Extremely simple solution for 2x2 Rubik's Cube - just one algorithm

Introduction

It is not fake. It really works!

 

Recently I tried to solve Rubik's Cube by myself and I found it very complicated. After 30 minutes I could not solve it and I found beginner's solution on the internet like this or this. It is very complicated for a normal person and it is almost not possible to remember it. Why this solution so complicated? Why I need to remember a lot of algorithms? Hopefully, there are some automatic solution finders on the internet :)

I decided to find my own solution, but it should be very simple, that everyone can repeat it and remember. Of course, I read about God and Devil algorithms and that nobody could find a very simple solution so far. But really, for 2x2 Rubik's cube, they offer the solution from 3 steps and you need to memorize at least 8 algorithms. For 3x3 Rubik's Cube, beginner's solution has 7 steps and 9 algorithms have to be memorized. Who can remember this? Only some real geeks or nerds.

Note: Please do not expect to use the solution mentioned in this post for very fast solving/speedcubing. It will not work. This solution is simple but relatively long. It was designed to solve Rubik's Cube with simple and easy to remember algorithm without time limitation.

What is needed to apply this simple solution?

In a few weeks, I found a simple algorithm, which can solve any 2x2 Rubik's Cube. I called it Russian Flag Solution or Z-Solution. Only 2 things have to be memorized, in order to solve it.

1. How to solve one face properly, as shown in the picture below. If you have difficulties to make one face, please watch this video.

It is one state of the cube shown from different sides.

It is one state of the cube shown from different sides.

2. This Color Sequence: White, Blue, Red, Yellow, Green, Orange.




Optionally it is good to remember which color is opposite to which, like White-Yellow, Blue-Green, Red-Orange, but it is not necessary. It will just make it a little bit faster.

This color sequence is easier to remember because the first 3 colors make Russian Flag and the rest are the colors opposite to Russian Flag colors.

What is the trick?

The good question is: how this color sequence and making one face can help?
The whole trick is to make one face properly, white first, then forget about it and make the next one (blue). Then just continue making one face after another in the sequence mentioned above. Of course, while making a blue face, white will be broken, but this is the nice thing about this solution, that there is no need to care about the previous state. Just stupidly make one face after another and that it. No need to think at all. This is demonstrated in the pictures below:

Iteration 1.

Iteration 2.

 

Iteration 3.

Iteration 4.

Iteration 5.

 Iteration 6.

 

and after orange color (Iteration 6) everything should be repeated again from white color (Iteration 1).
This video shows the whole process.

Most probably other sequences will work as well (most probably opposite direction like Orange, Green, Yellow, Red, Blue, White), but for me, Russian Flag is easier to remember and I did not try other sequences. This color sequence is chosen because these are colors in one of the corners if I go through them clockwise. I believe any other color sequence will work if they are from the corner and make a clockwise or counterclockwise sequence.

How much time will it take?

Another interesting question, how much time it will take? Maybe it will take years to go through all possible combinations?
Actually, I did it many times for 2x2 Rubik's cube and I always manage to solve it in maximum 10 minutes. The best time was 30 seconds. In the video above I manage to solve it in 5 minutes. And in terms of how many times it is required to make different faces, I can tell that from my statistics after 10 to 30 iterations it will be solved.

Why does it work?

Do not ask me why it works, I have no clue :) I found this solution accidentally, by just playing with 2x2 Rubik's cube with the thoughts "Let's do one face after another and see what will happen". The only explanation I have is about entropy reduction. Every step I decrease entropy a little bit and in the end, it leads to full order and zero entropy.

Does it work for 3x3 Rubik's cube and other cubes?

The answer is Yes and No. I tried to apply the same algorithm for the 3x3 cube, and sometimes it works, but sometimes not. In the worse case, I made 300 faces (iterations) and could not solve it. It was almost done, just a few parts were in the wrong place, but it did not work. Sometimes, maybe 50% of cases when I was lucky it worked. Read my another post how to solve 3x3 cube with Russian Flag Solution, where I modified a little bit this solution an it always works for 3x3 cube. It has 2 steps for 3x3 cube instead of 1 steps for 2x2 cube.

It works fine for Pyraminx puzzle (Pyramide or mathematically correctly tetrahedron). Just by solving vertical faces in clockwise order first and then bottom face. It becomes solved after a just a few solved faces (3-5), which is very quickly.

It works for this one as well.

I spent some time and make another similar solution for the 3x3 cube with the same color sequence but 2 steps, instead of 1. But it is a different story and I described it in my next post.