The rating of the popular toy created by Erno Rubik is growing all over the world. The number of cube assembly combinations is an unimaginable number of 43 quintillion. But to assemble it is real, even if you never picked it up. Professional speedcubers know how to build a 5x5 Rubik's Cube in a few seconds.
Introducing the puzzle
So you decided to buy yourself such a toy. Congratulations on your purchase of a 5x5 Rubik's Cube! It is also called the Professor’s cube. Now, for sure, you would like to master a method of assembly that would not consist of complex and intricate schemes. But in order to understand how to collect a Rubik's Cube 5x5, you need to get to know the device of the puzzle more closely.
A cube consists of smaller cubes, each edge a row of five such small cubes. All puzzle layers can rotate independently, regardless of other layers - this is why the components can be rebuilt on the surface of the cube.
Each of the six faces is represented by its color so that the corner parts include three colors, the edge - two colors. In turn, the central part of each face is of the same color and, as in the classic Rubik's Cube 3x3, never changes its position, because it is fixed by a frame.
So, the Professor’s cube consists of: centers, edge centers, corner centers, outer edges, center edges and corners. This complex mechanism was patented by Udo Krell on July 15, 1986.
How to collect a Rubik's Cube 5x5: a variety of ways
No matter how complicated the 5x5 Rubik's Cube may seem, nowadays there are several assembly methods. Moreover, the volume of schemes and formulas that are proposed to be remembered determines the assembly speed: the more there are, the more the number of moves is reduced to achieve the desired result. We present you three methods for solving the puzzle:
- The solution to the problem is to master a simpler 3x3 cube. This method is recommended for those who already have experience with puzzles. First, the assembly of the centers is carried out, then the assembly of the edges, from it they proceed to the assembly of the last two edges and parities. This ends the new formulas, because then the Professor’s cube is assembled in the same way as the 3x3 cube.
- Collect the cube from the upper layers to the lower. It should be noted right away that this method is good, but for a 5x5 cube it is too long and inefficient.
- Assembly is carried out from the corners. The essence of the method is that the upper and lower corners are the first to assemble and only after that go to the edges and the remaining centers.
How to collect a Rubik's Cube? Scheme for beginners
For your first solution to this puzzle, it’s best to use a detailed diagram that will explain step by step how to assemble a Rubik's Cube. For beginners, such a scheme will contain a large number of moves. However, we will present to your attention a technique that has a relatively small number of moves and is not difficult to master and understand.
It is based on a method that was developed back in the eighties and published in the journal Young Technician. It has been slightly optimized and simplified for mnemonic memory. With training, all formulas will be printed in memory, and if you want to collect a Rubik's Cube, you won’t need a diagram.
The most common mistake of newcomers: many people collect only one side and believe that now they will be able to collect all the others in the same way, but they immediately notice that adjacent cubes do not take their places, and when you try to shift their harmony is broken.
How to assemble a 5x5 Rubik's Cube is presented in this optimal and affordable algorithm: centers of the upper face, upper corner centers, lower corner centers, lower edge centers, upper angles, lower angles, edges of the lower face without one of the edges, edges of the upper face, the final stage assemblies of edges of the lower face, lower and middle faces, upper and middle edges, centers of middle edges, lateral corner centers and, finally, lateral middle centers. This method looks much simpler and clearer in the pictures.
Speedcubing: what is it and what are its advantages
If you are interested in how to quickly assemble a rubik's cube, then you need to master the speedcubing technique - the fastest assembly. Its feature is a large number of schemes for various positions of the components of the cube. Thanks to the variety of formulas, the assembly speed increases to several seconds.
Very popular among speedcubers is the Jessica Friedrich method . There are even competitions that the WCA regularly holds, at the world level, where participants compete with each other in speed assembly. To date, the official assembly record is 48.42 seconds.
A little about the creator of the Rubik's Cube. Interesting Puzzle Facts
Ernö Rubik in Hungary is known as a sculptor, inventor and professor of architecture, and he gained world fame thanks to the puzzles and toys he created. Among them is the famous Rubik's Cube. Now he is seventy years old, but he continues to be active in architecture, is the head of Rubik's studio and develops video games in collaboration.
Rubik's Cube is considered the leader in sales among all toys. If you count all the sold original modifications and analogues and put them in one row, then its length will be equal to the distance between the poles of the Earth.
Puzzling over how to collect a Rubik's Cube 5x5? Computer technology went further. Similar to the Rubik's Cube puzzles are modeled in programs. The developers did not stop at the sizes 2x2 or 3x3, they put into the computers impossible four-, five- and even seven-dimensional analogs impossible in the physical world - cubes for 100x100 or even for 1000x1000 cubes!