# Science Fair Project



## CubeLord (Sep 28, 2012)

Does anybody have any ideas on a science fair project or experiment that involves the cube? I saw some other threads and wanted some more ideas?


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## sneaklyfox (Sep 28, 2012)

What ideas do you have so far?


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## Tyjet66 (Sep 28, 2012)

Contents cubes are usually made of (types of plastics, metals, and why).
Different types of lubes that are used (and not used) and why.
Commutators.
Perhaps memory methods for BLD solving and how humans are capable of them. (Might be harder to demonstrate.)
All else fails, you can always through out numbers and facts, but that'll be more of a presentation rather than a science project.


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## Hunter (Sep 28, 2012)

I thought about doing a test between 3 methods; beginners, CFOP and roux.


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## sneaklyfox (Sep 28, 2012)

Any way to demonstrate the effect of colour scheme on times? Can any colour scheme be learned or is there more "ideal" schemes because of contrasts or whatever?

Of what has been mentioned, I like the BLD thing. But it would be mostly a project on memory or mnemonics and different memory methods like roman rooms or whatever. That could be pretty cool. And then use BLD cube solving as a demonstration of how cubers do it blind. I see you can BLD in about 1:45 or something so definitely something you can demonstrate. I think your science teacher would be amazed. You can also make it interactive by having people try memorizing and see what is easier to memorize. Like, a string of letters vs an image that can be pretty powerful and last a long time.


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## Ranzha (Sep 28, 2012)

Cubing in different environments.
For instance, cold hands.


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## Muesli (Sep 28, 2012)

Ranzha V. Emodrach said:


> Cubing in different environments.
> For instance, cold hands.



Or on fire. I'd place subjects in clamps and drip conc H2SO4 on them and see how much faster they solve the cube than usual.Interesting sociololgical study there


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## Tyjet66 (Sep 28, 2012)

already1329 said:


> I get significantly slower times when my hands are cold.



Really? I'd expect faster times.


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## PatrickJameson (Sep 28, 2012)

Muesli said:


> Or on fire.



Nah, already been done.


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## Tyjet66 (Sep 28, 2012)

already1329 said:


> I can't move my fingers fast when my hands are cold.



You can't be serious, that's so counter-intuitive.


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## CubeRunner0904 (Sep 28, 2012)

Ever think of something like what crazybadcuber did, with figuring out how cube color affects color recognition? That might work, as long as its okay with him...


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## Tyjet66 (Sep 28, 2012)

already1329 said:


> I'm serious.



I seriously can't understand this. Are you sure your hands become slower, numb, and less agile when cold? It just doesn't make any sense...


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## Tyjet66 (Sep 28, 2012)

already1329 said:


> That's exactly it. Why doesn't it make sense?



I just... wow...


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## sneaklyfox (Sep 28, 2012)

Tyjet66 said:


> I seriously can't understand this. Are you sure your hands become slower, numb, and less agile when cold? It just doesn't make any sense...



Cold hands being faster sounds counter-intuitive to me. My hands get slower when they're cold too. Think of water. When it gets cold, it becomes ice. Ice doesn't move. It's frozen.


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## Tyjet66 (Sep 28, 2012)

sneaklyfox said:


> Cold hands being faster sounds counter-intuitive to me. My hands get slower when they're cold too. Think of water. When it gets cold, it becomes ice. Ice doesn't move. It's frozen.



I figured I was being an incredibly obvious troll, but apparently not. Obviously lower temperatures means things move slower, both on the macro scale as well as the micro scale. Everything from atoms to our hands.


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## sneaklyfox (Sep 28, 2012)

Tyjet66 said:


> I figured I was being an incredibly obvious troll, but apparently not. Obviously lower temperatures means things move slower, both on the macro scale as well as the micro scale. Everything from atoms to our hands.



I thought for a moment that maybe you were trolling. But I usually assume people are serious because I guess I don't really understand the point of trying to sound stupid on purpose. But maybe your first "troll" post was like, "Duh, cold hands are slower." I guess subsequent posts really confuse me. But actually I could understand if colder hands makes you solve faster if you have less sweaty, slippery hands.


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## Hunter (Sep 28, 2012)

Rubiks cube on fire; that is so awesome.

you could do BLD in different environments or with different musics.

Tyjet, many people from outside the USA do not understand sarcasm like we do, especially if already's primary language is French.


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## Tyjet66 (Sep 28, 2012)

Already1329 stated that cold makes your hands slower. My response was like a "No... really...? No one would have ever known that...". It was intended as sarcasm, but he thought I was being serious, so I continued it to mess with him. Eventually I got to the point where I couldn't think of anything to say but "Dude, I'm messing with you!". At which point, I stopped with "I just... wow...", as in "I seriously can't believe you didn't notice that I'm messing with you. No one is seriously that stupid to think being cold would make you faster."

