Rubik's Cube Algorithm

Rianna Richardson
 Rubik's Cube Facts
• There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000
different configurations, and only one solution
• At the World's Rubik's Cube Championship people solve
the cube blindfolded or with one hand
• The youngest person to solve the cube was 3 year old
from China

Lets Give It A Go
 Basic Cube Notation
• R= Right Face Hint: Before starting, play with the
• L= Left Face cube to learn how it rotates. The
more comfortable you are the
• B= Back Face easier the following solution will
be.
• D = Down Face
• F= Front Face
• U = Upper Face
A letter by itself = Turn face 90° clockwise
A letter + apostrophe = Turn face 90° counter-
clock wise
A letter + 2 = Turn face 180°
 The First Layer
1. Form the White Cross
– Go edge by edge
– Can’t mess up what you’ve already done
– Edge flipped the wrong way:
• R’ U F’ U’

If your cube looks like

this, MOVE ON!
 The First Layer
2. Solve the White Corners
– Find a corner piece on B, that belongs on U
• R’ D’ R D (up to five times, until solved)
– If corner is on U already, but in wrong
position
• Hold cube sp the piece is on the upper front right
position
• R’ D’ R D

Do this for every corner!

 Move On When….

Next Step… The Middle Layer

 The Middle Layer
1. Put the white face on the Bottom
2. Find the Blue/ Red piece so the Blue
lines up.
Or, If you
See this…

D' F' D F D L D' L' then

D L D' L' D' F' D F
D L D' L' D' F' D F
 The Final Layer-
Orient the edges
- Place white side on the Bottom
- 4 Possible States
**The face in the
pictures is U** State 4: Do algorithm
for state 2 or 3, then
State 2: you will be in state 2
F U R U' R' F' or 3.
State 3:
F R U R' U' F'
State 1: Ready
to move on!
 The Final Layer-
Permute the corners
• two adjacent LL corners need to be
swapped
– Place white side on bottom, and corners to
be swapped @ front top right and back right
top
– L U' R' U L' U' R U2
• two diagonal LL corners need to be
swapped
– Do the above algorithm twice
 The Last Layer-
Orienting the LL Corners
• There are 8 possible states.
– State 1 (where the corners are correct)
• SKIP THIS STEP!

State 2: Twist three State 2: Twisting three

corners anti-clockwise corners clockwise
R' U' R U' R' U2 R U2 R U R' U R U2 R' U2
 The Last Layer-
Orienting the LL Corners

States 3-7: If you see this do one for the following:

**Hint: Figure out - Algorithm for State 1 twice
intuitively, so this
becomes natural** - Algorithm for State 2 twice
- Algorithm for State 1, then State 2
 The Last Layer-
Permute the edges
• 5 possible states
– State 1: Edges are correct
• YOU ARE DONE!!

State 2 :
R2 U' F B' R2 F' B U' R2

States 3 and 4: Apply algorithm

State 1:
from State 1 or 2. Then your cube
R2 U F B' R2 F' B U R2
will look like State 1 or 2, apply
the corresponding algorithm.
Congratulations!

IT'S OVER!