Hand up, who could actually solve the Rubiks Cube as a kid?

thermionic

I must have been 12 when the craze hit. I had two books on it, one was much better than the other. I learnt to recognise patterns and learn the sequence of moves required to move squares to the right place without moving any that were already in the right place.

One particular week in school it became frantic with a small crowd of mainly science/maths geeks trying to outdo each other and getting faster and faster by the day. I got the unofficial school record with 1:11 but I think somebody had beat it by the next day. I didn't try to get it back, I didn't think it was possible for me to move much faster!

bloodandtears

I used to complete one at work one weekly.. helped me concentrate, brain exercises in what may have become a mundane job.

Motorhate

I could never do it. Went to school with Bernard Butler of Suede fame. He was a whizz at doing them from what I can remember. Boring fucker though.

SteveRobinson

No need these days, we have robots to solve it for you. In less than a second.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/11/10/robot_solves_rubriks_cubs_in_637_milliseconds/

Axe_meister

My daughter has cracked 30s.
She does em all 5x5, 4x4,2x2, and the 4 sided one.
She took part in a competition in Australia whilst on Holiday and is currently the fastest girl down under.

gubble

I've a rubix cube in my desk drawer at work. I use it as a stress relief toy.

It takes me about 3 minutes to solve it but I'd like to get it under a minute.

Was givena  new cube for Christmas from the mother in law - it's much nicer than my old one as the pieces move far more easily.

RandallFlagg

Motorhate said:

I could never do it. Went to school with Bernard Butler of Sude fame. He was a whizz at doing them from what I can remember. Boring fucker though.

useless tool never amounted to much did he? 

RandallFlagg

Axe_meister said:

My daughter has cracked 30s.
She does em all 5x5, 4x4,2x2, and the 4 sided one.
She took part in a competition in Australia whilst on Holiday and is currently the fastest girl down under.

Not necessarily a claim I would be brandishing about my daughter but Aussies are a very forward bunch. 

ESBlonde

Never much bothered with it. I could strip, clean and retune a lawnmower carb at age 11 though, a more useful skill but without the bragging rights.

siraxeman

I can still do it, not as fast as I used to but still only takes a few minutes. Don't have one anymore but every now and then someone will have one and say "can ya do it?" so they toss it me and I hand it back done in 3 or 4 minutes. After getting a 'complete face' face down, the middle sides come very fast...then form the cross on the top face...and just do the corners after that....I think there's only 4 moves sequences to completing it all.

relic245

I learned as an adult. 

I was given one for my 50th . I played around for a while and didn't get very far then decided to get serious and became obsessed for a while.  Took me about 6 weeks afterthat to figure it out. 

blueskunk

Couldn't do it back in the day and can't now. Doesn't stop me lying to my ten year old who is currently trying to solve it

A5D5E5

55 seconds was my best time when I was younger.  I've actually just bought my 6 year old one for his birthday and after a few goes I got down to 1 min 35 seconds.

i am now going to have to try and beat my old record.  Yes, my wife called me pathetic as well (mind, she can't even beat 2 minutes so what does she know).

incidentally, they don't have stickers now - the coloured faces are moulded onto the cubes.  It seems much smoother and faster to move than the ones I remember from my childhood, so there really is no excuse for being slower.

WezV

I do remember swapping the stickers on one as a kid, but it was a picture of biscuits on each side, not the normal colours.

edit - found a pic


when I was teaching there was a kid in my form who could do under 30s. 

axisus

I could do it as a teen, not fast, probably took about a minute. I'm pretty sure I could do most of it now but probably not the last side completely

Guitar_Slinger

My grandad bought books to learn when they came out and he couldn't do it, so worked his own solution out and taught me.  I was the first kid in school to do it, aged 10 IIRC.  It was a bit weird for the first few days - even the teachers were in the queue at playtime mixing it up and asking me to do it.

Every so often I forget the last four of steps and have to remind myself.  My time is usually under 2 minutes but I've never did it in less than a minute. Although I still use the second cube I bought in the mid-80s, so maybe a new one would be faster.

thermionic

gubble said:

Was givena  new cube for Christmas from the mother in law - it's much nicer than my old one as the pieces move far more easily.

The first one I had was a knock-off and very clunky. In one of the books I had a top tip was to pop off the cubes and lubricate the moving parts of the "skeleton" with vaseline. It helped but I bought myself a real one which was a joy to use in comparison.

Guitar_Slinger

My grandad took mine apart and used Mr Sheene! 

I think I'll leave mine alone for sentimental reasons, as my grandad died this time last year. Once he taught me, we used to have races.

Nitefly

Bunch of bloody smart-arses.

I celebrated getting one side done, and gave it up after that.  

FRockStar

I figured it out in my mid teens.. I think my best time was just over a minute. I never fully sussed a foolproof method for the final layer so it was a bit hit and miss,  and sometimes would take more like 5 mins. More like 10-20 now, last time someone chucked me one to do. 

Also remember everyone having the barrel version at one point, which was actually marginally easier, I think. 

Also had a 4x4 which I peeled all the stickers off and added pictures to each side. Never finished it though, cause I got bored of individually rounding off the corners of each piece of picture and trying to stick them on straight. 

Anyone remember the snake? Wasn't by Rubik, I don't think, but was a foldable snake,  made up of triangular pieces, you could make into a ball, or make all kinds of animal and other shapes.