How Hard is it to Solve a Rubik's Cube in the Mirror

Today , I will be solving the Rubik's cube in the mirror .

The rules are simple .

Number one , you have to look at your cube through the mirror .

OK .

That's it .

Let's begin those few moves I planned out now .

This is the hard part .

All right , I got the cross .

Let's go uh these two .

All right .

That was easy .

Um Red and blue , the red and blue .

I , I don't even know how to orient the cube so I can see pieces .

Uh Is that uh that works ?

OK .

Where's the other red and green ?

It's this one ?

OK .

So far not too bad .

Oh That's easy .

And OK , this is the left side .

Wow .

That felt so much better than it actually was .

This was a 36 2nd solve .

Let's break the rules for a second .

Go for a non mirrored solve just so I can feel better about myself .

I messed up , but it's OK because it's gonna be 36 seconds anyway .

OK .

10 seconds for solve of the day , I feel like inspection is the hardest part because I don't have algorithms like in my muscle memory ready to go .

I have to figure out every single move I'm gonna do , uh , this , this OK , that's my right hand other way .

Uh , no wrong way .

OK .

This , this is going here .

This is my left hand .

Is that right ?

That's right .

OK .

Uh OLL and what is this ?

This is my left .

Ok .

I'm gonna see you do .

Perfect .

No , that was even worse than the first solve .

As you can see , this is extremely difficult as I'm taking four times of my usual solve time and all that's changed is I'm looking in a mirror if you're just watching and you've never tried this .

It may seem unbelievable how much I'm struggling right now , but actually pause the video and go try it yourself .

If you don't believe me , I've come up with a few strategies I'm going to try and use today .

But the first one obviously is just to practice a lot .

OK ?

This one's cross on green is so easy .

I could probably not struggle at all with the cross , right ?

Let's go uh here , red uh Andre uh red and white .

Um This hand .

00 my .

Is that right ?

That's right like that .

And OK .

Uh Wrong hand .

Uh I mess up the algorithms now .

OK .

This is towards me .

OK .

New PB at least they're 33 seconds .

OK ?

38 .

And that was a really bad solve .

I think I'm getting better .

Some of you are probably wondering why the mirror is shaped like this .

Why is it curvy ?

The curves represent the twisting in my brain as I attempt this challenge .

Wow .

I'm locking out on these crosses .

It really helps to be color neutral for this , this solving mode .

It's really hard to plan out for this pair .

I , I'm not gonna , not gonna try but I can see where it is .

Uh Wow .

I did it .

OK .

Uh This one , does that break notes ?

Uh That doesn't break anything .

This and where's the pieces ?

What ?

OK .

My rotations keep going the wrong way .

Uh What , what am I that works ?

That's not the algorithm I ever use but there's a new PB .

Which way , which way does it go ?

OK .

I'm actually , I'm not even thinking , I'm just testing sides a per that's the wrong hand .

41 .

Um That's this hand .

00 No .

Whoa Not bad .

Oh Wow .

Wow .

OK .

Three move cross .

OK .

I gotta rotate this way .

All right .

Let's do this .

Rotate .

Um What , what is that ?

Uh finding pieces is just the worst .

Um This is a way I know .

Oh Wow .

Yes , I got a 23 2nd solve .

Ah I , I just wanted to sub 30 .

I can't believe that was my first one .

OK .

One problem I've been running into a lot is for some reason even though like the mirror doesn't flip right and left , like the hand on this side is still the hand on this side in the mirror .

Even though it's not visually flipped .

I'm not thinking purely visually .

I'm thinking like with an internal cube in my head and that cube needs the , the other hand if you know what I mean ?

So I was thinking , what if I just got rid of one of my hand and solved one handed ?

I have no clue if this would be better at all .

Obviously , there is the restriction of one hand , but we're gonna see if this works any better .

All right , since I'm planning the cross , I could probably still do this part two handed , but then everything afterwards , I'm just gonna do one handed .

Um OK .

One hand .

Now , I can't , if only I could find pieces .

Uh This is probably worse .

I can tell you that already .

I've actually completely lost the ability to think .

I don't know why I thought this would be easier .

Uh But we're gonna follow through with this .

Uh What is that ?

That is a V perm .

How do we , how do you hold a V perm ?

Um That is the mirror way to hold the deep .

I need the block here .

OK .

That was wrong .

OK .

What that was also ?

OK .

Oh , this is backwards .

OK .

OK .

One minute 17 , I think I can safely abandon this strategy .

Wait before I do that .

What if I used my nondominant hand ?

OK .

So hear me out , my turning wouldn't be as good , but it would look like my left hand in the mirror .

So maybe this would work out a few moments later .

I don't know how to do this l with his hand , I give up .

All right , my next strategy is instead of trying to be one with the mirror and you know , looking at the mirror thinking like I'm in the mirror world .

What I'll try to do now is for example , for this F two case , it is in the front , in the mirror .

So it's going to be the back for me .

And then obviously it's on the right side .

So it's going to be the back , right ?

And then I will picture it on my cube .

So it's as if I'm seeing it on my own cube and then do it on my cube .

So that means the turning should be pretty fast , but the recognition might be a bit slow .

All right , this one please is at the front , uh green and yellow , take it out .

