EPISODE 24 - Can A Rubik's Cube...? (David's Special #2)

Heyyy, welcome to the season finale of the GNAPcast! In our last episode of Season 1, David explained the science and strategy behind the competitive event of speedcubing, or solving Rubik's Cubes really quickly. His explanations made too much sense, though, so we turned to the internet and decided to ask it questions about them!

Just when you thought Rubik's Cubes were complex enough, we find a way to make them even more convoluted! Join Seth and David for our last episode of Season 1 as we play Google Autofill with Rubik's Cubes (though not at the same time, that might be difficult).

It's been a great season! We've enjoyed sharing all this craziness with you guys and are really looking forward to more. Tune in next week for a quick GNAP-date. (Yes, we did really just say that.)

 

Fact Checks and Extra Stuff! - David

Again, because this episode was recorded so far in advance, some of the information is a little outdated. Never fear, though! Here are some further explanations and links for you to find out for yourself:

E - notation explanations

F - Here's a link to The Cubicle, if you want to buy your own puzzle cube.

K - And here's a link to ZCube, for all of your puzzle cube or keychain needs!

L - The Rubik's Cube mechanism

N - Here's a forum post from SpeedSolving, talking about more of those bizarre cube names.

O - An online timer, in case you want to try your luck.

P - Herbert Kociemba's website

U - We may have already included this link in the last episode, but here is Kevin Hays' underwater world record video.

V - Back at The Cubicle! In addition to puzzle cubes, you can also find some silicon-based cube lubricants (cubricants??) here.

W - The name I couldn't remember in the episode was SeungBeom Cho (who does go by Steve, so I got that right). However, the current world record (as of May 5th) is by Feliks Zemdegs, with 4.22 seconds. 

X - The X and O Method is also called the Ortega Method, or the Corners-First Method. To use this algorithm, you solve all of the corners (creating an 'X' on each side with the center pieces), and then solve the edges while using the corners as a reference. This was actually the very first method I used to solve a cube, though I had no idea what I was doing at the time. You can read more about it here.

Z - Since this is an audio episode and I'm talking about an extremely visual thing, here are some links to the kinds of things I'm talking about! This is the zigzag pattern, and here are some other ones.