cubing/15-puzzle general

[3.14159]

Since I've been away, I've adopted cubing/solving rubik's cubes as a pastime, as well as solving 15-puzzles. My times for the 3x3x3 cube are roughly ~30 ~ 40 seconds, best time of 25.1 seconds. Not very good since I mostly focus on larger rubik's cubes (5x5x5+ preferred), and I mostly use cube simulators as opposed to physical cubes. Also do 15-puzzles on a regular basis, again using sims because I don't have any physical 15puzzles. For the ordinary 15-puzzle, my times range from ~10 ~ 20 seconds normally, best time was a lucky 7.704 seconds.

cubes
2x2x2: 3.3 seconds
3x3x3: 25.1 seconds
4x4x4: 95.6 seconds
5x5x5: 2.465 mins
6x6x6: 3.81 mins
7x7x7: 5.68 mins
8x8x8: 8.49 mins
9x9x9: 11.9 mins
10x10x10: 16.681 mins
11x11x11: 20.31 mins
12x12x12: 27.15 mins
13x13x13: 32.8 mins
14x14x14: 42.2 mins
15x15x15: 48.5 mins
16x16x16: 57.35 mins
17x17x17: ~73 mins
18x18x18: 83 mins
19x19x19: 101.845 mins
20x20x20: 95.556 mins
26x26x26: 230.007 mins
30x30x30: 818.245 mins
32x32x32: 369.521 mins
33x33x33: 399.297 mins
35x35x35: 574.211 mins
40x40x40: ~960 mins
15puzzles
2x2puzzle: 0
3x3puzzle: 0.07 seconds
4x4puzzle: 7.704 seconds
5x5puzzle: 25.891 seconds
6x6puzzle: 56.307 seconds
7x7puzzle: 107.316 seconds
8x8puzzle: 3.131 mins
9x9puzzle: 5.218 mins
10x10puzzle: 6.833 mins
13x13puzzle: 15.913 mins
15x15puzzle: 26.634 mins

there's all my personal best times for the puzzle sizes I've solved so far, for both rubik's cube puzzles and 15-puzzles.

Anyone else out there for either cubes or 15-puzzles? If so, what times/methods do you use?

Some vids of my solves:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKta4LGlXeE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9c4tfUZDX_o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGTr7s6g7us

[henryzz]

http://www.mersenneforum.org/showthread.php?t=11186
These are some quite good times.

If you are into solving things like a 40x40x40 it might be fun if you try and break the record for the largest solve. From memory I think it is at around 101 currently. There is a guy on the speedcubing forum trying to break his own record currently.

[TheMawn]

What cube software do you use?

I own a V-Cube 7, V-Cube 5 and a Rubik's brand 3x3x3. I had a Rubik's 4 and a V-Cube 6 but something inside the 4 snapped and I dropped the V-Cube 6 and holy f------ s--- is the V-Cube one complicated-ass piece of hardware!

I've given up on Verdes to ever make anything bigger than the 7 and I can't for the life of me find any of the store that sell the larger physical cubes. Sadly, I haven't been able to confirm my hypothesis that I can solve any cube without help having learned about having no centers in 4, having learned about the more complex center building in 5, and then having learned about building the even bigger centers in layers in 6 and 7.

[3.14159]

What cube software do you use?

I use gabbasoft, this: http://www.motus-software.com/rubix.htm, or this (for big cubes): http://advsys.net/ken/download.htm

I've given up on Verdes to ever make anything bigger than the 7 and I can't for the life of me find any of the store that sell the larger physical cubes. Sadly, I haven't been able to confirm my hypothesis that I can solve any cube without help having learned about having no centers in 4, having learned about the more complex center building in 5, and then having learned about building the even bigger centers in layers in 6 and 7.

Yeah, Verdes isn't planning on making any larger cubes than 7. However, if you really need some larger physical cubes than 7x7x7, you should check out http://www.championscubestore.com/, which sells Shengshou cubes. They're currently selling cubes 2x2 ~ 9x9, and will soon release their 10x10 cube.

[Brian-E]

Originally Posted by henryzz

If you are into solving things like a 40x40x40 it might be fun if you try and break the record for the largest solve. From memory I think it is at around 101 currently. There is a guy on the speedcubing forum trying to break his own record currently.

Just out of interest, what does the largest solve of 101 mean exactly?
I guess it's 101 moves to solve the cube from a particular starting position, but does that mean a particular position found which takes the record most number of moves to solve (surely that's out of computational reach to verify?), or a record best solve of only 101 moves from a random position (in which case how do we know the starting position was not fortuitously chosen?), or something else?

[3.14159]

Originally Posted by Brian-E

Just out of interest, what does the largest solve of 101 mean exactly?
I guess it's 101 moves to solve the cube from a particular starting position, but does that mean a particular position found which takes the record most number of moves to solve (surely that's out of computational reach to verify?), or a record best solve of only 101 moves from a random position (in which case how do we know the starting position was not fortuitously chosen?), or something else?

He means the largest cube solved by hand. The world record for that was set a few months ago, which stands at 111x111x111. The solve took slightly less than 30 hours' worth of solving time spaced out over a few days, done by one person, unlike the previous record. The previous record was set by two people over the course of 34 days if I remember right, which was 100x100x100.

[Brian-E]

Originally Posted by 3.14159

He means the largest cube solved by hand. The world record for that was set a few months ago, which stands at 111x111x111. The solve took slightly less than 30 hours' worth of solving time spaced out over a few days, done by one person, unlike the previous record. The previous record was set by two people over the course of 34 days if I remember right, which was 100x100x100.

Thanks. Sorry for my slowness.

[LaurV]

Originally Posted by Brian-E

I guess it's 101 moves ... or something else?

Related to that: The God's Number is 20.