Rubik's Cube Algorithm

Rianna Richardson

Rubik's Cube Facts

• There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different configurations, and only one solution

• At the World's Rubik's Cube Championship people solve the cube blindfolded or with one hand

• The youngest person to solve the cube was 3 year old from China

Lets Give It A Go

Basic Cube Notation

• R= Right Face • L= Left Face• B= Back Face• D = Down Face• F= Front Face• U = Upper FaceA letter by itself = Turn face 90° clockwiseA letter + apostrophe = Turn face 90° counter-

clock wiseA letter + 2 = Turn face 180°

Hint: Before starting, play with the cube to learn how it rotates. The more comfortable you are the easier the following solution will be.

The First Layer

1. Form the White Cross– Go edge by edge– Can’t mess up what you’ve already done– Edge flipped the wrong way:

• R’ U F’ U’

If your cube looks like this, MOVE ON!

The First Layer

2. Solve the White Corners– Find a corner piece on B, that belongs on U

• R’ D’ R D (up to five times, until solved)– If corner is on U already, but in wrong

position• Hold cube sp the piece is on the upper front right

position• R’ D’ R D

Do this for every corner!

Move On When….

Next Step… The Middle Layer

The Middle Layer

1. Put the white face on the Bottom2. Find the Blue/ Red piece so the Blue

lines up.

D L D' L' D' F' D F

Or, If you See this…

D' F' D F D L D' L' then D L D' L' D' F' D F

The Final Layer- Orient the edges

- Place white side on the Bottom- 4 Possible States

State 1: Ready to move on!

State 2: F U R U' R' F'

State 3:

F R U R' U' F'

State 4: Do algorithm for state 2 or 3, then you will be in state 2 or 3.

**The face in the pictures is U**

The Final Layer- Permute the corners

• two adjacent LL corners need to be swapped – Place white side on bottom, and corners to

be swapped @ front top right and back right top

– L U' R' U L' U' R U2• two diagonal LL corners need to be

swapped – Do the above algorithm twice

The Last Layer- Orienting the LL Corners

• There are 8 possible states. – State 1 (where the corners are correct)

• SKIP THIS STEP!

State 2: Twist three corners anti-clockwise

R' U' R U' R' U2 R U2

State 2: Twisting three corners clockwise

R U R' U R U2 R' U2

States 3-7: If you see this do one for the following:- Algorithm for State 1 twice- Algorithm for State 2 twice- Algorithm for State 1, then State 2

The Last Layer- Orienting the LL Corners

**Hint: Figure out intuitively, so this becomes natural**

The Last Layer-Permute the edges

• 5 possible states– State 1: Edges are correct

• YOU ARE DONE!!

State 1:R2 U F B' R2 F' B U R2

State 2 :R2 U' F B' R2 F' B U' R2

States 3 and 4: Apply algorithm from State 1 or 2. Then your cube will look like State 1 or 2, apply the corresponding algorithm.

Congratulations!

IT'S OVER!