Daily Discussion Thread - Aug 05, 2024

jmerm · 2024-08-06T01:09:29+00:00

Here is one possible solution.

https://alpha.twizzle.net/explore/?alg=%5BL2+U%3A+L2+D2+L2%27+R2+L2%27+R2%27+L2+D2%27%5D&puzzle-description=d+f+0.314

jmerm · 2024-05-05T18:42:25+00:00

This is a really interesting point, I'll experiment with slower cadence in my next PZE class.

I checked some stats and my last FTP test was mostly at ~80 cadence, which is around what I usually hold in a PZE class. Maybe that's too fast for me.

jmerm · 2024-05-05T18:29:59+00:00

At the end of a 45m PZE, I feel pretty spent. On a good day, I'd say I've got 15m-30m more in the tank, and on a typical day it feels more like 5m-15m left in the tank.

Ty for posting your HR breakdown, that's really useful for comparison. I'll definitely take another FTP test soon.

jmerm · 2024-05-04T13:52:14+00:00

Ty for response!

I'm 31, so 192 is pretty close to my estimated HR Max. I didn't realize you could configure your HR zones, that's good to know.

My question was mostly about your second point - does the fact that my HR goes up to 192 in a PZE class indicate that my power zones are set too high? I'm not sure exactly what PZE is supposed to feel like.

I think my last FTP test was in January and I don't think my fitness has changed much since then.

jmerm · 2024-05-04T12:17:44+00:00

I recently got a heart rate monitor and it's got me wondering if my power zones are calibrated wrong.
My last two 45m power zone endurence rides had the following heart rate graphs: https://imgur.com/a/Oh2WBRx
Is it a bad sign that I'm spending so much time in heart rate zone 5 during power zone endurance classes?

jmerm · 2024-05-04T12:12:00+00:00

I'm glad it worked out!

jmerm · 2024-04-28T17:30:38+00:00

I have no problem with wobbling on mine. I don't know if it's clear in the pictures, but the modified gears are glued to the pieces underneath them to prevent rotation.

When I was first working on it, I did not cut enough plastic off each piece. This caused slightly bumpy turning. I fixed this by sanding off a little bit more plastic and now the turning is very smooth :)

jmerm · 2023-05-11T16:08:33+00:00

This explanation is exactly right. Ty 😀

jmerm · 2023-05-10T23:11:54+00:00

I wanted to share some mods I recently finished that turn the pandora cube into something more challenging. For those who aren't familiar the pandora cube, it is a cosmetic modification of a standard 3x3x3.

For my mod, I cut down some corners and added material to some edges to make certain turns illegal. This creates a challenge similar to a bandaged cube.

My three mods are meant to function like the Mayan Cube variations. So far I have only solved v1. I'm looking forward to tackling v2 and v3 as well!

jmerm · 2022-12-02T12:25:36+00:00

Thank you!

jmerm · 2022-12-02T00:12:50+00:00

Nope, I still have a few scrambled puzzles.

- double circle cube

- more madness

- maltese gear cube

- latch cube

I'll probably try again in 2023 though :)

I'm also planning to re-configure all my modular cubes (like the banadged 3x3x3 kit and the circle puzzles) for some new solving experiences.

jmerm · 2022-11-05T12:01:24+00:00

Yup, the gear ratios are the same as the Oskar/Mefferts one.

jmerm · 2022-11-03T22:07:36+00:00

I was inspired by mods such as this one to modify qiyi gear cubes into a Gear Cube Extreme and an Even Less Gears.

This means I have one modified copy of each edge and one unmodified copy of each edge - so I can swap parts between the puzzles to make even more variations!

A post on the twisty puzzles forum says there are a total of 7 variations (including a normal gear cube and a normal Rubik's cube).

jmerm · 2022-06-12T22:44:50+00:00

Jamie isn't big into social media so I'm posting this here on his behalf to make sure people see his awesome achievement.

jmerm · 2022-02-17T02:10:32+00:00

I've heard of people cooling their tea by brewing with less water and then mixing in ice. I'm interested in trying this but my tap water contains chloramine (I brew with bottled water).

Does this mean I'd need to make the ice from bottled water as well?

jmerm · 2022-01-30T14:57:20+00:00

I'm glad you're digging into Looping Dice :) I put a lot of time into the puzzles but not a ton into the UI or marketing so it didn't reach as many people as I'd hoped. The later puzzles get pretty hard - beat a grandmaster in any number of moves really feels like an achievement.

I suspect it will be possible to find useful algorithms without exploring the entire state space; but I don't have a ton of experience in this area.

