Solving the Cube

This is one of the guys I work with. he is brilliant when it comes to puzzles and problems. He is right handed. I've noticed several patterns in this video. He looks at one side and manipulates the top row first. IF you look closely he flips the top to one side and almost in the same motion flips vertical columns one way or the other. Then flips the top side back to get a look at the new set of patterns. He rolls the cube around until he recognizes a pattern, orients the cube and repeats the moves until he gets the desired effect.

I used to think that people who could solve a cube in a very short time kept the whole cube in their mind and speed through several operations until they knew how to solve the color scheme. I was wrong. It is a collection of patterns and responses that achieve desired effects. The collection of patterns grows and is culled over time until the cube becomes a two minute distraction.

This theory mens there is hope.

Each corner of the cube has three colors. Each axis of the cube is fixed. You know what color is going to be round the corner of each side. Once you run through the patterns in y9our head, you start to realize there are only a few ways for each piece to fall in to place and a billion ways for them to fall out of place.  I worked this out many years ago when I took a cube apart to find out how it worked. There are patterns of movement that allow you to swap the corners of a solved side around so they line up with the correct middle color. The same is true about swapping middle side pieces. My friend her is a master. of pattern recognition. I'm glad he is on our side.