Pocket Cube
The Pocket Cube (also known as the Mini Cube or the Ice Cube) is the 2×2×2 equivalent of a Rubik's Cube. The cube consists of 8 pieces, all corners.
Permutations
Any permutation of the eight corners is possible (8! positions), and seven of them can be independently rotated (37 positions). There is nothing identifying the orientation of the cube in space, reducing the positions by a factor of 24. This is because all 24 possible positions and orientations of the first corner are equivalent due to the lack of fixed centers. This factor does not appear when calculating the permutations of N×N×N cubes where N is odd, since those puzzles have fixed centers which identify the cube's spatial orientation. The number of possible positions of the cube is
The maximum number of turns required to solve the cube is up to 11 full turns, or up to 14 quarter turns.[1]
The number f of positions that require n full twists and number q of positions that require n quarter turn twists are:
n | f | q |
---|---|---|
0 | 1 | 1 |
1 | 9 | 6 |
2 | 54 | 27 |
3 | 321 | 120 |
4 | 1847 | 534 |
5 | 9992 | 2256 |
6 | 50136 | 8969 |
7 | 227536 | 33058 |
8 | 870072 | 114149 |
9 | 1887748 | 360508 |
10 | 623800 | 930588 |
11 | 2644 | 1350852 |
12 | 0 | 782536 |
13 | 0 | 90280 |
14 | 0 | 276 |
For the miniature (2 × 2 × 2) Rubik’s cube, the two-generator subgroup (the number of positions generated just by rotations of two adjacent faces) is of order 29,160. [2]
The two algorithms can be used to solve the last layer:
1.To fix the positions of the corners:(U R U' L' U R' U' L)
2.To adjust the corners:(D R' D' R)
Records
Rami Sbahi (USA) holds the current world record for solving the Pocket Cube in competition, with a time of 0.58 seconds at the Canadian Open 2015. [3]
The best average of five consecutive solves in competition is 1.51 seconds, set by Lucas Etter (USA) at the Music City Speedsolving 2015 competition. The times in his average, of which the best and worst are dropped, were (1.24), 1.69, (2.21), 1.45, and 1.39. [4]
See also
- Pyramorphix, a pyramidal puzzle that uses the same mechanism
- Rubik's Cube (3×3×3)
- Rubik's Revenge (4×4×4)
- Professor's Cube (5×5×5)
- V-Cube 6 (6×6×6)
- V-Cube 7 (7×7×7)
- Speedcubing
- Combination puzzles