What's PLL / OLL / F2l ?

[cwdana]

I just got into cubing a month or so ago. Got a 3x3x3 just before Christmas, learned how to solve it and am addicted.

I now have a 4x4x4 (getting decent at it) a 2x2x2 (ok at it) and the 5x5x5 (not yet scrambled). I'm at about 1:03 with the 3x3x3.

So I'm really new to all these terms. Can someone explain to me what the acronyms PLL / OLL / and F2l mean? (And any others that exist)

Thanks!

 

[Karthik]

http://cubefreak.net/glossary.html

 

[Swordsman Kirby]

I now have a 4x4x4 (getting decent at it) a 2x2x2 (ok at it) and the 5x5x5 (not yet scrambled).

What do you call decent?

 

[Bounb]

F2L: First Two Layers
In general this refers to the solving of the first two layers of the cube in one step by forming cross and then inserting corner edge pairs. This is used in Fridrich (a method) to solve the cube's first two layers. This can be done intuitively (without learning algs but instead working it out for yourself) or by memorising the 42 case algorithms.

OLL: Orient Last Layer
Once the first two layers have been completed the last layer is 'oriented'. Imagine that you have started with the white cross, your last layer will be yellow. Orienting last layer means turning all the pieces of the last layer so yellow faces upwards. There are 57 OLL cases in the Fridrich method.

PLL: Permute Last Layer
The last step in a Fridrich solve. This swaps the pieces of the last layer around in various ways so that they are correctly ordered. There are 21 PLL cases in the Fridrich method.

Sometimes a Fridrich solve is refered to as CFOP; this stands for Cross, First Two Layers, Orient Last Layer, Permute Last Layer.

I hope this helped.

 

[cwdana]

I now have a 4x4x4 (getting decent at it) a 2x2x2 (ok at it) and the 5x5x5 (not yet scrambled).

What do you call decent?

Uhhm...learning. No times yet. They would be horrible. Still in the memorization phase. I've had it a week and plan to get better with time and patience

 

[cwdana]

And to add on to all of this - I get the Fridrich method (I think). I'm pretty sure that's how I've been solving it. Make a white cross, solve the corners, solve layer 2, then layer 3. (I've been putting the cross at the top. Is that bad?)

But there seems to be a lot of wasted movement. A lot of looking/orienting/etc. I'm guessing that OLL/PLL algs get very specific so there are fewer wasted motions? But more algs to memorize?

I'm not exceptionally intuitive when it comes to the cube. I can't ever see myself making 'homemade' algorithms. But I do enjoy it.

 

[Dcuber]

f2l is firsty 2 layers, but the method is solving them at the same time
(learn it sometimme

 

[skinnyandweak]

you are not doing fridich. when doing fridich, you basically solve the first and second layer at the same time, by inserting corner edge pairs. what your doing is layer by layer.

 

[AvGalen]

Just to explain it easy:
layer-by-layer: 4 * 1 corner, then 4 * 1 edge (about 15 + 30 moves)
keyhole: 3 * 1 corner, 4 * 1 edge, 1 * 1 corner (about 10 + 18 + 8 moves)
Fridrich/CFOP: 4 * edge+corner (about 30 moves)