An Algorithm in Time

Hey guys!

So, the other day I did some pretty sweet timed solves. And by 'some,' I mean that I did 72 back-to-back solves of 3x3's. Wow.

My main goal was, like last time, to both see which of my cubes is fastest, as well as to see how fast I was in general. I'm pretty pleased with the results.

So, the set-up was this: I solved each cube 12 times, again using CubeTimer. I solved my Sheng-En first, and also last. I wanted to see if solving it so much would affect me in either of two ways, or not at all. I thought that, maybe, the second set of 12 would be faster because I had warmed up more. Or, that doing that many solves would sort of make me get a little worn-out, and would be slower. These would be good things to know for competitions. I will provide all 12 solve times, with the best and worst for each set in green and red, respectively. The average listed will be of the 10 remaining solve times after the best and worst are dropped, as is done in competition. So, here are the results:

Sheng-En:

46.24

36.52
37.81
37.18
38.11
38.36
45.76
40.21

33.85

40.37
37.73
38.08
Average: 39.01

 

LanLan
40.03
42.96
35.46
36.00
32.69

45.49

39.64
39.82
44.34

27.03

39.69
37.39

Average: 38.85

YJ
35.98
39.41
37.01
42.55
40.73
35.73

33.66

43.09
38.54
37.59
46.12

47.11

Average: 39.68

Mini QJ
45.94
31.73
37.08
35.12
40.52
35.63
46.42

31.35

48.04

48.06

40.49
46.85

Average: 40.78

Rubik's
43.44
35.77
33.82
43.75
42.53
43.21
41.80
36.10
41.79

48.82

47.03
31.61

Average: 40.92

Sheng-En Round II
41.08
39.03

31.56

34.56
42.37
41.54

44.15

42.00
39.42
34.12
34.53
41.78

Average: 39.04




Lots of numbers. Lots and lots. But, some interesting results. I did have a slightly slower solve the second round with my F-II, but the difference is negligible (in fact, when I tabulate the average of all 12 solves, the second round is faster than the first).

The comparisons are a bit different and odd this time, with my fastest being....drumroll please....my LanLan! What? Yup. It had both the fastest average of all 5 cubes, as well as (and those of you that are observant may have noticed) I actually set my new personal best with it! That's crazy...because I would have thought that the F-II would have been best. It's known as being a really fast speedcube, and it feels like it should be the better cube. Really. It takes almost no effort to turn, it cuts corners like mad, and it just feels quick. Granted, it pops a helluva lot, but when it doesn't, it's fast. The Lanlan, however, seems like a good, solid, stable cube, but it doesn't really feel like the fastest. But, you can't really argue. Not only did it have the best average, but it had the best single time out of these and the best single time I've yet to record. So, yeah. Wowzers.

I'm pretty happy with these times though. I got a new personal best, which is nice. But, nicer is the fact that I am now officially sub-40 as an average. This is really, really exciting to me.

I'd like to get to have my average between 30 and 35, although the closer to thirty the better, at which point I'm going to begin the monumental task of trying to learn the Fridrich method. I figure that if I can get to that speed with just the beginners method, once I learn Fridrich I'll be really, really fast.

So, that's going to sum it up for this post. I have more (read: LOTS), but I'm going to save that for another post. I'm now officially sub-40, I have a 27 second solve under my belt (all with beginners method), and my LanLan is my fastest cube (without lubing or adjusting). So yeah.

Til next time!