ELI5: The general idea to solve a rubiks cube?

At the very start, you look at the middle square on all the sides, that will show you where all the colours are supposed to be. The middle squares always stay in the same spot in relation to each other, so they are your guide.

  • Fix one whole side on your own and make sure the edges match up with the middle square of the sides next to it.
  • Rotate the whole cube so that the fixed side is now facing down.
  • At this point you have the whole bottom side correct and little upsidown T's correct on each side.

This is where things get tricky, at this point it's a good idea to organise how you think of the cube. 1) Name all the sides of the cube. Bottom = B, Top = T, Front = F, Back = B, Left=L, Right= R. 2) Hold the cube so that the Front side always stays front and the bottom always stays bottom, this is so you dont lose track of what you are doing. 3) Forget about all the other sides and only focus on the side that is at the front. From now on when I talk about rows, I only talking about the side facing you. 4) Twisting a side one way 3 times is the same as twisting it the other way once. From now on, Twist everything in the same direction. It's easier to remember all your moves if you don't have to worry about twisting clockwise or anticlockwise. Later on, once you get good at solving it, you can make your moves more efficient by rotating the sides in both directions to cut down on the number of moves.

Now when you look at the front side, the bottom row is already done, and the middle piece is already done. You only have to fix the two edge blocks on the middle row.. and all three blocks on the top row.

Start with the middle row edge blocks. You need to learn two things (sorry I don't remember these moves): 1) learn how to swap the middle row edge blocks with each other without messing up the bottom row. 2) lean how to rotate the middle row edge blocks without moving them.

Once you know those two moves, you can fix the middle row on the front (F) side. Then turn the whole cube around so that a different side is now your "front" side and fix the middle row for all 4 sides.

At this point, you have bottom face fixed, and the entire bottom two rows on all the sides fixed. You only have to fix the top. Twist the top row so that the middle

Now you need to learn: 1) Learn how to swap two corner blocks around 2) Learn how to rotate corner blocks without messing anything else up. (I remember this one, R,R,T,T,R,T,T,R,R,T = will rotate the top right corner block) 3) Learn how to swap the middle block on the top row with other middle blocks on the top row. 4) Learn how to rotate the middle block.

I think you fix the top middle blocks first then do the corners last but I forgot. Once you have all of the front side fixed, you just rotate the whole cube so that a new colour is now your "front" side and do the same thing until all the top rows are done.

/r/explainlikeimfive Thread