Clock notation
The Clock puzzle notation has an official WCA notation used for scrambles that can also be used in recons with some extra notation.
Turns
In the clock structure, there are 4 pins that can be up or down. 1 move in the clock is counted when at least 1 wheel is turned while the pins are in a specific up/down configuration. These are the pins configurations used in WCA notation for scrambles:
- UR = Only UR pin is up (up right pin)
- DR = Only DR pin is up (down right pin)
- DL = Only DL pin is up (down left pin)
- UL = Only UL pin is up (up left pin)
- U = Only UL and UR pins are up
- R = Only UR and DR pins are up
- D = Only DR and DL pins are up
- L = Only DL and UL pins are up
- ALL = All pins are up
Outside WCA scramble notation, some others pins configurations can be set:
- ur = Only UR pin is down
- dr = Only DR pin is down
- dl = Only DL pin is down
- ul = Only UL pin is down
- B = All pins are down (not common)
Diagonals:
- / = Only UR and DL pins are up
- \ = Only UL and DR pins are up
It's important to note that each pin is associated to a wheel, for example, the UR pin is associated to UR wheel, DR pin is associated with DR wheel and so on.
Note that each wheel do a distinct move depending on the pins configuration, for example, if only one pin is up, turning the wheel associated to this pin will turn only the 4 mini clocks around this pin, but turning any other wheel will only turn the corners next to the pins that are down.
If 2 pins are up, then turning any of their wheels will turn only the mini clocks that are around these pins, and turning any other wheel will turn the 2 corners next to the pins that are down.
If 3 pins are up, turning any of their wheels will turn all mini clocks except the corner next the pin that is down, which will only move if its wheel got turned or if pins configuration is changed.
If all pins are up, turning any wheel will also turn all 9 mini clocks, but if all pins are down, only the corners will get turned.
All these rules work for both sides equally.
For notating the wheel turns, a system of 12 whole numbers (from 5- to 6+) is used alongside the pins configuration (similar to Square-1 notation). Examples:
- D1+ means the bottom pins are up (DR and DL) and one of their wheels is turned clockwise in 1 hours
- UL5+ means only UL pin is up and its wheel is turned clockwise in 5 hours
- DR2- means only DR pin is up and its wheel is turned counterclockwise in 2 hours
- /4- means only UR and DL pins are up and one of their wheels is turned counterclockwise in 4 hours
- ur6+ means all pins are up except UR and a non UR wheel is turned 180° (adding/removing 6 hours)
- ALL3+ means all pins are up and one of the wheels is turned clockwise in 3 hours
- U0+ means no moves are done since advancing 0 hours means not advancing at all
There's also some possible rotations to do in clock which is similar to NxNxN notation:
- y2 means the clock is flipped 180° in the y-axis
- x2 means the clock is flipped 180° in the x-axis
- z means the clock is rotated 90° clockwise in the z-axis
- z' means the clock is rotated 90° counterclockwise in the z-axis
- z2 means the clock is rotated 180° in the z-axis
In WCA scramble notation, the scramble should start with 12 o'clock pointing up and the clock must be solved (when all hands point to 12 o'clock in both faces), it doesn't matter which side to start scrambling. After this setup, the scramble follows a fixed pin order that goes like this:
UR, DR, DL, UL, U, R, D, L, ALL, y2, U, R, D, L, ALL
Examples
A scramble example: UR2- DR5- DL3- UL1+ U2+ R1+ D4+ L5- ALL5- y2 U4- R3- D1+ L3- ALL3+
After doing the scramble, the mini clock hands should be pointing to a random direction each. In this specific scramble, they should be matching these hours:
0 5 3
9 6 9
6 10 10
(Front side)
9 4 0
6 0 7
2 11 6
(Back side)
See also
- Clock (puzzle type)
- Rubik's Clock (brand)
- Clock methods
