# Fun practical joke for the cube



## teller (Jan 3, 2009)

I used to do this all the time to irritate my friends.




I haven't seen it since the cube made its comeback, so I hope this isn't old and boring. Search and YouTube turned up nothing, so:

An "impossible" checkerboard pattern. Instead of M2 S2 E2, you actually compose checkers made up of adjacent sides. For example, instead of white and yellow, one face might have white and green.

I don't know of a fast way to generate it--you just solve it into this configuration (with some difficulty, I might add) and then bet your unsuspecting friends they can't solve a simple checkerboard in a reasonable amount of time. Since it's non-standard, it doesn't give the usual visual cues as you M2, and about 75% of the time the cube gets trashed and you win the bet.

One the other hand, if they correctly execute something like M2 E2 S2, the result is simply another checkerboard. The color-pairs change, but it's still a checkerboard...




I love the baffled looks I've gotten with this...hehe...


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## ThePizzaGuy92 (Jan 3, 2009)

would you have to sticker it this way? because I'm not so sure it's possible to solve it into a state like that.


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## teller (Jan 3, 2009)

ThePizzaGuy92 said:


> would you have to sticker it this way? because I'm not so sure it's possible to solve it into a state like that.




I assure you, it's possible.

Specifically, move the edges from R to F, move the edges from F to U and move the edges from U to R. Also permute them all 90 degress clockwise. Do the back sides exactly in reverse to this (everything counter-clockwise).

Note that the corners don't move at all--they remain in the solved state.


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## MistArts (Jan 3, 2009)

F D R2 B' U' L' R D U' L2 R' B D2 L' F' D2 U2 (17f*)

Found with cube explorer.


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## teller (Jan 3, 2009)

MistArts said:


> F D R2 B' U' L' R D U' L2 R' B D2 L' F' D2 U2 (17f*)
> 
> Found with cube explorer.




That is it! Wow, thanks!


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## jcuber (Jan 3, 2009)

Cool!
Message too short


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## d4m4s74 (Jan 3, 2009)

****ing saved


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## IamWEB (Jan 3, 2009)

Hehe. 

Saved.


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## JustinJ (Jan 3, 2009)

I do that all the time to bug my friends. An easy way to do it is M2 U2 M2 U2 z M2 U2 M2 U2.

EDIT: Sorry, I read it wrong. I was doing it for just two opposite sides. This still really annoys people though.


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## Odin (Jan 3, 2009)

DANG, how do you save threads! i was fricking out when i was doing this


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## MistArts (Jan 3, 2009)

Odin said:


> DANG, how do you save threads! i was fricking out when i was doing this



Maybe I should write another guide.


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## shafiqdms1 (Jan 3, 2009)

IamWEB said:


> Hehe.
> 
> Saved.





Odin said:


> DANG, how do you save threads! i was fricking out when i was doing this



do you guys mean saving threads. Is it like subscribing to threads or something similar?


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## d4m4s74 (Jan 3, 2009)

I have a list of "fun" algs (cube in cube, cube in cube in cube, checkerboard, etc) on my comp and added this alg
plus I bookmarked this thread


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## coinman (Jan 3, 2009)

I invented this pattern in 1981 (among other people obviously) and used it the same way as teller


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## qqwref (Jan 3, 2009)

Guys... you don't need to bookmark the thread. It's just a pretty pattern algorithm. I suggest you go download Cube Explorer and make your own pretty patterns - you can make as many different ones as you want, find an optimal solution to all of them, and then save the file onto your computer!


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## shelley (Jan 4, 2009)

I do this too, except I generate the pattern from scratch so it takes me a while to set up. Basically I start with the "dots" pattern and then solve all the corners BLD style.

Also, a funnier practical joke: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=665l5IRJeyQ


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## vloc15 (Jan 4, 2009)

nice pattern!haha ima try it


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## riffz (Jan 4, 2009)

That's awesome, my friends will be so confused


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## Stefan (Jan 4, 2009)

MistArts said:


> F D R2 B' U' L' R D U' L2 R' B D2 L' F' D2 U2 (17f*)


D2 U F' L2 D F L' R B' F L' U' F2 L D' U2 (*16*f*)


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## cuBerBruce (Jan 4, 2009)

Yeah, Stefan's position (not MistArts's position) appears to be the one described by teller. But if you take the inverse of Stefan's position (execute it backwards, or execute it twice) and then apply M2 E2 S2, you get MistArts's position.

I note these positions are easy to solve with a corners first method. 

I solve Stefan's position using: E' R E2 R' L' E2 L E2 F' E2 F B E2 B' E' (22 face turns or 15 turns STM).


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## rjohnson_8ball (Jan 5, 2009)

I like swapping 2 cubies, then creating a "very simple looking" 4 dot pattern which is out of phase by 90 degrees rather than 180 degrees. It can confuse some cubers, at least briefly.


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## Stefan (Jan 5, 2009)

rjohnson_8ball said:


> I like swapping 2 cubies, then creating a "very simple looking" 4 dot pattern


You can also create a nice unsolvable six dot pattern this way which is slightly harder to recognize as being unsolvable. Did that to a coworker (who can solve in 1:30) recently with nice confusion success. Of course a little later when he tried solving the 4x4, he got the "permutation parity" and suspected me of messing with it like I had done with the 3x3...


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## ImNOTnoob (Jan 5, 2009)

Huh? He doesn't know what is permutation pairity??

I would not bother to mess up with my 4x4 as if i lose a piece, then, bye bye 4x4.. besides, eastsheens are not good for dismantling.. they get looser.


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## qqwref (Jan 5, 2009)

ImNOTnoob said:


> I would not bother to mess up with my 4x4 as if i lose a piece, then, bye bye 4x4...


Wait. How do you assemble a 3x3 properly if you lose a piece? I want a video of this.


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## jcuber (Jan 5, 2009)

qqwref said:


> ImNOTnoob said:
> 
> 
> > I would not bother to mess up with my 4x4 as if i lose a piece, then, bye bye 4x4...
> ...



You can still solve with a corner missing, try it.


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## qqwref (Jan 6, 2009)

Yeah, but it's still bye bye 3x3, you can't use it in competition or anything... right?


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## fanwuq (Jan 6, 2009)

qqwref said:


> Yeah, but it's still bye bye 3x3, you can't use it in competition or anything... right?



http://cube4you.com/catalog_28.html


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## JTW2007 (Jan 6, 2009)

@ stefan: How? I need to learn that six dot thing.
On topic: that is amazing. I'm trying it out tomorrow.


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## Stefan (Jan 6, 2009)

JTW2007 said:


> @ stefan: How? I need to learn that six dot thing.


There are only two really different odd center permutations. One is rjohnson_8ball's, the other is mine. Here's a hint: M E2.


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## JTW2007 (Jan 6, 2009)

Clever. Message too short.


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