Jack's Solution (obscure method)

nigtv

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I had typed a short intro to this, but power died for half a second and lost it, so I'll just type the basics and retype the rest later. This is from a book "the simple solution to rubiks cube" by James G. Nourse.

EDIT: I should STRESS that I'm not sure if this is a method...or a pattern creator...or what. I'm tired, and crushed between classes and lack of sleeping time, so I may be missing the big picture.

Note that for this solution, which is very dated, UFRLPB are UFRLBD respectively.
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Jack's Solution

1.Hold your cube and look at the colors of the center cube on each face.
(diagram showing UFRLPB as 123546 respectively)
(another diagram showing the same but after a y2 rotation)

2. Write the first letter of the color that corresponds to each number on the cube shown in the box next to the number. If you are holding your cube so that red is on top, put R in the box next to 1.
1 _
2 _
3 _
4 _
5 _
6 _

3. Now write the letters that correspond to the numbers in the spaces provided in the table below.

Top Edges:
FT 26
LT 63
PT 12
RT 51

Top corners:
FLT 236
FRT 256
LPT 143
PRT 456

Vertical Edges
FL 23
FR 25
LP 13
PR 46

Bottom Corners:
BFL 123
BFR 125
BLP 364
BPR 145

Bottom edges:
BF 14
BL 43
BP 45
BR 65

(blank table, with spaces where the numbers are in the above list, for filling in. This is pretty confusing at first, but really it's just writing the piece thats in the spot (FL spot has FL piece in it, etc), but with numbers for the piece you are describing, and letters for the spot it is in, at least I think that is what he is describing, if its something else, let me know)

For example, if 2 is green and 6 is red, write GR in the space next to FT under Top Edges.

The colors of the center cubes are indicated in the illustration on page 62 [referring to the diagram with numbers described at beginning of solution]. Thus the center cube on the T face is color 1, and the center cube on the F face is color 2, and so on.

4. Now, using the colors, follow the solution from step 1 through step 5 on pages 31 to 53 [referring to the main solution in the book, LBL, although he says follow those 5 steps, which would result in a solved cube, so kind of confused here as well]. Instead of putting the cube that matches the F and T face into the FT position, but the colored cube you wrote in the table on page 62 [the long list a few paragraphs back, with letters and numbers in it] into the FT position.

5. Do this for all 5 steps of the solution and jack will appear before your eyes. It is particularly challenging to do steps 4 and 5 of the solution in this way. You may prefer to use the methods described in the afterword to move some of these cubes around in specific ways. [sort of strange for a simple solution book, but in the afterword, he seems to skim on a concept similar to conjugates, although it's hard to tell].

If you can learn how to spell your name or state or some other short word, you will have your own unique puzzle to challenge your friends with.
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Okay, now that I read over it, I think that I get it, it's not a method, I think it will end up making some kind of pattern or something. I really don't have the energy right now to try it out. Forgive me if I got your hopes up for some rare gem!
 
I also own that book. I got it off Ebay. The book has one or two really good algs in it. But I would not use it.

I also own the following cube books too (and all are from 1981):

You Can Do The Cube - Patrick Bossert

Conquer The Cube In 45 Seconds - Jeffrey Varasano

Mastering Rubik's Cube - Don Taylor

This is the book I used to solve the cube for the very first time in April 2009. Of all the four cubebooks I own, this one is way the closest to how you'd solve a cube now. ie cross, solve first layer, solve middle layer, top cross, OLL, PLL.
 
OMG i have that book!!! lolz first learnt from that book :D yea i never read that to even try to understand his numbering system
It's actually a really really interesting book, which was surprising, as I first wrote it off as just some crappy reiteration of LBL. He touches at a lot of concepts which later become the notorious 'laws of the cube' (not sure how early those were really chiseled out, though), and he even touches on what seem to be conjugate concepts. Of course, that all would be pretty unremarkable, but together with the majority of the book, which is just absurdly dated, it's a lot more interesting.

Looking through it now, he at least touches on color neutrality, fixed centers (not too big of a deal, but interesting), number of possible positions, inverses and reflections, pre-orientation and permutation of LL edges, and some other more minor things. Also, the notes at the end of each step on error correction are really nifty. Not bad for 1981 I think.

EDIT: I was just laughing at his afterword; "...I can usually do it in about 100 moves. This is not the fewest moves solution.", also at the fastest 'speedcubing' class, "3 minutes or under-MASTER OF THE CUBE! (M.C.)"
 
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The 1981 book "The Simple Solution To Rubik's Cube" has 5 steps to solve the cube (a 3x3x3 in modern terms):

1. Solve top edges
2. Solve top corners
3. Solve middle layer edges
4. Solve bottom layer corners
5. Solve bottom layer edges

Looks like LBL by another take to me.
 
The 1981 book "The Simple Solution To Rubik's Cube" has 5 steps to solve the cube (a 3x3x3 in modern terms):

1. Solve top edges
2. Solve top corners
3. Solve middle layer edges
4. Solve bottom layer corners
5. Solve bottom layer edges

Looks like LBL by another take to me.
It is, however it's interesting because of the advanced topics it at least brushes over, and because it's from 1981.
 
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