What is reduction??

[callmeshit]

People say they use reduction on big cubes, but I have no idea what they're talking about Can someone use simple language to explain what it is?...

 

[rachmaninovian]

It is reducing a big cube to a psuedo-3x3 cube so that it can be solved as a 3x3.

 

[callmeshit]

so i can only be used after the big cube's centers and edges are paired up? or is it a method of pairing up the centers and edges?...

 

[Faz]

Reduction means that you have reduced it to a 3x3.

Reduction - reduce (see the link)

 

[callmeshit]

= = yea, i see the link =p
but this can be applied to any big cube???
like as soon as you understand d concept u can solve any big cube without learning any new method??

 

[Kristoffer]

yes that is correct, if you can solve 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 you can bigger cubes with no problems...it's just more time consuming

 

[MTGjumper]

... well, even if you can solve 4x4 and 5x5, many people still struggle with the last two centers on >5x5.

 

[bentotMe]

well, my approach in solving bigger dimension of cubes is trying to solve the inner mid blocks and considering it as center. Then solve the whole cube same as solving 3x3..

 

[Jai]

so i can only be used after the big cube's centers and edges are paired up? or is it a method of pairing up the centers and edges?...

Like mentioned before, reduction is reducing it to a 3x3. Sure, big cubes still have 8 corners, like the 3x3, but they have more edges and centers ( a few red/green edges, a few orange centers, etc.) So, reduction would mean putting all those edges and centers together into groups, and then treating each "group" as one unified piece (ex. putting all of those red and green edges together and treating them as only 1 red/green edge) because the 3x3 only has 4 edges per face, and only 1 center. After you finish reduction, you can finish off the cube however you would do a normal 3x3 cube. BUT, on "even" cubes, such as 4x4x4, 6x6x6, 8x8x8, and so on, parity can occur, in the form of 1 flipped edge (not a single flipped edge; a "unified" edge, an edge as it would look like, after reduction), or 2 swapped edges. See bigcubes.com for a nice tutorial, with animations. Note that the 4x4x4 is called the Revenge, and the 5x5x5 is called the Professor.

 

[callmeshit]

is there only 1 algo for 4x4 parity?....
sooo long and unsmoooth~

 

[Kian]

there's always more than one way to do anything, but the awful oll parity alg you know is probably the best one. if you want to do oll and pll parity together (which is just as good to use b/c you have a 50% chance of having pll parity) then there is another alg for that. the standard algs for that are listed on bigcubes.com

 

[PCwizCube]

For other OLL Parity Algorithms, go to here:
http://www.speedsolving.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6026

 

[nitrocan]

is there only 1 algo for 4x4 parity?....
sooo long and unsmoooth~

There are MANY algorithms for the OLL parity, and just as many for the PLL parity. OLL parity algorithms are long though. Some people achieve sub 5 on the OLL parity algorithm.