Anyway, sorry for going so far off-topic.

EDIT: I was unaware of that Hunter, now I know.


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## sneaklyfox (Sep 28, 2012)

Tyjet66 said:


> Already1329 stated that cold makes your hands slower. My response was like a "No... really...? No one would have ever known that...". It was intended as sarcasm, but he thought I was being serious, so I continued it to mess with him. Eventually I got to the point where I couldn't think of anything to say but "Dude, I'm messing with you!". At which point, I stopped with "I just... wow...", as in "I seriously can't believe you didn't notice that I'm messing with you. No one is seriously that stupid to think being cold would make you faster."
> 
> Anyway, sorry for going so far off-topic.
> 
> EDIT: I was unaware of that Hunter, now I know.



I guess I wasn't reading too carefully. Sarcasm is easier to detect in person than in writing because you don't get the tone. With the right tone, you could have been equally serious with the same words instead of sarcastic. But yeah, I personally don't like too much sarcasm. Sometimes I think people use it to say half of what they are really thinking. If you have a friend that you don't like all that much and say, "I don't like you" with the proper sarcastic tone, and they take offense, you could always say that you were joking or that you were being sarcastic when in fact you were being partly honest. I can be sarcastic too, but only up to what I know the other person will understand with certainty. If they don't get it, I stop. Anyway, it's weird to try and point out to someone that they are stupid for not realizing that you are acting stupid.

But whatever...


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## Ranzha (Sep 28, 2012)

CubeRunner0904 said:


> Ever think of something like what crazybadcuber did, with figuring out how cube color affects color recognition? That might work, as long as its okay with him...



Why must it be okay with him?


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## Muesli (Sep 28, 2012)

I remember a time when trolling wasn't just saying dumb things then laughing at people when they call you dumb.



PatrickJameson said:


> Nah, already been done.



Oh, wow.


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## jonlin (Sep 28, 2012)

Tyjet66 said:


> Contents cubes are usually made of (types of plastics, metals, and why).
> Different types of lubes that are used (and not used) and why.
> Commutators.
> Perhaps memory methods for BLD solving and how humans are capable of them. (Might be harder to demonstrate.)
> All else fails, you can always through out numbers and facts, but that'll be more of a presentation rather than a science project.



My science project is rate of improvement compared to different methods


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## ducttapecuber (Sep 28, 2012)

Taking the same type of cube and using different lubes woud be interesting. If you do that please share the results!


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## Michael Womack (Sep 28, 2012)

How about building a robot that can solve the cube and race it.


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## Dw42s (Sep 28, 2012)

Michael Womack said:


> How about building a robot that can solve the cube and race it.


heres my robot, its a brick with a battery. I win every time


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## Michael Womack (Sep 29, 2012)

Dw42s said:


> heres my robot, its a brick with a battery. I win every time



I mean something like this


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## illucid (Sep 29, 2012)

Lol, lighting a piece on fire looks like a great way to track pieces for insertion when doing FMC! No way you'll lose track of that piece.


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## Hunter (Sep 29, 2012)

You could get all the Dayan cubes, and do an average of each one, (Taiyan - Zhanchi) and see how your times compare.


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## CarlBrannen (Sep 29, 2012)

Rubik's cube on fire was awesome. I guess it beat putting on new stickers.

As far as science, the thing that's been argued here is whether the different plastics used in cubes have different coefficients of friction. It would be nice to have a real test of this done.

Early production of a given cube is supposed to use slipperier plastic. Is it true? Is the plastic even different? It seems that the Zhanchi's are currently new enough to be using the slippery plastic. The later plastic might have different components or be recycled.

There's a bunch of info on the web on how to identify different plastics. One biggy is density. The way you measure density very accurately is to determine the ratio of the weight of an object to the weight of the water it displaces. That is, measuring the volume is very difficult to do accurately; it's easier to weigh some water and then suspend the object in the water and see how much the water increases in weight.


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## adam1119 (Oct 9, 2012)

I did a science experiment of whether I solve my cube when my hands are cold or warm. I got 3 seconds faster when my hands were warm


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## ben1996123 (Oct 9, 2012)

talk about gods number.


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## Cheese11 (Oct 12, 2012)

ben1996123 said:


> talk about gods number.



I would love to see this done. Plus if you presented it in a way that non-cubers could understand it, it could probably help out a lot of people on the forums as well. It is a tricky subject though, and would be hard to get people to understand within a limited time frame or space.



Tyjet66 said:


> I seriously can't understand this. Are you sure your hands become slower, numb, and less agile when cold? It just doesn't make any sense...



When I'm cold (Which is almost always), my averages are about 4 seconds slower than when I'm warmed up. Sadly, the only times I'm ever warm is when I'm at school, or place my hands in front of a heater for 5 minutes.


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