Clock notation

An official WCA scramble for the Rubik's Clock is a random position of all clock faces with random pin settings. The official WCA Rubik's Clock scramble program (by Jaap Scherphuis) creates notation in the form of the following example: -

UU  u=-3
dd  d=2

dU  u=0
dU  d=6

dd  u=6
UU  d=-1

Ud  u=3
Ud  d=3

dU  u=-3
UU

Ud  u=1
UU

UU  u=-2
Ud

UU  u=6
dU

UU  u=-4
UU

dd  d=1
dd

UU
Ud

Result
Front:
 7 10  9 
 4  4  1 
 10  7 12 
Back:
 3  3  5 
 7  1  4 
12 12  2 

The groupings of four "U" and "d" characters on the left show which pins are up and down and the "U=<n>, d=<m>" show the clockwise moves in hours to be made on corner clocks with up and down pins respectively.

The scrambles are presented in a condensed format for the speedsolving.com weekly competition: for example, the above scramble would be given as...

UUdd u=-3,d=2 / dUdU u=0,d=6 / ddUU u=6,d=-1 / UdUd u=3,d=3 / dUUU u=-3 /
UdUU u=1 / UUUd u=-2 / UUdU u=6 / UUUU u=-4 / dddd d=1 / UUUd

Where "UUdd u=-3,d=2" means the Up-Left-pin is Up, the Up-Right-pin is Up, the Down-Left-pin is Down, the Down-Right-pin is Down and you need to turn a corner that has its pin up counter-clockwise by 3 hours and you need to turn a corner that has its pin down clockwise by 2 hours.

See also

• Clock (puzzle type)
• Rubik's Clock (brand)
• Clock methods