From cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Thu Mar 18 13:22:39 1999 Return-Path: Received: from sun28.aic.nrl.navy.mil (sun28.aic.nrl.navy.mil [132.250.84.38]) by mc.lcs.mit.edu (8.9.1a/8.9.1-mod) with SMTP id NAA12312 for ; Thu, 18 Mar 1999 13:22:38 -0500 (EST) Precedence: bulk Errors-To: cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Date: Thu, 18 Mar 1999 00:53:22 -0500 (EST) From: der Mouse Message-Id: <199903180553.AAA24726@Twig.Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA> To: Cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu Subject: Re: Taking apart the 5^3 > As nearly as I can remember, you can begin dismantling one of these > by rotating the top slice by maybe 30 degrees or so, then prying > upward on one of the "wing" cubies (between the center and the corner > cubies). Use your thumb, nail side down, and lift. Well, I fiddled with it and finally managed to get one of my 5-Cubes apart (I used the one with the loose stickers). I found it more effective to turn a "thick slice" (ie, the outer two slices turned together) about 45 degrees, then pry with my thumb between the corner and wing of the turned slice. (This is perhaps ambiguous. Start with a solved 5-Cube, turn the U face 45 degrees clockwise, so the URF cubie and the RF wing cubie next to it are just above the middle of the F face. Then stick your thumb between those two cubies, nail towards the URF corner cubie, and lever the wing cubie down.) It's harder to get the last wing cubie back in than it is to take the first wing cubie out, but by reversing the move I described above I find it not too difficult. Now I just need to find paints that will stick well to the plastic these things are made of. (The paints I used for the 3-Cube I painted don't stick as well as I'd like.) > Believe me, the insides of a 5^3 are utterly amazing. [...] The > shape of a "foot" on a corner cubie is something to behold; True. Quite impressive to look at. Indeed, once you've taken out the off-center face cubies and the wing cubies, you're left with something that looks like a ricketey skeletal 3-Cube (and indeed can, if you're careful, be manipulated as such). Amusingly, I realized that as long as you get that "ricketey 3-Cube" put together in its solvable orbit, it's impossible to put the rest of the 5-Cube together unsolvably! (Unless you've marked the face cubies so they're distinguishable, of course.) der Mouse mouse@rodents.montreal.qc.ca 7D C8 61 52 5D E7 2D 39 4E F1 31 3E E8 B3 27 4B