Rubik's Cube Record Broken

martinX writes "The Courier Mail has a story about a San Fran software developer who spins the cube faster than anyone else on the planet: 20 seconds to solve Rubik's Cube. I didn't think anyone still played with them." The winner, Dan Knights, said "It's sort of a dream come true", and credited Jessica Fridrich's cube-solving method as the key to winning, leaving the originator of the method in second place at the World Rubik's Cube Championships in Toronto at the weekend.

Video?

Anyone know if theres a video of him actually solving the cube? Or anyone solving one. It would be interesting to watch.

Re:Video?

You can see the creator of the Fridrich method solve the cube here: http://www.ws.binghamton.edu/fridrich/video.html [binghamton.edu]

Obligitory Lego URL

http://jpbrown.i8.com/cubesolver.html [i8.com]

20 seconds???????

That's way faster than I could solve the cube...

By peeling and re-applying the stickers.

I think I saw him...

I think I saw him doing a little sidewalk show at Fisherman's Wharf a couple weeks ago. I thought "this is odd, there's a guy showing people he can solve the cube in under 30 seconds...", and just walked past.

Little did I know I was passing by my chance to meet a world champion. I just hope he doesn't let it go to his head and end up screwed up like Mike Tyson or Todd Marinovich.

An even bigger challenge!

including solving the cube with one hand and blindfolded.
Too easy. Let's see how they do blinfolded with their hands crossed behing their back wearing boxing gloves.

Solve times

I know a guy who can solve them in under 3 minutes. He memorized all the algorithms and so on. Fascinating concept. I never knew they were actually solvable until I met him. A lot of people joke that "oh gimme a screwdriver and I'll solve it" but when you break it down step by step, they actually do have a simple set of steps that can be taken to solve them, like any other logic problem. Although he did tell me that they can be taken apart and rearranged in such a way that they CAN be made unsolvable. He told me "never try to solve a cube until you've seen it solved. You never know what kinds of assholes will stack the deck on you to make you look stupid."

Word

My friend went to this competition. Before this he was 4th world champion. It's really amazing to see someone finish it so fast. his average time is 25 seconds I think.

initial state of cube?

how is it possible to have a rubik's cube competition? is there a standardized initial state for the cube?

Re:initial state of cube?

From the rules:

Scrambling:
In all portions of the championship, puzzles will be scrambled using random moves generated by computer. The same sequences of random moves will be applied to the puzzle of each competitor to ensure each competitor will be starting with the same random puzzle state. This same method of scrambling will be used during the averages or best of 3 ?- type portions of competition. These random moves will be applied by independent jury-members.

The number of random moves depends on the puzzle. See the below example for explanation.

Rubiks 3x3x3: 25 moves
Rubiks 4x4x4, 40 moves
Rubiks 5x5x5, other: 60 moves etc

But what I REALLY want to know is, how the hell do you solve a cube while blindfolded? Seriously, there are three categories of blindfolded competitions.

I am forshamed

I can do the cube, and have been able to since like 8th grade. When I first solved it, it would take me like a half hour. Then in 10th grade, I found a solution online that allowed me to do it in 10 minutes. And then my senior year, I found a 3 minute solution. After a few more years of using that method, I can regularly get a cube solved in a minute and a half. I know there are quicker algorithms out there, but I have dedicated the time for them. Most people have the patience and intrigue to stick around for a couple of minutes while I solve it. They always say "You can do that so fast!". I'ts like someone telling you your Ford Taurus is fast when they've never seen a Corvette. I'm always like "I don't do this fast, trust me". I always thought the record was less than 20 seconds. I remember seeing a guy do it in 16 seconds before. Maybe this is the average of a few cubes, I guess.

Just a question of time and monkeys

Given enough time and enough monkeys they will eventually solve the cube in 19 seconds.

I started reading the algorithm

...but then I realized that rubik's cube is boring and mvoed on. I must have ADD.

damn miss post!

good videos of speed cubing and techniques can be found here. [speedcubing.com]

Not a World Record

This page [recordholders.org] lists many official times of under 20 seconds. Furthermore the middle of the page lists the previously quoted 22.95 seconds as simply the previous world championship time, not the previous record. Finally, you can see even faster times on an unofficial list [speedcubing.com] where some people claim to have solved in 11 seconds.

It's not a new world record, it's simply a new championship winner. The world record is still 16.53 seconds.

Well, now I feel stupid...

At first I thought, "WOW." That's insane, 20 something seconds. Then I read on to discover that there are solutions online that will help anyone beat the cube - and fast, with practice.

And to think that I was never able to finish much more than two sides of the cube... ah well, I was 10, and the 'net wasn't around then. It was probably more fun that way, really.