In part 1 we flipped the script and made strides at solving the infamous Rubik's cube. If you haven't read that post yet, please take a look here:
https://steemit.com/life/@driv3n/how-to-solve-the-rubik-s-cube-like-a-boss-part-1
After having a firm grasp on the steps in part 1, it's time to get onto part 2, where we will finish what we started and claim victory once and for all. The journey only gets tougher from here, and becomes very difficult to solve intuitively without a lot of practice and the spacial awareness of a savant. Fortunately, there are some ways around this, and we'll discuss those now.
Step 3: Solve the middle layer
The middle or second layer, is our next victim, and we'll kick it's ass the easiest way I know how. The first thing you need to do is flip it over, so the completed white side is now on the bottom and the yellow side is on the top. From here we will insert the pieces we want into the middle layer of the Rubik's cube until it's complete.
To move a piece to the left we use this sequence of moves:
U’ L’ U L U F U’ F’
To move a piece to the right we use this sequence of moves:
U R U’ R’ U’ F’ U F
At this point it gets tough to explain, so this video will help you knock out the rest.
The first two layers are now complete! Be honest, it feels great doesn't it? Hell yes it does, and soon we'll have the last layer finished off as well. The last layer is the most difficult and requires a little more effort, but will be well worth it as you enter your name into the record books as a legendary cube slayer.
Step 4: Solve the yellow cross
The first thing we need to do to finish off the last layer is determine which pattern we see on the yellow side. If the yellow cross is already there, that's great, you can move onto the next step.
If not, you need to look for three possible scenarios.
- The first scenario is only seeing the yellow center piece on top, and all other yellow stickers on the side.
- The second scenario is seeing a yellow "L" shape, like in the video below.
- The third scenario is seeing a yellow line going from one side to the other.
All of these scenarios can be solved by the algorithm below:
F R U R' U' F'
Depending on which scenario we see will depend on how many times we need to perform this sequence of moves. It's also important that we hold the cube in a certain orientation when doing this sequence. The video below will explain this step in detail:
Step 5: Swap last layer edges
Now we'll get the edge pieces in the last layer lined up with their respective center pieces. Once this step is done, all we have left to solve are the four corners that remain. You may get lucky and realize that after solving the yellow cross, you can turn the top layer and have the edge pieces on every side aligned with their center piece, but this is pretty rare. Most of the time you will two sides adjacent to each other that are lined up correctly, or two sides opposite each other lined up correctly.
There is only one sequence of moves needed to swap those last layer edges and it is:
R U R' U R U2 R' U
When you can turn the top layer to have the edge pieces lined up with their center pieces on two sides next to each other you will only have to perform this sequence once. If the sides that are lined up are on opposite sides of the cube, you will need to perform it twice. In the video I demonstrate how it's done:
Step 6: Permutate last layer corners
All that remain between us and a solved Rubik's cube, are the last four corners. This will most likely take two steps to solve, and the first will look like this:
U R U' L' U R' U' L
This sequence of moves will get all four corner pieces in the correct place, and in the final step we will perform some sorcery to make sure every piece is oriented exactly where it should be.
To perform this step the video below explains it in detail:
Final Step! Orient last layer corners
All the hard work is now out of the way, and we will turn back the hands of time to a sequence that is already hard wired into your DNA. For the final step, we'll use the same magic we used to solve our white corners.
R' D' R D
It's as simple as that. Rotate the top layer until you have an unsolved corner in the top right of the cube. You will then have to perform the above sequence either twice, or four times to get that piece oriented correctly. After that piece is solved, rotate the top layer until another unsolved corner is in the top right hand side, and so on, until you have attained Rubik's cube perfection.
For a better idea of what that looks like, here is the final step in action.
As you can see the last layer is by far the most difficult, and by far the most difficult for me to put into words.
The Rubik's cube is no longer a mystery, but your journey has only just begun. Once you can solve it, the question is, how fast can you solve it? 5 minutes, 2 minutes, 30 seconds? Let me know!
Any comments or questions are welcome, and for anyone who cares, I'll be taking the full payout of this post in Steem Power, because we need more high powered curators spreading the love around here and I'm on a mission to make that happen.