My EPQ project is going to be based on me learning to solve Rubik's cubes. Before I talk about my abilities going into this or my goals, I want to contextualise how big 1 second is. It took 4 years from the first official sub-6 second solve to the first official sub-5 second solve. It then took 3 more years to break the 4 second barrier; just think about racing for example: in formula 1. Max Verstappen, who drove the fastest lap in qualifying in last week's race (The Austrian Grand Prix 2021), got a time of 1:03.720. Nikita Mazepin is a new driver who often qualifies and finishes the race in last: he got a time of 1:05.951. This time difference of 2.231 seconds is massive in the world of racing, and this can be applied to solving Rubik's cubes too - Both sports have been perfected over years of hard work, and the record for solving a Rubik's cube is untouchable for nearly everybody in the world. My goal is to come within less than 7 seconds of the official world record, which is 3.47 seconds, set by Yusheng Du.
It might seem incredibly ambitious to come this close to the world record, but there is lots of information online published by professionals who have an average below 10 seconds. Feliks Zemdegs, for example, who has broken over 100 world records and is the only person to ever be a 2-time Rubik's Cube World Champion, has a YouTube channel, and often creates videos explaining techniques for both beginners and experienced cubers. There are lots of methods and ways to improve my time, some of which consist of memorisation or..., but all consist of practice.
I have already learnt to solve a Rubik's cube in 13 seconds, but this is my personal best score so it doesn't reflect my actual ability as I can't consistently do it in 13 seconds. My average at the moment is 23.410 which I have recorded using a mobile app (https://ruwix.com/online-rubiks-stopwatch-timer/). My goal is to solve the cube in under 10 seconds, or get an average of 5 consecutive solves (ao5) under 15 seconds.
Solving a Rubik's cube comes down to 4 main stages:
- Cross - Solving the edge pieces on the first face (I use white as the first face).
- F2L (First 2 Layers) - Solving the first two layers, with the first solved face being on the bottom (White in my case).
- OLL (Orientation of the Last Layer) - Orienting all of the pieces in the opposite face (The yellow face for me).
- PLL (Permutation of the Last Layer) - Swapping the pieces in the last face to solve the whole cube.
Terminology
It's important for my audience to understand how we talk about cubing (don't worry, more will be explained throughout). Here are a few examples:
tps - tps stands for turns per second
inspection - the allotted time before a solve that is given to inspect the cube and decide how to approach the solve. (inspection time can be incredibly useful for quick Cross and F2L sections)
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