Putting on the stickers on a new cube...

[Joël]

Hey guys,

I recently assambled 2 new DIY's, and I prepared them for blindfold solving... If you flip an edge or twist a corner on the solved cube now, I can determine which piece it is, and I can corrent the orientation blindfolded. I used the fact that the pieces have 'gaps' on one side. For the edges, if the edge is oriented (in the <R,L,U,D,F2,B2> group), and in UF position, the internal 'gap' of the edge can be felt on the side of the F center. For the corners, if the corner is oriented correctly and in the top face, the 'gap' is on the 'bottom'. Bit hard to explain, but you'll get the idea.

I got this idea by Stefan Pochmann, who posted this a while ago, after Dror Vomberg popped and finished a succesful BLD solve, but with ONE flipped edge.

Does anyone else use this to prepare for a POP?

- Jo?l.

 

[pjk]

So you can feel the orientation of pieces? And this is a way to prepare for a POP? Is this within the rules? Couldn't you just feel the orientation of the cube while your eyes were closed and solve it?

Sorry about all the questions, just a bit confused.

 

[Joël]

Originally posted by PJK@Feb 28 2007, 11:22 PM
So you can feel the orientation of pieces? And this is a way to prepare for a POP? Is this within the rules? Couldn't you just feel the orientation of the cube while your eyes were closed and solve it?

Sorry about all the questions, just a bit confused.

Hi Patrick,

Yes, I can feel if an edge piece is in the <U,R,L,D,F2,B2> group, or if a corner is in the <U,D,F2,B2,L2,R2> group. In BLD terms, that's the same as feeling if a piece is oriented. I have to 'almost' open the cube to feel this with an edge, and I have to actually take out a corner to do this with a corner.

In case of a pop, I know this is allowed by WCA rules. I don't think it's allowed when you don't have a pop. The reason it is allowed it; you basically use the Rubik's Cube as it is, without any real 'modifications' (you dont have to mark pieces by making cuts or anything). You just use a clever trick .

- Jo?l.

 

[AvGalen]

Just to summarize what Jo?l said: He doesn't alter the cube at all! When first assembling the cube, he doesn't just randomly decide if an edge gets red-white or white-red stickers. He looks at the hole on the inside of the edge and than decides which sticker to put on which side. Off course, this is perfectly legal.

It is not allowed to take piece out of the puzzle during a solve, but if a pop happens you normally have a 50% chance of putting in an edge correcly and a 33% chance of putting in a corner correctly. By feeling the orientation of the piece (and by remembering the orientation the piece should have) you can know how to put in an edge or corner.

Off course this only works for 1 edge and 1 corner at most, so if you have a big pop, this will only help a little.

I think that tricks like this are really smart and show that there is always something new to learn about the cube

 

[dChan]

On corners you can puul out the piece where the tiny gap is and put it in a way where you only need to do a 1/8 turn and you can feel if the corner is facing the right direction.

I removed this piece to reduce friction on my cube(thus making it turn faster, thankyou science). But it could be used to cheat. So you need not remember corner orientation, you just feel it during the solve- instead of using this gap to prepare for pops.

Has anyone thought of this?

Note: If not careful, you ar elikely to have more "lock-ups" this way while cubing.

 

[AvGalen]

I don't understand. What is this piece you removed?

Cheating is against the rules, or is anything that is against the rules called cheating? This should be cheating, but I don't know if there is a rule that prohibits it.

 

[dChan]

On the corner piece there should be a tiny gap somewhere. Take a blade and pry it open, and thats what I took out. It makes your cube faster(at least mine.)

 

[AvGalen]

I still don't understand, maybe my cubes (Rubiks DIY) don't have it. Could you put a picture up somehow?

 

[dChan]

Hrmmm.. When I get my DIY cube tommorrow I'll try and tell you. I have done this with my retail cube though.

 

[Arakron]

When corner pieces are molded, they are missing one side so that they don't have to be cast in solid plastic. Then they cast a single side that fits into the hole and glue it in or something. If you have a Chinese DIY, you know it comes separately on those. I think he's talking about this piece. On a corner piece, you can see a small gap between this piece and the corner "connector", because it's very slightly smaller than the hole.

 

[dChan]

Yes, you got it! You can explain better tha nme.

I got my DIY cube from China on Saturday and it is seperate. So just leave it off. Although this ca nresult in lockups more often, it makes you cube slightly faster due to less friction. Thus increasing the work output efficency- in english: smaller surface area= less friction= faster times.

 

[AvGalen]

I don't think "normal" Rubiks DIY have this. I will find out eventually because I am about to order some of those cube4you/9puzzles DIY's.

 

[dChan]

Like ones from Rubiks.com? Because I got mine and they have the extra 'lid.'

I set my cubes up so it is possible to feel the bottom of the corner and know where the top color is.