Introduction: How to Solve a Rubiks Cube

I was searching Instructables for a Rubik’s cube tutorial, I
found nothing, and I decided to find a good friend that knows the cube to teach me, this Instructable will show you the patterns needed to complete the elusive “cube”.

Go to step one to start!

Step 1:

This step is about the top face, it is (to make things easier) the white face. If you don’t understand how the cube works, this will be harder to do.

First thing I will note here is that the FIRST TWO pictures is a properly completed top face.

The SECOND TWO photos is not, (notice that all the sides of the top face match up), to complete the top face, not only do you have to have all one color on top but you also have to have the 4 sides color coordinated (white on top, blue in front, orange to the right, red to the left, green to the back).

There are no patterns to use on the top face so there is nothing to say here! Go to step two to learn what the abbreviations are Go to step three to start the middle row.

Step 2: Step Two, Abbreviations.

BL = bottom layer left BR
= bottom layer right

RD = right side down RU = right side up

LD = left side down LU = left side up

TL = top left TR = top right

HL = horizontal left HR = horizontal right (horizontal is the middle layer)

VU = vertical up VD = vertical down

FR = face right FL = face left the faces are the hardest to remember, to do a face right you will need to turn the face clockwise; to do a face left you will turn the face counter clockwise.

Step 3: Step Three, Middle Row.

This is where the patterns start, what you are going to do
is hold the cube like in the first photo and decide the pattern you will use, if the bottom piece of the “T” has for example blue and orange on it that piece will need to go to the right, if it has blue and red it will need to go to the left.

To do the right pattern you will follow these instructions: BL-RD-BR-RU-BR-FR-BL-FL

To do the left pattern you will need to follow these instructions: BR-LD-BL-LU-BL-FL-BR-FR

If you get to the stage where there is no way to make a “T”, you either have 1. Completed the middle layer or you will 2. Have a piece in the wrong corner.

If you have the second option you will have to do either theleft or right pattern in accordance to where the piece is, if it is on the right side you will have to do a right sequence and vice versa on the left.

Once you have the second layer complete you can move on to the third layer, the bottom layer.

Step 4: Step Four, Bottom Layer.

Second layer is now solved; hold the cube with the unsolved
layer on top, (in your case that should be the yellow face on top and white on the bottom)

When you look at the yellow layer ask this question; are all the corners in place?

If not you will have to do this pattern; LU-TR-LD-FR-TL-FL-LU-TL-LD-TR-TR

Before you start this pattern you will have to orientate the cube so the two wrong corners are to the left and right of you, the corner switch pattern switches the two closest corners to you.

Keep doing the corner switches until you have the corners in place, NOTE the corner switch ONLY switches the corners, you will need to do the corner orientation to make the corner pieces go in the right DIRECTION.

Still hold the cube with the yellow face on top and then look at the corners ask yourself this question; what corners need to be turned?

If only three corners need to be turned you are in luck, you should only have to do the corner orientation once, and the corner orientation works in this pattern Г

Here is the corner orientation pattern; LU-TR-LD-TR-LU-TR-TR-LD-TR-TR

It orientates three corners at once; I suggest messing around with this pattern to find out exactly what it does.

When the corners are in the right position and pattern you will need to work on the sides,

To do this you will need to find out what sides need switching, (in most cases they will need to be switched).

The sides pattern (VU-TR-VD-TR-TR-VU-TR-VD) works in a triangle, the three pieces move around in a clockwise triangle pattern, I suggest you do the sides pattern with a completed cube to find out what happens, if you decide to do the sides pattern there is no need to do it in reverse to re-complete the cube, you just need to do it another two times, like the corner orientation, the pattern works in 3’s.

If you complete all but two sides and the pattern looks like an “H” or “I” you will need to do this pattern RD-HL-RD-RD-HL-HL-RD-TR-TR-RU-HR-HR-RU-RU-HR-RU-TR-TR

Before you do the pattern you will need to orientate it so it looks like an “I”.

When you do all that, you should have a completed cube!!

If you don’t, the patterns are all true and can be found on several different websites.

In the last step I have included some photos of the cooler patterns you can make without solving the cube!

Step 5: Some Cool Creations With the Cube

Thanks for viewing, and please check out my other Instructables.