Chapter 1: Introduction
The Magic Cube or Rubik's Cube is an ingenious puzzles invented by Ernö Rubik, a sculptor, architect, and teacher of three dimensional design at the Academy of Applied Art in Budapest.
When new, it looks like a cube, about the size of a fist, with each face colored with one of six bright colors. Closer examination shows that it appears to be a 3𝗑3𝗑3 array of little cubes -- called cubies. Thus each face of the cube is really a 3𝗑3 pattern of little faces -- called facelets -- of the small cubies.
One of the first questions about the cube which we usually are asked is, "What is the problem?". We explain that the problem is to devise a method by which, starting with a randomly scrambled cube, you can restore the cube to the position where each face has a single solid color. About half of the people then respond by saying "Oh, so I am supposed to figure out how to take it apart!" We say, "No, the cube does not come apart. At least it is not supposed to."
About half of those people then go away to work out how the cube comes apart, muttering something like, "These fellows are no help. They clearly don't understand the problem" But, for the rest of you who are still here, we can go on to usual next question. "What movements can the cube make?" One could answer that each of the six faces can be rotated about its central cubie as shown in Figure 1-1. After turning any one of the faces you can now turn any other faces. This causes the colored facelets to move about. Sounds simple, doesn't it? If we stop there, we have made the problem about as difficult as one possibly could. Why? Because we may have turned off the most fruitful line of inquiry leading to solutions of inquiry leading to solutions of the problem. It is important to understand a great deal more about how the cube moves than just that each of the six faces can be rotated.
WARNING: It only takes a few random turns to thoroughly confuse your cube! Each face soon looks like a Mondrian painting. Without a solution, such as that given in Chapter 3, it could take you a long time to restore your cube.
Masochists who insisted on restoring their cubes without any help have taken weeks or months. Several of our friends took nine months to a year! When you understand the basic strategy taught in this book, you will be able to restore any scrambled cube without referring again to the book. The strategy does not require you to memorize any sequences of moves. You are taught the reason for each and every face turn.
