Short answer: no.
One of the largest failures of communication between cubers and non-cubers is the misconception surrounding math. Some people seem to think that one has to be good at math in order to solve a cube, as if we’re solving complex muli-variable calculus when matching the colors on children’s plastic toy.
Ask any cuber to repeat the most common comments they receive from the general public and you’ll likely hear 3 answers in common:
- “I used to just peel off the stickers, HAHAHAHAHAHA isn’t that a good joke, you should laugh.” (I’m sorry you just build up some pent up aggression from hearing the same phrase 21 million times).
- “So you must be REALLY good at math, right?”
- “What’s the secret/trick??????”
Let’s put aside the sticker-peeling for a moment and unpack the math comment. Where does this misconception come from?
It turns out, it’s from the answer to the 3rd question stated above. When someone asks you the “trick,” that’s basically tantamount to a 2nd grader asking to learn multiplication without the concept of addition. Or me trying to analyze the symbolism of objects in a novel written in Swahili.
My answer is, “I can explain a few basic things to you, but there’s no satisfying 30 second answer. Like any skill, it’s built up from the mastery of fundamental processes. If you don’t know how the cube moves, what the pieces are, and cube notation, there’s no real way to accurately describe it. There is no ‘trick.'”
Or at least that’s what I would say if I, or any other cuber, had the patience to do so.
Instead we tell them the answer they want to hear:
“You have to memorize a bunch of algorithms.”
Here comes the problem with math. Algorithms can mean a lot of different things in different subjects. To the layman, it just sounds like a complex math concept. Some other people have even assumed that I must be good at coding because I say I know “algorithms.”
To that I ask them, “Do you know the alphabet?” They say yes (I hope). The alphabet is 26 letters in a seemingly random order. If you can memorize that you can solve a Rubik’s cube, because most of the cubing algorithms are 10-ish characters long. Cake compared to the alphabet, something that even toddlers know. (To prove my point, there are toddlers who can solve a cube). It’s just a string of moves you remember based on the pattern on the cube. That’s all. No math, no coding.
Picture from Badmephisto’s Cubing page
In the picture above, 2 out of a total of 57 OLL (orientation of the last layer) cases with algorithms are listed. “R” means turn the right face clockwise, for example.
Something worth mentioning however is that there is some math that can be applied to cubing. The Rubik’s cube is an excellent model for group theory, a complex theoretical math topic. It can explain permutations and combinations well, and I even wrote a math paper on the Rubik’s cube deriving a formula for the number of possible combinations on a particular type of cube.
So is it wrong to say that cubing is math related? Not exactly. But’s it’s wrong to say that you have to be good at math to solve a cube.
Warming up ramen noodles is related to cooking, but you don’t have to be a chef in order to make a cup o’ noodles.
Allow me to suggest a thought experiment to demonstrate another place where the math misconception may come from. What type of people are the most likely not only own a Rubik’s cube, not only want to learn how to solve it, but also think, “What’s the fastest time I could possibly do this?”
Probably nerds. And nerds are academically successful, especially in math.
So whether the misconception that cubing involves math comes from a cuber’s bad explanation of the “trick” of the Rubik’s cube, or a stereotype that nerds are good at math, it shows us that we still have a long way to go before cubers and non-cubers fully understand one another.
