Why Rubik's Cubers nod their head

Adam Ragusea, Vanessa Hill and Stuart Ashen discuss a question about a shaky solution.

GUESTS:
Adam Ragusea: @aragusea

HOST: Tom Scott.
QUESTION PRODUCER: David Bodycombe.

RECORDED AT: The Podcast Studios, Dublin.
EDITED BY: Julie Hassett.
GRAPHICS: Chris Hanel at Support Class. Assistant: Dillon Pentz.
FORMAT: Pad 26 Limited/Labyrinth Games Ltd.
EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: David Bodycombe and Tom Scott.

[StanleyChapel]

I came up with the term "nod don" over 5 years ago and insisted that the term stick since it was a palindrome. Incredible to see it show up here of all places!

[arivaldarivald]

Professional welders do the same move for same result. But they aren't short on time, they are short on free hands.

[benstokes]

Hey, I'm actually a seven time UK record holder for the blindfolded event as well as being the former national champion! This 'Nod-don' is actually the thing that pushed my times the final bit I needed to push them to over take the former record holder at the time!

Great to see this, love that people are becoming more aware of the blindfolded event!

[VailVeebs]

As a cuber, I’m so glad that we got a lateral question episode

[jimbob]

The welder in me knew as soon as we figured out it was blindfolded.

[Dystdotmp]

ive been super into cubing for ~3 years now, and this was so fun to watch. they got a couple small, nitpicky facts wrong, but it was amazing seeing tom just perfectly piece everything together and get the exact answer right at the end

[SlowerCuber]

I'm surprised that even though Tom is not "in the cubing circle", he is able to reason and guess the correct answer!
Just to sum up
* The cube is under a cover and put in front of the player
* In a "sighted" solve, after the cover is lifted, the player can have up to 15 seconds of free inspection before the timing of the solve begins. During the 15-second inspection period, the player can pick up the cube and inspect it from any angle they want, as long as they do not make any turns.
* In a "blindfolded" solve, as soon as the cover is lifted, the timing of the solves begins, including memorization (sighted) and solving (blindfolded)

[ryansolves]

yay I sent in this question

originally it was something along the lines of "What small innovation allowed blindfolded Rubik's Cube solvers to improve their times?" but I think that David definitely edited this question for the better. also, the slightly wrong information at the end might've been a result of my poor explanation skills, sorry lol

[garetr]

2:38: The only speedcubers who plan the whole solve during inspection are those who specifically train to. The fastest (normal competition) cubers in the world will plan a lot of the solve during inspection, but not the whole thing.

[CallumFinlayson]

I think the key clue was that the question said it was "a record" not " the record", which immediately makes you think it must be some variant of normal cube solving

[George_vv]

Slight correction for 2:38

The inspection only gives enough time to figure out the first few movements and algorithms (move sequences) that set up other algorithms and finishing moves which usually are figured out by split second piece finding. I do not believe there is anyone in the world that could figure out how to solve a 3x3 cube completely in the 15 seconds of inspection provided for the standard event. Also blindfolded uses a complex letter and word system for the most used method in case you're wondering how that works.

By the way this isn't supposed to be a "Tom is wrong" comment I just genuinely think this is more impressive than just automatically knowing the solution and wanted to share.

[JanKowalski-wbih]

OMG, Adam Ragusea in Lateral! He just announced his semi-retirement, and now he casually drops banger after banger! First the doggo video, now collab in my favourite game show! Love it, the man is just having fun when and how he wants to. This is way better than strict, stressful schedule of food videos, not being bound by it gave him wings, looks like :)

[cuberstache]

So cool to see cubing featured here! A lot of wrong information but hey that's kinda the point of the game. As a nod donner myself I really enjoyed this video!

[freespam]

inspection time is limited to 15 seconds
A4d1) The competitor must start the solve within 15 seconds of the start of the inspection. Penalty: time penalty (+2 seconds).
A4d2) The competitor must start the solve within 17 seconds of the start of the inspection. Penalty: disqualification of the attempt (DNF).

[mocubing]

As a cuber I saw several inaccuracies in this but at least they were reasonable assumptions. For sighted solves you don't get unlimited time to inspect but you do get 15 seconds which is basically the same thing most of the time. For blindfolded solving, inspection time doesn't have a limit but that's because it's part of your time. Stackmats do record to the millisecond, but we always round down to the nearest hundredth of a second when recording times. The world record in 3x3 sighted is 3.13 seconds and not 4, but it's OK as this is a fairly recent World Record (it was set in July of 2023).

[rian_username]

Woohoo cubing related lateral question!!!

[szlanty]

4:41 - Alright, so peeking with the blindfold actually does have a history of happening in the world of cubing.

Back in 2007, at the World Championships, the winner for the blind events was Mátyás Kuti. It was found out though that he simply looked under/through his blindfold for the event. This lead to one of the Biggest Scandals of Cubing's History, and as a result Mátyás Kuti was banned from competing for 3 years, & his Blindfold solve records were all expunged.

This is actually why they now stick a sheet of paper between the face and cube while people do blindfold solves, to prevent any peeking from happening again.

[tway]

Hi! Decent cuber here (take that with a grain of salt). I just wanna talk about some things in this video:

2:38 Sorry but this is only true for 2x2 and maybe clock (I don't do clock), but this is definitely not a thing on 3x3 or bigger. Professional cubers use something called 'look-ahead' which is what it implies, in that they look ahead to the next step. Most cubers use the CFOP method, which is what I will thus be talking about, as I too use it. At most, a professional cuber might look to the 3rd pair of F2L and in some rare instances very maybe full F2L, it only looks like they know precisely what to do because they are just that good at looking ahead. On bigger cubes (which I again don't really practice too much) I believe most cubers would only look to centers and how to solve those as quickly as possible, and I believe that starting edge pairing and seeing that within 15 seconds is as good as impossible, maybe not on 4x4 with a lucky scramble, but definitely with 5x5 and up.

4:12 Thats true! I'm not going into details about blindfold cubing, as it is very impressive and equally as extensive and treacherous to learn, but people do actually nod their heads with enough force to get the blindfold on. It saves at most a second but it is pretty cool to know as a small time save, with the added plus of it looking cool!

Again I'm only an intermediate cuber at best, so please if I got anything wrong just notify me, no need to start a war over something we both enjoy! Have a good day!

[oliverfalco]

Why is the guy in the thumbnail holding a 3x3x4?

[TrondBrgeKrokli]

I was surprised none mentioned that the blindfold nod would be the same as when welders make their welding mask drop down in front of their face, since they usually got the tools in their hands before dropping the mask.