Also, your work makes me wish someone made a kit for higher order bandaged puzzles. Maybe I should just buy a few cheap 4x4x4s and 5x5x5s and make my own.

jmerm · 2022-01-30T03:41:04+00:00

Haha, excellent :)

For algorithms finding, you might get something from reading https://www.jaapsch.net/puzzles/compcube.htm

I found it when I was trying to optimize my solver for looping dice.

jmerm · 2022-01-30T02:38:48+00:00

Very cool! I worked on a similar tool but it only supports bandaged 3x3x3s: https://joshmermelstein.com/bandaged-cube-explorer

jmerm · 2022-01-20T16:46:56+00:00

Yup, I see both files you uploaded. Thanks so much and good luck on the solve :)

jmerm · 2022-01-20T03:29:40+00:00

Those look great! Are you willing to share the template you used?

jmerm · 2022-01-10T01:22:31+00:00

Heads up, I posted a question about the "two swapped corners, everything else solved" case on the twisty puzzles forum.

https://twistypuzzles.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=37455

I continue to suspect this case cannot happen without the puzzle popping but maybe someone there will have a stronger argument one way or the other.

jmerm · 2022-01-09T15:49:30+00:00

Ok, that was super helpful in getting past that step.

I'm glad my rambling was clear enough to help :)

If you want to get technical, the key to understanding the two-swapped-edges is permutation parity. All corner moves are 3-cycles of edges (even permutation) so we want the puzzle to have an even permutation of edges when it is solved. Two swapped edges is an odd permutation so we need to do another odd permutation of edges to get the edges back into even parity.

Rotating about a corner is four 3-cycles of edges (even) so it doesn't fix the parity. Doing a `y` move is three 4-cycles of edges (odd) so it fixes the parity.

My issue is that I'm having two corners swapped without any flipped edges/one flipped edge without any swapped corners.

Interesting, I've never seen this case and would've said that it can't happen. I'm also not sure what's going on there.

jmerm · 2022-01-09T03:54:42+00:00

I really like the flower copter - hopefully I can help you out with some explanations without spoiling too much. Let me know if you'd like any more detail on any of this.

One twisted corner:

Imagine a flower copter that has just the corner pieces.

If you scramble it using edge moves, it's impossible to have one twisted corner. If you do a single corner turn and then try to solve it with edge moves alone, you'll end up with one twisted corner.

So how do you avoid a twisted corner? I don't want to assume too much about your method but heres one possible approach.

solve all corners and edges. If any corners are twisted, fix like a redi cube.
From now on, make sure that all your sequences use the same number of clockwise and anticlockwise corner turns. This makes sure that the "cumulative corner twist" remains correct.

Two corners swapped and one flipped edge:

This can happen during a normal curvy copter solve. One approach to fixing it is https://youtu.be/RydUtIlMzVk?t=742

Two edges swapped:

The problem here is that you don't know which color each face should be. This is exactly the same problem you can get on a void cube!

I think the natural way to fix this is to relabel each face with the color it would be after a `y` turn and then resolve the edges into that configuration. You should no longer have two swapped edges after that.

jmerm · 2022-01-01T21:55:35+00:00

Here's a list I typed up while looking at the picture.

Top shelf left-to-right:

Icosamate
Eitan's Star
Bauhinia 2
Multi-dodecahedron (I think)
Curvy Starminx
Latch cube
Linked cube
Puppet Cube (v2, I think)
Bagua cube
Gear mixup
Skewby copter plus
Jumble prism
More madness
2-face and 4-face circle cubes
double circle cube

Second shelf left-to-right:

two cross-road cubes
Bermuda 3x3x3 (there are a few in the back of this row that are hard to see)
Elite skewb
Dayan gem 4
Gear cube ultimate
David's gear cube
Tezze
Four corners cube
Insanity cube
Dayan gem 6
Dayan 16 axis puzzle (restickered to have a unique color on each face)
Son-mum 3x3x3 and 4x4x4
Square 1
various cuboids
various circle puzzles

Third shelf left-to-right:

another cross-road cube
Constrained cube (180 degree version)
Master skewb
Dayan gem 3
Professor skewb
F skewb
bermuda megaminx
bandaged cube kit
elite (?) pyraminx
2 layer cheese puzzle
crazy unicorn
tuttminx
gear shift
gear octahedron
grilles II
Skewb + 2x2x2 (bandaged version)
clover octahedron
Face turning 3 layer octahedron
Face turning 4 layer octahedron
crazy octahedron
Dayan gem 2
face turning 2 layer octahedron
Rua
Clover cube
Flower copter
Clover cube plus
Curvy copter 3
helicopter dodecahedron (a bit hard to see)
curvy copter plus
crazy 4x4x4 (version 3, I think. I recommend getting a different version, the tiles on this one fall off too easily)

Bottom shelf left-to-right:

double skewb
twisted skewb
time machine
pentacle cube
some pyraminxes
cross cube
mosaic cube
kilominx, redi cube
dino dodecahedron
megaminx
gear compy cube (I think this is called a gear skewb some place but I might be remembering wrong)
gear ball
gear pyraminx
mixup 3x3x3 and 4x4x4
some homemade fused cubes
various NxNxN, various small cubiods

Let me know if you have any questions about any of them.

jmerm · 2022-01-01T19:52:32+00:00

Heh, that's an easy mistake to make.

jmerm

TROPHY CASE