Monday 15 January 2007

Why a Sudoku cube is different from a Rubik's cube

I have come into possession of a Sudoku cube over Christmas. It is mechanically identical to a Rubik's cube, but the solution takes far more work. I will explain.
With a regular Rubik's cube, my usual solution involves completing one layer at a time, starting with an arbitrary colour. I make the twists and turns as required to bring each "cubie" into place in the correct orientation and work upwards. I identify the cubies and their intended locations by colour and all is well.
With the Sudoku cube, the goal is to get nine different values on each face. There are, for example, six occurrences of the digit "3". Which one goes in the first layer on the first face? You can't know until you think you're done and check each face.

Mokalus of Borg

PS - So far, I've been leaving the cube in its original solved state.
PPS - It seems easier that way.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you need any help to solve the thing, I've taken the time to create a page about How to Solve the Sudoku Cube that you may find useful should someone scramble it up for you.

John said...

Thanks, Paul. I'll check that out later.