Last layer of the Rubik's Cube?

[rialvestro]

Hey world, so a while ago Dan posted his Rubik's Cube tutorial. At the time he posted this the only Rubik's Cube I could find on hand was from a 25 cent machine that I've had for I don't know how long. It was shiny but small and I had to make my dad black out one side because I'm color blind. Not to long after that I realized that the colors were just stickers as they started to peal off with age.

So after buying a standard Rubik's Cube and checking it before I bought it that I could actually see 6 different colors, I started actually learning to solve it. I wrote myself a cheat sheet just in case I forgot anything because I didn't always have access to my computer to re-watch Dan's videos. Well I could of done that I was doing this during my free time at the theater and I can't be playing videos back stage.

Anyway... one thing that made things easier for me was rather than trying to remember which direction a "Prime" or whatever was meant to turn I just wrote up, down, left, right. It seems confusing but makes perfect sense to me.

Anyway... That being said... I've got everything down except the edge pieces in the last layer. I can never seem to remember how to get them oriented correctly without screwing up the rest of the cube. I can do the corners fine, it's just the edge pieces I have trouble with.

Basically right now the only way I can solve the cube is if the edge pieces in the last layer manage to be oriented the right way already by the time I get to it. This means starting over up to 4 times before I can actually solve it.

So anyone got any suggestions on how to remember the moves for this? I learned the rest of it in about 2 months and this last part, well it's been about half a year and I don't seem to be getting any better.

[Lyserg Zeroz]

But the are no "primes" on the algorithms Dan used on the 3x3x3 Rubik's cube 0.0...Oh wait, there is on the imporved version...NvM. And if you have troubles remembering what prime is: Just remember the "normal" way to rotate a face of the cube is clockwise, prime or inverted means counterclockwise.
...
(You can also watch the not improved video www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_BBp3FPMQ from 3:24)
Anyways. For the last layer, first, you need at least 1 piece on the corner it belong (not necessarily orientated the right way, just in the corner it belongs). Hold the cube so that that piece is facing you from the right-front-upper corner of the cube. Then do: U R Ui Li U Ri Ui L (which is the same as U R U' L' U R' U' L) also know as "Up - Away from you (right) - Up inverted - Away from you (left) - Up - Towards you (right) - Up Inverted - Towards you (left)"
Sometimes you might have to do that twice. Once you do that all the corner pieces should be in the right place, but not necessarily orientated the right way (although if you are lucky your cube will be solved by this stage).

(From 4:26)
Now to solve the cube you hold the cube so that any unsolved piece is on the bottom-right hand corner of the up face. Then do R'-D'-R-D until the piece is correctly orientated (the cube may seem like it's messed up, but don't worry, in the end it will be solved). Now rotate just the up layer so another unsolved piece is on the bottom right hand corner of the up face, and now R'-D'-R-D again until the piece is solved. Repeat the process and eventually you will be able to solve the cube.

[rialvestro]

Sept 18, 2010 12:33:21 GMT -5 Lyserg Zeroz said:

But the are no "primes" on the algorithms Dan used on the 3x3x3 Rubik's cube 0.0...Oh wait, there is on the imporved version...NvM. And if you have troubles remembering what prime is: Just remember the "normal" way to rotate a face of the cube is clockwise, prime or inverted means counterclockwise.

In order for that to work I have to actually be able to remember which direction clockwise and counterclockwise actually is. lol I can do it with the face but that get's a bit confusing when I'm not looking at the section of the cube I'm turning.

...
(You can also watch the not improved video www.youtube.com/watch?v=IW_BBp3FPMQ from 3:24)
Anyways. For the last layer, first, you need at least 1 piece on the corner it belong (not necessarily orientated the right way, just in the corner it belongs). Hold the cube so that that piece is facing you from the right-front-upper corner of the cube. Then do: U R Ui Li U Ri Ui L (which is the same as U R U' L' U R' U' L) also know as "Up - Away from you (right) - Up inverted - Away from you (left) - Up - Towards you (right) - Up Inverted - Towards you (left)"
Sometimes you might have to do that twice. Once you do that all the corner pieces should be in the right place, but not necessarily orientated the right way (although if you are lucky your cube will be solved by this stage).

(From 4:26)
Now to solve the cube you hold the cube so that any unsolved piece is on the bottom-right hand corner of the up face. Then do R'-D'-R-D until the piece is correctly orientated (the cube may seem like it's messed up, but don't worry, in the end it will be solved). Now rotate just the up layer so another unsolved piece is on the bottom right hand corner of the up face, and now R'-D'-R-D again until the piece is solved. Repeat the process and eventually you will be able to solve the cube.

Yeah, that stuff I have written down already. What I need is some tricks to help me remember without looking at my cheat sheet.

[Lyserg Zeroz]

Well you could do something like: Prime left = Away from you. Prime Right= Towards you. Or something like that. For the last step there's actually not much to remember, so I think you just need to do various repetitions until it comes out naturally without need to remember the exact algorithm. ... Hmm, that wasn't very helpful was it xD? Sorry, right now I can't think of any way to easily remember those thing.

[rialvestro]

Sept 18, 2010 15:28:23 GMT -5 Lyserg Zeroz said:

I think you just need to do various repetitions until it comes out naturally without need to remember the exact algorithm.

Technically I would still be using my memory. What you just described is called motor memory and that's what I did with the rest of the cube portions but I never seem to get the last layer edge pieces down.

This is actually rather weird for me because normally my motor memory works instantly. I only have to do it once and it's stuck in my head forever but I'm having trouble with this for some reason and not really sure what to do about it because I've never had this problem before.

My motor memory, remembering movements after I do them, has always been better the rest of my other memory functions. Maybe because I grew up with Transformers. I never use the instructions more than once if at all and even the more complicated transformations I can still do after YEARS of not playing with them regularly. In fact ever sense high school my Transformers have been more for display than playing, the only time I really mess with them is when I get new ones and need to fix my self to make room for them.