

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Dec 24, 2015
Messages
2,876
(I'm assuming you have the yellow stickers all pointing up at this point. If not, do that first, then read the rest of this post.)

There are literally only two algs to learn (#1, #2), or only one alg if you're super lazy and don't mind having to use it twice every so often. Why do you want to learn it without algs?

Anyway, here's something you can try. To start with, you need to have the edges in an "even permutation": either a 3-cycle, or a pair of 2-cycles. Do U moves until this happens.
  • Find some move sequence to bring the UF piece out of the U layer, without disturbing the other pieces on the U layer or the E slice. You need to be familiar with how to do this sequence (a "mini alg"? except it's intuitive?) both forwards and backwards. For instance, you can use something like L' R F2 L R'. Whatever you want to use, call it X, and call the inverse (doing it in reverse) X'.
  • If the edge in the UF position is solved, keep doing a Uw move (like a U move, but with two layers) until you get an unsolved edge, then use X to pull the UF edge out.
  • If you pulled out the yellow-whatever edge, do Uw moves until you get the whatever centre facing you, then use X' to insert that edge into the correct position.
  • In doing the above, if you displaced another yellow-something edge, do Uw to get the something centre facing you, then use X to insert the edge.
  • Rinse and repeat, alternating between X and X', until all the edges are solved.
  • Use Uw moves to realign the centres with the bottom-layer edges if necessary.
Example solves: #1 #2

(You might have noticed that this uses a lot of moves and is pretty slow. I chose this method not for its speed, but for its ease of explanation. It's way faster to use Sunes to permute the edges, but then I'd have to explain conjugation.)
 
Last edited:

AlphaSheep

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Joined
Nov 11, 2014
Messages
1,083
Location
Gauteng, South Africa
WCA
2014GRAY03
Just wondering if anyone has a system or tips on solving the yellow cross when the 4 yellow cubies are arranged randomly with the middle layer complete...I tried for 4 hours today to come up with one and was unsuccessful.

I know it can be done easily with algorithms but I'm looking for a solutions with out algs.

An example might be, say the blue face is on the right, align blue/yellow cubie in top face to blue center, turn right face 1 quarter clockwise (R), align red/cubie in top face to red centre, etc....
I'll try to explain how I do it. The problem with solving intuitively is that you have to think about where each edge needs to go. What I'm really looking at is how pieces that belong next to each other get broken up, but it lands up sounding like a set of rules. Don't memorise it as rules, but rather watch how pieces are broken up and brought back together to understand each case.

Firstly, you need to know which colours are opposite, such as blue is opposite green, red is opposite orange, etc. The main idea is the same as the algorithmic method you already know but done smarter. You need to pull out one of the edges from the equator (E) layer using moves such as R U R' or R U R' or R U2 R'. They move one edge in the E layer into the top layer, and you choose the direction of the middle move based on which edge you want to replace it with. It's often called inserting an edge.

When you have three yellow edges in the top layer all facing up, compare the cubies with yellow (if you have four, do any of the insertions above once to reduce it to three),
  1. If the two edges that are supposed to be opposite are opposite each other, there are two possibilities.
    • You can turn the top face to get all three edges in the correct position - this is bad because you have to disturb that when inserting the E layer edge. Put the odd top layer edge at the front or back and insert it into the E layer using either R U R' or R U R', which will reduce to the good case described in 2.
    • If turning the top face can put the two opposite edges in their correct position, but the third edge is in the wrong side then that's good. Put the edge that belongs in the E layer on the far left and then insert it using R U2 R' (you choose the middle move of U2 as it's the only one that doesn't break up the opposite edges). Adjust the top layer and edges should be solved.
  2. If the two edges that are supposed to be opposite each other are adjacent,
    • If you can turn the top face to put two adjacent edges in position, then that's good. Position the edge that needs to go in the E layer into the front or back such that the insertion moves wont break the two correct top layer edges up, and then insert the E slice edge. Adjust the top layer and edges should be solved.
    • If you can solve one, and the positions of the other two adjacent edges are swapped around, then it's bad. This is the trickiest case to explain. You need to insert the edge that's located opposite the edge that belongs in the E layer, but you have to do so in a way that breaks up the two swapped edges with the first R move. This will lead to the good case in 2.
Using this technique, it should never take more than 9 moves to solve the last 5 edges once the last E layer edge is in the top layer and all edges are oriented correctly. If you run into any case you get stuck on, ask and I'll try help.
 

bcube

Member
Joined
Sep 8, 2010
Messages
336
Just wondering if anyone has a system or tips on solving the yellow cross when the 4 yellow cubies are arranged randomly with the middle layer complete...I tried for 4 hours today to come up with one and was unsuccessful.

I know it can be done easily with algorithms but I'm looking for a solutions with out algs.

Maybe not exactly what you are looking for, but this tutorial might be interesting for you. Although it is fully intuitive, you don´t have complete first two layers yet when solving the edges of last layer (and after all edges are solved).
 
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