Day 230:Rubix Cube

     I tried, I really did. I went at it for hours, and I got close a couple of times...but I never got it. It, was a rubix cube that had been completely and totally solved by none other than me. I wanted to solve the puzzle with nothing more than some newly acquired knowledge and a couple hours to waste. My friend Alex (who is both a rubix cube master, and the proud owner of very broken-in cube) went over the ground rules with me. He explained to me that there is a logical way to solve it, and that randomly fidgeting with it as fast as I could would never solve the puzzle. He taught me a couple of algorithms that were sure to help me on my jigsaw journey. He handed me all the tools I would need to solve it, all I had to do was apply them. Instead, I spent the next two and a half hours not solving the puzzle. I tried for so long and mentally mapped out my progress constantly. I felt like I tried every possible solution except the right one. At one point, I had roughly 75% of the cube solved. Everything except the top row was in the right place, but I could't seem to complete it. I eventually handed the cube to Alex and watched him become puzzled at what I had done. He could't solve it because I didn't stick to the algorithms very well and that jacked up his system (but it all looked the same to me). I'm not ready to say that the cube has defeated me, just that I'm taking a break from it.

Check out this stop motion short I made a couple years ago about rubix cubes. I just wish I could solve one for real!