100 Things.com.au: Megsy #92 - Solve a Rubik's Cube

20101109

Megsy #92 - Solve a Rubik's Cube

I was a kid in the 80s and that meant Hypercolour T-shirts, Walkmans and Cabbage Patch Dolls. But I remember watching an american TV show called 'That's Incredible' and watching speedcubing - the guys who could solve a Rubik's Cube in lightning speed - and wishing I could just figure mine out. But my dad busted me peeling the stickers off in frustration and ever since I harboured a secret-if-somewhat-geekish wish in that I would someday be able to solve a Rubik's Cube...hence item #92.

So after a little online search, I stumbled upon the UK Speedcubing Masters, held in Bristol. I bought a cube, mucked it up and headed out- thinking I'd be getting tips and hints from the experts to go away again and work on it at home. But after tuition from Mike, Connor and Alex, lots of cubing lingo (daisies, keyholes, L Prime, L, R Prime, R, and 'Cube lube' - I kid you not!) and in a lightning speed of 3 and a bit hours, I solved a Rubik's Cube!!! I literally squealed in disbelief which must have been pretty strange to these guys. Afterall, they manage to do this as quickly as 7.71 seconds, and blindfolded! There was even a 7 year old there who took about a minute to get it all back as it should be. The World Champion, Breandan Vallance, won the UK event, solving one of the cube's 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible combinations of its coloured squares in an average of 9.9 seconds.

So now the challenge is to do it again - maybe next year I could compete blindfolded??