r/Rubiks_Cubes • u/Potential_Actuary275 • 2d ago
Rubik
Can expert Rubik’s Cube solvers freely create any color pattern they want? I don't mean solving the cube, but being able to arrange the colored stickers into any specific pattern they choose.
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u/_THurisaz 2d ago
Yes, match the scramble
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u/sunsetandporches 2d ago
Okay. That’s something I’ve seen on video and I guess I didn’t dive too deep since I didn’t realize it had a name. Cool.
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u/LifeSwitch8739 2d ago
this is called "resceamble" and it's a fun practice and pretty easy to learn
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u/bxmxc_vegas 2d ago
Sort of. There are impossible states that would not be re-creatable with out taking the cube apart (like 2 swaps and twisted corners) or changing stickers (e.g. blue next to green on a edge piece), but all possible states are certainly able to be re-created.
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u/MarsMaterial 2d ago
There actually is a semi-popular challenge known as "rescramble" which is basically exactly this. You have a scrambled cube, and you need to match the scramble with a solved cube. It's not an official WCA event, but competitions have been held.
It's definitely possible to do a rescramble with basic cube solving techniques, but if you don't practice it it's a lot slower and harder than a normal solve. As someone who hasn't really practiced it: I find that using an advanced solving technique like CFOP or Roux is prohibitively difficult for rescrambles, but I can do it with the beginner method. And I'm not fast either, a lot of the color patterns I've learned to look for don't really work. I can solve a 3x3x3 in under 20 seconds normally, but I'd be lucky to finish a rescramble in 5 minutes.
I've also solved cubes into patterns before, and if it's a simple pattern it's usually not nearly as annoying as solving it into a specific random state. Solving into a checkers pattern or a dots pattern is usually not that bad.
In short: anyone who can solve a Rubik's Cube could probably do a rescramble like this if they put their mind to it, but it takes a lot of practice to do it quickly and competently. It's definitely not as easy as a normal solve.
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u/Blarpfgh 2d ago
Yeah thats how I created a checkerboard gigaminx, I was too lazy to use a tutorial
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u/Elemental_Titan9 2d ago
Basically yes. A handful of us can ‘arrange’ the colours into most specific patterns.
Limited, mostly by the cube itself, as theres only so much we can actually achieve by turning 6 sides.
But yeah, I can do a rescramble challenge. But it’s not easy.
I much prefer recreating patterns
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u/UnknownCorrespondent 2d ago
Yes, subject to the laws of the cube. You don’t move stickers around, you move the pieces they’re attached to, and those movements have a few limitations. You must have an even number of flipped edges, corner twists must be in opposite direction pairs, and you can only swap even numbers of pairs of pieces, although it can be one pair of corners and one of edges. These are the basics. Some pairs can be combined so that the results look different. If you twist one pair of corners and then one of the twisted ones with an untwisted one you get three twists in the same direction. The same applies to overlapping two pairs of swapped pieces (all the same type this time) to get a 3-cycle. Larger odd cycles are possible but rarely done on purpose.
The centers of the 3x3 (and larger odd cubes) don’t move relative to each other, so you can’t have patterns with a different arrangement of centers without physically moving stickers or reassembling stickerless pieces.
These rules apply to the 3x3. Larger cubes with multiple edges between each corner can have one pair of those swapped. The middlemost edges of large odd cubes still follow the 3x3 rules though.