Attempting to Solve a Skewb (With NO Help)

Skew .

This is pretty huge .

No , not because it's really big today , I'll try to solve a cube .

And if I successfully do it , then that means I'll know how to solve every WC A puzzle , which of course means I'll finally become a real cuber .

I'm used to puzzles that turn parallel to the sides and this one turns diagonally , which is really weird for me .

But basically it turns in half and I was trying to figure out how many different ways there are to turn .

I think it's four different layers .

You can turn so you can turn it in half one way which you can see all the whites here and this white corner gets removed .

And then there's also this way with the other corner and so on .

Plus you can go once clockwise or counter clock wise and that's it .

There's no half turn because 123 goes all the way back to normal .

All right .

That should be enough for me to get started .

I'm gonna have this as a reference if I ever need to try stuff , but this is the cube .

I scrambled in the last video .

I actually don't know how to get started .

So , what I usually do is I think of something I want to solve and then just try solving that and it may not be the right thing , but I'm just gonna try it because there's no way I can think my way through this .

OK ?

I have two intuitions right now , both coming from solving one layer and I don't really know what that means because I could solve a center and four corners .

I mean that looks like the definition of a layer .

But then uh normally like if I turn this and look at what's not being turned , then that part can count as a layer .

So I think I'll go with the whites and the first thing I'll try is um attaching a corner there .

That that's nice .

It's already between the centers that was by accident .

Like this one .

I want it .

Wait .

OK .

I want it here .

Wait .

No .

Oh the blue center .

OK .

I was thinking this needs to go here because blue is on the right and this blue is here but the centers aren't fixed .

So no , this doesn't belong here because then red would touch green .

OK .

Uh I think no , this is actually in the right spot already because yeah , green should go across from blue .

I think it this has the normal color scheme .

Yes , this needs to go here .

Oh OK .

It looks like I can turn this side to reorient the corner , then get it in here .

Oh , nice .

It actually preserved that corner , which is cool .

All right .

And then this one needs to go here .

Oh , sweet .

So I've kind of made a layer but I'm not entirely sure because I don't know if this counts as a layer .

It doesn't work the same way as a three by three layer where you can turn it all at once because now the way I can turn always breaks one of these corners .

OK .

Now I have these centers here and these corners um I don't know what I should do .

First , I wonder if there's a way to intuitively twist these corners because this looks really similar to like the end of a two by two solve .

Except that um I , I don't know algorithms for this , of course , because the algorithms are not the same and then there's also the centers and I don't know if I should do this now or later .

OK .

How would I even do this ?

How do you move , you move the centers ?

Uh OK .

That gets the green center here .

Would it be possible to get this corner back in ?

Oh OK .

That's interesting .

I can move the corner like that .

But now this uh that center is right , but the corner is not in the right orientation .

OK .

What if I did it like that ?

That's the wrong orientation .

And then I'll try the last orientation .

Well , the green center just went kind of back to where it started .

OK .

Wow .

I just came back to exactly where I was new plan .

I'm just gonna try the other way but , and then come back to this because I , I know I can make this again .

I'm just gonna try .

The other thing I was thinking of .

OK .

The other thing I was thinking of is when you turn one layer like this , then uh this is what should count as a layer .

So that would be a corner , three centers and these corners around it .

So if I want to do that , that's gonna be um I I'll just pick this one and I need the red center here uh like that in the blue center over here .

OK .

That wasn't too hard .

Now , I'll need these three corners around it .

OK ?

There's no turn I can do on to get any of these corners in .

So it's gonna be like some sort of insert where I like move .

Oh OK .

That's gonna touch the center .

This is gonna be a little bit tricky but um I think it might be OK .

So this corner needs to go here .

I'll separate it from the Oh man , how do you separate this from the white center ?

OK .

Well , I mean there it is , but this needs to be twisted .

I know how to twist corners .

You can just turn that layer but then all the centers around it move .

So if I want to preserve the centers the way it is right now , there's no turn , I can do that preserves the , where the centers are .

Uh So no matter what twisting turn I do , it's going to break the centers I've already made .

And maybe that means I shouldn't do the centers yet .

OK .

I tried re scrambling and doing both of those again as it turns out making the entire layer , the way I've defined layer this way is very difficult and I've kind of given up on that one .

But why don't just make one layer ?

I'm not even sure how I'm supposed to progress onto the rest of it .

So what I've decided is I'm going to try a different technique now .

So what I'll do is get my solved one and it's lucky that I have this because then I can try stuff .

What I'm going to do here is try different things and see if I can come up with an algorithm .

This is kind of like working in reverse .

I could take a solved cube and see what I can turn that into that way I can try and force that to show up here and then turn that into a solved cube .

How I normally up with an algorithm is I break something and then restore it and it's not going to restore everything .

Some things will have moved .

And that is what the algorithm will do .

OK .

So if I take this corner out of white .

How can I put it back in some other way ?

And hopefully some other things change and that is the way the algorithm works .

OK ?

If I turn this side , it doesn't affect the white .

If I turn this side , it twists it , sir .

Well , if I get it back in , it's just gonna be twisted .

Oh Wait , what does this do ?

Oh , wait .

That's really cool .

OK .

I just inserted this .

oh , hang on .

I can , I have to , I have to make sure I remember how I did that .

So this , I twisted it and then put it back in and then put this one back in .

Wait .

Hm .

That's , that's just the sexy move .

