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Date: Mon, 02 Jun 1997 13:48:29 -0700
From: Jin "Time Traveler" Kim <chrono@ibm.net>
Organization: The Fourth Dimension
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To: cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu
Subject: Re: 5x5x5 practical Q's
References: <3.0.32.19970601235733.0068d4f0@pop.radix.net>
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Hersch Pilloff wrote:
> 
> Hello,
> 
> I'm proud to say that after significant quantities of blood, sweat, and
> tears, I have finally solved the 5x5x5 cube.  I used some techniques from
> the good old 3x3x3 cube as well as some general techniques I've found
> useful over the past (often of the form A R A' R' where A is a set of
> rotations preserving one face and R is a rotation of that face).  One
> problem I faced along the way and have not been able to solve to my
> satisfaction is an issue of parity.  I often put the big cube in a state
> where exactly two "equivalent" off-center edge pieces on the upper face
> were interchanged with one another.  They had the correct orientation, I
> simply needed to switch the two pieces.  I would like to know if anyone has
> an effective means of dealing with this situation.
> 
> It was immediately apparent that the ARA'R' technique would not work
> because interchanging two pieces requires a change in parity which the
> ARA'R' won't produce.  I tried interchanging "identical" pieces from the
> interior of the cube and then returning to the top face to see if any
> change had resulted.  This was met with only marginal sucess-- after enough
> fiddling I was able to produce two pairs of interchanged, properly
> oriented, off-center edge pieces on the upper face which I could, after
> some further manipulation, handle with an ARA'R' scheme.  Still, this isn't
> very satisfactory to me because I don't much like the idea of having to
> randomly interchange pieces until I produce a workable situation without
> any more definite strategy.  Undoubtedly, most of you have been more
> successful at this endeavor than I have, so I'd appreciate any available
> wisdom.
> 
> Thanks,
> Mark Pilloff
> 
> P.S.  I'm not using my usual account.  If you email a reply to me, please
> send it to mdp1@uclink4.berkeley.edu and not whatever return address is
> listed above or below.  Or just mail the list-- I'm on that as well.

I found that the solution book for the Rubik's Revenge was also a very
useful tool to solving the 5x5x5. The only pieces I had to figure out
myself through trial and error were the interior face pieces that have
edge contact with the middle piece (i.e. four pieces that including the
center piece would make a Plus "+" sign).

-- 
Jin "Time Traveler" Kim
chrono@ibm.net
VGL Costa Mesa