I'm not even executing the strategy properly , but this one might oh H perm .

Yes .

21 .

The thing with H perm is it looks the same from all sides and I didn't have to move the corners .

They were already solved , which meant uh PLL was the same time as usual because it's the same in the mirror and not that was great for mirror solving .

H perm is definitely top tier .

This is the best PLL maybe I need to practice my PLL recognition .

Let's just do some random plls .

What have we got ?

Oh , that was so bad .

Oh No .

OK .

Never mind .

We'll just hope for H perms .

OK .

This is , this is just wonderful .

I have the cross almost done .

This is like four moves .

Oh my God .

Another pair .

Uh This is the back turn this around .

This is I had to find .

Oh no .

What is what ?

Uh oh Yeah .

A new PV two in a row , converting image from the mirrored cube to my cube is actually a bit difficult .

But I think if I get that down , then I can get these solves pretty fast .

No , everything's every , everything's a disaster on this one .

OK .

This is I converted to the wrong hand .

All right , I think I haven't been making things easy enough for myself .

So I'm gonna try and alter the strategy a little bit .

So what I was doing was looking there then visualizing what it would look like on my cube uh without the mirror .

But then that was a bit of a hard translation over to make what I will do now is just touch the pieces .

So that will just make it a lot easier to visualize what I'm making contact with on my cube .

So I can easily tell just from feeling this is the back right of the cube .

And I'll know exactly how to solve this case .

I'm sure converting in my head would be faster in the long run .

So I don't have to use my hands to do stuff like this .

But I think that's not going to be very good now and that there is no long run because I'm not going to be practicing this forever .

So this is my new strategy .

I just touched the pieces .

Oh No , the cross is wrong .

Hang on .

OK .

OK .

Uh Here , I'm just practicing right now .

So it's these two , I can't even touch the pieces in the right spot .

OK .

But so this is the back and this is over here .

So then I will visualize it on my own cube and then like that there it is solved .

OK .

Let's do another practice round these 20 OK .

That's kind of obvious .

Um Let's do a different one .

These OK .

Touch them and then go uh these two are right here .

It's kind of weird .

I thought it would be easier again .

Like I always think it's gonna be easier than it actually is , but even just touching the right pieces has been a little bit difficult .

That looks like it's on the left .

So it's on the right .

I got a P skip .

Yes .

OK .

That wasn't a serious try .

Let me try again .

OK .

That looks right .

Uh OK .

This and this .

Wow , that works .

Uh These two .

What am I looking at ?

Uh here and here ?

This and this .

Uh Wow , that works 25 .

Wow , that was , that was not bad considering how much time it feels like I'm spending just touching the pieces .

Uh It turns out that's a good trade off to make because I'm recognizing faster as a result .

Ok , there's a super easy X cross on red .

There's a pair of maid , I'll try my best and .

Ok , good , good .

Uh These two are here back .

Nice .

Um This is Wait , who ?

Yeah .

Yes .

Yes .

18 seconds .

Wow .

Ok .

My goal today , I didn't say it earlier because I had no clue how close I was gonna get .

But my goal was a sub 20 keyword was now it's sub 15 .

You know , you can , you can never be satisfied when you do stuff like this .

What that is on the left side .

OK .

Actually pointing at things makes it so much easier .

OK .

This is here here , front , right ?

Oh , I almost messed that up .

Uh This is the front .

This is , this is over here and the back .

Wow .

22 .

This may be my third best one .

These two are here .

Oh my God .

Please skip yellow .

Oh , no .

Left side 19 .

That's another sub 20 .

OK .

This is point at the pieces is definitely the best strategy I've found so far .

Uh This these Oh my , I can't point at them .

Uh That's the wrong slot .

Please tell me it's the right slot .

OK .

Whoa Cool .

Two pairs here I and perm on , on the side 23 .

OK .

I feel like I feel like , actually my brain power has decreased a lot .

I , I've actually lost the ability to point in the right spot in the mirror , which means that , um , I , I don't think I'm going to be able to beat my PV .

At this point .

I think one thing I've definitely learned today , if you're gonna try and set a PB this way , do it quick .

So at first you'll get better because of practice , but then you're very quickly going to become exhausted .

And somewhere in there you have to set your PB .

However , I did have a plan for what to do in this situation .

I'm pretty sure I have one last strategy that is just going to destroy all the other ones , right ?

This is my final strategy .

OK ?

Wait , wait , wait before you tell me that I'm cheating .

I just want you to remember there was only one rule .

OK ?

So I'm gonna be looking at the third cube .

So , uh that one because it is the same as what I see in the first one here .

All right , kids .

This is what we call problem solving with science .

I actually can't even start the timer .

I'll have to put it over here .

Let's go .

Oh This is much better .

This is , this is how it was supposed to be , you know , 16 .

You know , I couldn't really reach my hands over very well , but I beat my PB on the first try and I think that makes this one the best strategy .

I got to give myself a victory lap for coming up with such a great strategy .

14 , 14 seconds in the mirror beat that .

All right guys .

I am exhausted .

That is it for this video ?

I hope you had as much fun watching as I had making it .

Let me know if there are any other challenges you want me to tackle and of course , leave a comment with what time you were able to get in the mirror ?

Thanks for watching and I'll see you all next time .