That's the sexy move from three by three .

OK .

That makes it really easy to remember what I just did .

I noticed that the corners all didn't move .

So this is twisted .

This is like it should be twisted this way with yellow on top .

But it is , uh it is still in the right spot but twisted .

This is twisted and this is twisted .

These four twisted .

That means if I do it three times , all the corners will come back because they'll each twist three times which is the same as not twisting .

So two , three .

Oh That's great .

All right .

I came up with an algorithm .

That's so cool .

OK .

Now that I know triple sexy move actually swaps these centers around , then I'll have to uh find a way to solve all of the corners .

And that way , once I'm left with centers , I can just use that and solve the rest .

I've kind of forgotten how to make the first layer .

Now , this one has orange .

This one is orange .

So this one goes here .

But , uh , like that's nice .

Uh This one goes here and that one I need to twist it .

00 , I , I kind of know how to do that .

I guess I just kind of did that .

OK ?

That twist at once .

That twisted twice .

Nice .

OK .

What I just skipped all the corners is this rare .

Last time I made the first layer , it didn't skip all the corners .

But OK , I'm not just gonna like scramble it again .

I'm , I'm gonna try and solve this .

Let's see .

I have these two need to swap and these two need to swap .

Is that what the algorithm does ?

I can't remember it swaps these two and these two at the back .

OK .

Let me , let me undo this .

I don't like this gives me anxiety having it unsolved .

OK .

My algorithm can swap these two and these two .

So this one just needs to go there to make it these two swap into these two swap like that .

Oh Nice .

That was easy .

OK .

Now one to three .

Oh Yes .

But I skipped all the corners .

So I literally had a step .

I didn't have to do so I can't say I know how to solve a cube , but I can say I solved one .

No , no , that's , that's stupid .

I'm gonna , I'm gonna , I'm gonna try this again because I can't be satisfied with it .

Actually not knowing how to do part of this .

OK .

I've made the first layer of corners again , looking at the last layer corners .

Uh Actually these two are in the right spot and these two are twisted .

Now , I'm wondering if this is like always gonna happen because two times in a row now I've had all the corners , oops end up in at least the right spot this time , just they're twisted .

OK .

This is the third time I made the white layer and I just ignore the center because I realized I can do that later .

This time again , all the corners are in the right spot .

It seems like all I need to do is remake the first layer over and over until this all ends up solved .

Because the probability of this top ending up all solved is actually one in 27 .

OK .

So technically , I now know how to solve the cube every time I just remake the first layer 27 times until the top is all solved .

But that's not very satisfying .

Uh OK .

Be right back .

I was literally turning randomly and uh I end up solving all the corners .

OK .

What I meant to do was solve the first layer again ?

All right this is better .

So I have two corners solved and two that are twisted .

Now , I'm pretty confident that every single time the corners are just gonna end up in the right spot because there's no way this was all chance .

So I have an idea of how I could twist these in concept .

Uh That's just because if I do this , then this one gets twisted correctly because yellow should be on top .

So this puts yellow on top .

So this is a way you can corner , twist a single corner except everything around it moves .

Of course .

And I actually don't care about these centers .

It's just these corners move and that's a problem .

But my thinking is if I can do this and then get the other corner , I need to twist here and then twist it the other way , then all these corners will go back to their own spots and these two will be the only ones that have twisted .

I just need to get this one here without touching these three .

Um OK .

So I can get it here like this , but that moves this one .

I need to hide this one away when I get this money in that way it doesn't move .

Um Wait the skew work .

Oh skew works like that .

So I can get this one here by doing this .

Now .

These two are back where they started .

Are they ?

Yeah , the two yellow .

OK .

Wait OK .

Wait .

No .

No way that's gonna work .

That's gonna work , right .

OK .

Back to this point .

Uh This one needs to twist counterclockwise and then I get this one here and twist it clockwise .

So uh like that to preserve these two clockwise and then put it back like this .

Oh My God .

Oh Wow .

That actually worked .

All the corners are solved .

OK .

Wait .

So that means I know how to solve a cube .

OK .

Let me just finish the soft .

What would I do ?

Let me solve these two .

So these two swap and these two swab how , how , how does the algae go again ?

Like this three sexy moves .

OK .

And cool .

Uh these two swap and these two swap .

So it's these two and these two just move this one here .

Oh , I'm a cube .

God .

OK .

Now I'm going to do a time solve because I think this is short enough that I could unlike , you know , for like square one or giga MS , those ones take a little bit too long .

Um OK .

Let me see .

This one goes here and that's about all I can inspect .

All right .

I think I need to twist it first .

OK .

Let's just start ready set , go , twist and nope , twist this way and go in .

Uh This one needs to go here .

OK .

Twist and then put in like that .

OK .

This one goes here and oh no , a four pointer twist .

OK ?

10 0 clock wise clock .

Wait clockwise .

And these two , this is counterclockwise clockwise .

Uh , let me solve these two and wait .

Oh , I haven't run into this before .

Ok .

I can't swap .

II , I just do that and then do this .

Ok .

Now we have , uh , these two and wait .

What ?

Oh , ok .

It's right here .

Oh , no , I feel like I ran into a lot of bad cases but I know I can get a sub one .

I , I don't , I don't think I need to prove it .

That was just like a terrible solve .

But for now I'm pretty satisfied .

I know how to solve a cube .

I've become a real cuber .