The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube

The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube

Author	James G. Nourse
Illustrator	Dusan Krajan
Language	English
Publisher	Bantam Books
Publication date	June 1981
Media type	Print Paperback
Pages	64
ISBN	0-553-14017-5
OCLC	7627746

The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube by James G. Nourse is a book that was published in 1981. The book explains how to solve the Rubik's Cube. Nourse wrote the book while on the staff of the Chemistry Department at Stanford University.^[1] The book became the best-selling book of 1981, selling 6,680,000 copies that year.^[1] It was the fastest-selling title in the 36-year history of Bantam Books.^[1]

Most of the solutions to Rubik's Cube that can be found on the internet today seem to be based at least in part on the solution in this book. The book's solution to the cube is considered to be one of the easiest, simplest, and most straightforward solutions to solving the cube. However, this ease and simpliciy involves a tradeoff in that this solution takes longer than other solutions that are harder and more complex.^[2]

In his book, Nourse used a notation that is different from that of David Singmaster, which had not yet become widely known. Instead of being named Up and Down and represented in moves by U and D, the horizontal faces are named Top and Bottom and represented by T and B. To avoid the single-letter ambiguity, the rear face is called Posterior and represented by P. Additionally, clockwise and counterclockwise moves are indicated by + and -, respectively, instead of bare letters and primes. Thus, for example, Nourse gives the algorithm for rotating three corners of the bottom face anticlockwise (solving the position Lars Petrus named the "Sune"^[3]) as follows:

   R- B- R+ B- R- B2 R+ B2

In Singmaster's notation, that same move sequence would be written thus:

   R' D' R D' R' D2 R D2

References