# Cube talk



## iwinoky (Jul 20, 2011)

I gave a talk on the Rubik's Cube at a Math/Science/Technology conference at Exeter Academy at the end of June. The talk is 50 minutes long. I'll be giving some version of this talk again in the near future so if you watch, please let me know what you liked and what you didn't think worked so well.

Here is a rough outline:

my introduction to the cube
history of the cube
the cube in media
solving the cube using commutators
solving the cube using Fridrich (with some demonstrations)
FMC and God's number
some videos of a few current world records

There were about 50 people in attendance and the talk was very well received. They really got into the videos at the end!

Part 1 of the talk is here (youtube limits clips to 15 minutes in length):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1H2J80ZwD0

Many thanks to Anders Bogan for volunteering to get the raw video file into a Youtube friendly format. He also cut it into chunks and added links to the subsequent parts at the end of each clip. Fancy!

If someone feels like embedding the talk here on the forum, please do so.

Ian


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## cubernya (Jul 20, 2011)

Chester's pretty fun when he's drunk...LOL

Also lol at the crowd's reaction to the OH record when he pointed at it


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## Yuxuibbs (Jul 20, 2011)

i will watch the whole thing at night before i go to bed.... looks really interesting


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## Rpotts (Jul 20, 2011)

I just finished the whole thing. Not bad at all, you got them all interested, touched on many subjects without going on and on or getting boring. Well done.


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## Olji (Jul 20, 2011)

Just finished it, enjoyed it very much

The subtitles was in swedish however, just a heads up


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## SoulSeeker (Jul 20, 2011)

yup very well done, i enjoyed it quite a lot. loved the phrase "the odds are good but the goods are odd"


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## cubersmith (Jul 20, 2011)

I really enjoyed it. Well done


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## Away (Jul 20, 2011)

The camera angle is bad  I hate not being able tos ee the whole projector screen.

Very good speech, though.


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## TheMachanga (Jul 20, 2011)

Awesome. I liked it a lot. I loved how it covered so many things.


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## Bilbo (Jul 20, 2011)

I enjoyed it a ton, it was very well presented, and I learned a few new things myself. I Also loved the phrase "the odds are good but the goods are odd" lol


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## Jostle (Jul 20, 2011)

Win.


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## iwinoky (Jul 23, 2011)

Thanks for the feedback so far. I now know the subtitles over Minh Thai's solve are not Hungarian and that Feliks is number one on the 6x6 (why didn't I just look that up the night before my talk??).

In the coming months, I'll be giving a version of this talk to a group of 6th graders and, separately, to another group of math teachers. Every 6th grader from a particular school district in Connecticut will be there (about 200 students in all). Any thoughts on what I should do to adapt this talk for my 6th grade audience? 

Do I leave the commutator stuff in or is that too advanced for an average 6th grader? Maybe more videos of world record holders or is 5 minutes of videos enough in a 45 minute talk?


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## JonnyWhoopes (Jul 23, 2011)

I thought that the WCA used random-state scrambles? Not 25move sequences?


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## Owen (Jul 23, 2011)

iwinoky said:


> Do I leave the commutator stuff in or is that too advanced for an average 6th grader? Maybe more videos of world record holders or is 5 minutes of videos enough in a 45 minute talk?


 
I'd say leave it in. If someone explained that to me it sixth grade, I'd have been fascinated.


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## JonnyWhoopes (Jul 23, 2011)

Owen said:


> I'd say leave it in. If someone explained that to me it sixth grade, I'd have been fascinated.


 
I'd be willing to say that the majority of us serious cubers weren't (aren't?) your average sixth graders.


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## da25centz (Jul 24, 2011)

wonerful! very very interesting, and I learned a few things too


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