Now, you don’t need to understand why the algorithms work to solve the cube-but if that bothers you and you want to know what’s going on behind the cube, get ready for a lot of math. You need to learn at least 78 separate cube-solving “algorithms” to do it. Unfortunately, the method requires you to do something that, at least to me, seems so insane that I literally want to laugh out loud. According YouTuber Mike Boyd, well-versed practitioners of Fridrich’s Method can be sure to crack the cube in under two minutes. The leading school of thought for solving a Rubik’s Cube quickly is called Fridrich’s Method, and it’s available online. Given that there are roughly 43 quintillion ways for a Rubik’s Cube to be solved, you can bet that Rubik’s fanatics have discovered a few tricks and workarounds through the years. Today, watching those “speedcubing” competitors fast at work-such as Yusheng Du, who beat the previous world record of 4.22 seconds with the jaw-dropping time of 3.47 seconds earlier this year-is like watching Keanu Reeves in The Matrix, processing information in ways mere mortals simply can’t.īut the truth is, you can easily solve a Rubik’s Cube-and quickly, too.
After all, it took Hungarian professor Ernö Rubik, a full month to solve his famous invention for the first time. You’d be forgiven for thinking you need to be a genius-or at least really, really lucky-to solve a Rubik’s Cube.