Customer Reviews

The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube

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This is the best-selling solution to Rubik's cube, and rightly so--the procedure is easy to understand, easy to execute, and easy to remember. It is what I used to learn to solve the cube in 1981 (I was 7 at the time), and I still know the solution now, even after many years without touching the cube. However, the focus of this book is so much on everything being easy that it is rather inefficient--it requires about 110 moves on average to solve the cube using this method. If you are looking for a faster or more efficient solution, look for Minh Thai's book "The Winning Solution" (1982), which solves the cube in about 70 moves, or you can look on the internet for solutions by Lars Petrus (60 moves), Philip Marshall ("The Ultimate Solution", 65 moves), or Dan Knights ("The Advanced Solution", 60 moves). If you are looking for the ultimate in speed-solving the cube, look at Jiri Fridrich's solution, which requires 55 moves and can be performed in under 18 seconds. Be warned that Jiri's solution requires a great deal of memorizing. Philip Marshall's solution requires the least amount of memorizing (only a handful of small processes), but it requires a significant amount of planning and maneuvering which is sure to put your spatial skills to the test. But it is certainly a simple and elegant solution. The choice is yours!

Sometime I guess in 1981 or 1982 I purchased this book at the Woolworth's in Janesville, Wisconsin having bought a Rubik's cube and having been completely engrossed in it. I was 12 or 13 at the time. The book was (at is) a straightforward explanation of how to take a mangled cube and get it back in shape. My personal record is one minute and nineteen seconds. I've managed to hold onto that cube and this book over the years. It has a very high geek nostalgia factor.

An uncle of mine - a puzzle fanatic - bought this book, and we used to fight over who would use it, as we were both perplexed by our cubes. I've seen other solution books, but this one is by far the easiest to follow. I just acquired a new Rubik's Cube (they're being sold by a company called OddzOn Productions, in Campbell, CA), and am ordering this book again! Excellent work, Mr. Nourse!

I finally could solve Rubik's cube after getting this book. Nourse begins with nomenclature for each of the faces: Front, Back, Left, Right, Top, and Bottom. (It does not matter which face is the front, as long as one consistently uses that face as the front, etc.). He has a nomenclature for each move. For example, (B+) means one quarter turn of the back face in a clockwise direction, (F-) means one quarter turn of the front face in a counterclockwise direction, and (T2) means a half-turn of the top face (does not matter in which direction). In using this guide, one first solves the top face of Rubik's cube, then the side faces, and finally the bottom face. Helpful diagrams guide the reader at each step. He points out that the center squares can only rotate in place.

Nourse even has a place for humor in his little book. He says (p. 20) not to unglue and move around any of the colors, or else one may not be able to solve the cube even if one outlives the universe.

I remember tinkering around with Rubik's Cube back in high school but was never all that serious about solving it. Recently, I've decided to pick up a cube, get a book to learn some patterns and then finally solve it. With the aid of this book, I solved the cube in less than 30 minutes. I solved two thirds of the cube without using any of the patterns in the book. The last fews steps to solving the cube are kind of tricky but the book explains it very well and has easy to memorize patterns. So with some practice, I can see how someone can easily solve the cube in less than a minute by using the patterns in this book or variations of them.

It was the first book I saw on how to solve Erno Rubik's ingenious little puzzle. I became quickly addicted to the cube and finding quicker solutions to solving it. I gained some noteriety in my small town when my father suggested I teach a two-day class on how to solve it at the local college's adult ed center. I was 13 at the time. This has recently surfaced and I am now known as cube boy by a few co-workers.

I got a cube back in 1980 and never really made an effort to figure out how to solve it. So I recently bought another one and did some internet searches to find a solution, thinking it wouldn't be that difficult. I mean, if 10 year olds can do it in mere seconds, how hard can it be, right? And yet, I never did find a site that made much sense to me. I suspect that I am somewhat weak with regard to three dimensional spatial awareness. Anyhow, along the way in my internet searching, I read that this was a good book (not the fastest method, but still a good book). I didn't care how long it was going to take me to solve it - speed was not going to be my goal. I just wanted to be able to solve the darn thing once and for all.

I don't know if some of the other people reviewing this book are much smarter than I am, but I still found it a little challenging to follow at times. I would not have been able to follow it at age 10 like some of these other people say they did. But the point is that I stuck with it and was able to solve it in the end! Now that I've finished doing it, I'm going to scramble the cube again and again and work through it over and over. I haven't memorized any of the steps yet and I want to do that.

Don't be discouraged if you do one step and then get a little lost trying to follow the next step. Put the cube down for a while if you get frustrated and then come back to it later. I am so excited that I finally did it! This really is a great book for somebody who just wants to be able to solve a cube - I highly recommend it.

I originally owned a copy of this book years ago and easily learned and memorized the steps to solve "the cube" using the guidance provided. I can't say that I recall my personal best time on solving the puzzle; but the patterns were easy enough to memorize that I could find the solution while talking to friends or walking down the street. Considering all the possible moves, I think that's it's impressive that the book is simple enough to memorize those solutions. My original must have found it's way into a garage sale years ago, so I purchased a recent copy and a new cube. If my brain can still understand it at my age, anybody can use this book to solve this frustrating little puzzle and maybe even actually impress their spouse or, amazingly, their children! I see that other reviews that say there are solutions requiring fewer moves and I have no reason to question that. All I can say is that the solutions provided in this book are easy to understand and that they work!

I know some reviewers are saying this isn't the fastest solution to the cube or the one with the least amount of steps. As an 11 yr old in 1981, I bought this book and memorized the steps. Within a few weeks I could solve the cube in under a minute consistently. My very best time was just under 30 seconds. Don't listen to the nay-sayers! This is a great book! The steps and algorithms are easy to memorize. I remember most of them still to this day (I just turned 39). I want to find this book again so I can re-learn those last few steps which I have forgotten over the decades (hey! give me a break I forgot them because I haven't picked up a cube in over 20 years).

Great book, this is the same book I owned in 1983 where I first learned how to solve the cube. It is absolutely the best book for anyone who wants to solve the cube.