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Rubik's Cube/Rubik's Maneuver

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| HOW TO FIND YOUR VERY OWN PERSONAL WAYS TO SOLVE RUBIK'S CUBE                               |
|                                            (Preliminary April 20, 2007 version)             |
|                                            by Mr. Ray Calvin Baker                          |
|                                            FREE Public Domain Educational Material          |
|                                                                                             |
| Chapter Nine - - - - - - - - - - Rubik's Maneuver -- How to Flip Two Edge Cubies            |
|                                                                                             |
| Goal Four is to orient each of the twelve edge cubies at its proper location. This will     |
| finish a solution of the Cube! (This is the only elaborate operation I actually memorized   |
|(and still remember) from some of the books I have read.)                                    |
|                                                                                             |
|                   _ * _      (t)                                                            |
|               _ * _TOP_ * _ /                                                               |
|           _ * _TOP_ * _ k _ * _                                                             |
|         * _TOP_ * _TOP_ * _TOP_ *    A Cube                 Notice that the edge cubies     |
|         |   * _ f _ * _TOP_ *   |    in need of             which need to be "flipped"      |
|         | F |   * _TOP_ *   | R |    Rubik's                correspond to edge cubie #2     |
|         * _ | t |   *   | R | _ *    Maneuver               and edge cubie #3 as            |
|         |   * _ | F | R | _ *   |                           described in Chapter Eight.     |
|         | F |   * _ | _ *   | R |                                                           |
|         * _ | F |   *   | R | _ *    The edge cubies                                        |
|         |   * _ | F | R | _ *   |    at BACK TOP                                            |
|         | F |   * _ | _ *   | R |    and FRONT TOP                                          |
|         * _ | F |   *   | R | _ *    need to be                                             |
|             * _ | F | R | _ *        "flipped".                                             |
|                 * _ | _ *                                                                   |
|                     *                                                                       |
|                                                                                             |
|         DIAGRAM 9-1. A Cube in Need of Rubik's Maneuver                                     |
|                                                                                             |
| Rubik's Maneuver "flips" two edge cubies at the BACK TOP and FRONT TOP locations. You will  |
| need to use the "slice" moves ("down-slice" and "up-slice"), which were described in        |
| Chapter Eight, "". Here is the recipe. (I memorized this -- you can, too.)                  |
|                                                                                             |
|     Down-slice (2R^ Rv).                                                                    |
|     Turn the top (always in the same direction (T^ or Tv, it doesn't matter as long as      |
|                   you are consistent) .                                                     |
|     Down-slice.                                                                             |
|     Turn the top.                                                                           |
|     Down-slice.                                                                             |
|     Turn the top twice (T2).                                                                |
|                                                                                             |
|     Up-slice (2Rv R^).                                                                      |
|     Turn the top (still in the same direction).                                             |
|     Up-slice.                                                                               |
|     Turn the top.                                                                           |
|     Up-slice.                                                                               |
|     Turn the top twice (T2).                                                                |
|                                                                                             |
|     DIAGRAM 9-2. Instructions for Rubik's Maneuver                                          |
|                                                                                             |
| And what if you need to "customize" your moves to "flip" two edge cubies which are NOT at   |
| the FRONT TOP and BACK TOP positions? You have already been able to juggle THREE edge       |
| cubies, following the directions in Chapter Eight, "". Just rotate the entire Cube until    |
| one of the edge cubies to be flipped is at the BACK TOP position. (This corresponds to      |
| edge cubie #2 as discussed in Chapter Eight, "".) Then use part two of the instructions of  |
| Chapter Eight to position another edge cubie that needs to be flipped. (This corresponds to |
| edge cubie #3, as discussed in Chapter Eight.) Do Rubik's Maneuver, then undo the moves     |
| you used to "customize" the locations of those two edge cubies that got flipped.            |
|                                                                                             |
| Don't worry about "edge cubie #1" -- Rubik's Mauever (if done correctly) only flips the two |
| edge cubies at FRONT TOP and BACK TOP. The edge cubie at BOTTOM BACK should be completely   |
| unaffected by Rubik's Maneuver.                                                             |
|                                                                                             |
| There is one special case not handled by the instructions in Chapter Eight. Can you figure  |
| out what needs to be done for this special situation?                                       |
|                                                                                             |
|                                 __ This is where we want #3.                                |
|                               /                                                             |
|                 +----+    +----+    +----+    +----+                                        |
|                 |    |    |    |    |    |    | #2 |                                        |
|            +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+                                   |
|            |    | L  |    | F  |    | R  |    | K  |    |  Customizing Move:                |
|            +----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+----+  "3R^".                           |
|                 |    |    |    |    |    |    | #3 |                                        |
|                 +----+    +----+    +----+    +----+                                        |
|                                                                                             |
|     DIAGRAM 9-3. Special Case Not Handled by Instuctions in Chapter Eight                   |
|                                                                                             |
| In the worst case, you will need to do Rubik's maneuver six times to flip 12 edge cubies.   |
| (In the best case, you won't need to do it at all.)                                         |
|                                                                                             |
| ... And after all that work, the result is ....                                             |
|                                                                                             |
|                             +---+---+---+                                                   |
|                             |TOP|TOP|TOP|                                                   |
|                             +---+---+---+                                                   |
|                             |TOP|TOP|TOP|                                                   |
|                             +---+---+---+                                                   |
|                             |TOP|TOP|TOP|                                                   |
|                 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+                           |
|                 | L | L | L | F | F | F | R | R | R | K | K | K |                           |
|                 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+                           |
|                 | L | L | L | F | F | F | R | R | R | K | K | K |                           |
|                 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+                           |
|                 | L | L | L | F | F | F | R | R | R | K | K | K |                           |
|                 +---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+                           |
|                             | B | B | B |                                                   |
|                             +---+---+---+                                                   |
|                             | B | B | B |                                                   |
|                             +---+---+---+                                                   |
|                             | B | B | B |                                                   |
|                             +---+---+---+                                                   |
|                                                                                             |
|                 DIAGRAM 9-3. The Unscrambled Cube                                           |
|                                                                                             |
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