Anonymous

15, USA

1. Pictures explained

11. Tourist attraction: This is a picture of “Margaritaville” in Pensacola Beach, Florida. It is a large hotel and has a restaurant on the bottom floor. Though my family and I did not stay here, we did eat at the Frank And Lolas restaurant. The food was great and so was seeing the building.
margaritaville
12. Animal: This is a picture of my dog, Daisy, with a Yuxin keychain attached to her collar.
daisy
13. Unusual place: This is a cube setting in one of my apple trees. I tried placing it with apples to give the appearance that the cube was growing among the apples.

apple tree cube

14. Unusual cube: A clay sculpture of a 3×3 that my younger brother made for my birthday. I’d consider it unusual.

rubiks cube competition

2. Creative challenge

21. Quiz questions

Question 1: What puzzle is considered the most difficult 3×3 shape mod?
correct answer: The Ghost Cube
incorrect answer 1: The Axis Cube
incorrect answer 2: The Mastermorphix
incorrect answer 3: The Fisher Cube

Question 2: A 3×3 cube has 54 stickers. How many stickers would there be on the cube if you removed stickers from every edge?
correct answer: 30
incorrect answer 1: 48
incorrect answer 2: 54
incorrect answer 3: 42

Question 3: How many sides are there on a Dogic (which is a rare puzzle)?
correct answer: 20
incorrect answer 1: 6
incorrect answer 2: 4
incorrect answer 3: 12

22. House design explained: My house design is simply a massive house cube. This house would be made black, with the areas that stickers would be indendted, allowing for actual materials, like bricks and wood, to be put there, but barely sticking out, giving the appearance of stickers. The houses exterior would be based on the house cube stickers on Oliver’s Stickers. The house would be three stories, with each cubie being a room. On the ground floor, there would be two “cubies” without walls, for a large kitchen space. The house would be have a bathroom on each floor, with the one on the ground level not having a bath. The master bedroom would be on the top floor and take up the space of three cubies.

rubiks cube competition

23. Trick explained: Start with a cube with three connected sides solved and the other three in a random, unsolved state. Do a few turns to make the cube appear FULLY scrambled. Undo these moves while showing the puzzle to the spectator. This part is easier done with misdirection, like telling a story about the cube, or whatever you want. At this point you should be left with 3 sides solved and the other three random. Make sure to not let the spectator(s) see the solved sides. Show the scrambled sides and tell the spectator to pay close attention to one specific scrambled side. Holding the cube in a way that you can easily rotate it with one hand, use your other hand to cover it. QUICKLY turn the cube, using your hand that is covering as a misdirection, as you turn the puzzle so one solved side has replaced the side you told the spectator(s) to look at. Telling them to look at one side specifically causes them to not notice the fact that the actual side they were supposed to be looking at is in a different, but still visible spot. Reposition your “rotating” hand, and repeat the rotation procedure, telling the spectator(s) to focus specifically on the next side you will change. Rotate the cube in a way that keeps the first exposed side in the same spot, but brings in another solved side. Finally, cup the cube in your hands, covering it, rotate the cube one more time and reveal the final solved side. The spectator should see the three solved sides. During their initial reaction, scramble the cube a bit, so it doesn’t accidentally flash the unsolved sides. Tip: to prepare the cube, take a scrambled cube and solve just the three sides, ignoring the others. Remember all corners must be solved, because of how they need to appear on the solved side. Intentionally switch the edges that will only have one sticker showing the spectator when the trick is finished (See picture 23.jpg, The solved cube on the left has two pieces of paper, pieces that in that position have only 1 visisble sticker should be switched. The pieces of paper on top of the solved cube mark the same two pieces seen marked by the papers under the unsolved cube) This set up, with 3 solved sides and 3 unsolved, works great on non-cubers, as they normally will not notice the fact that the unsolved sides are only made up of three colors and it gives the impression that the whole cube is solved when three sides are shown. This setup is very versatile and can be changed in many ways, so if you are going to try it, experiment and make it as good as possible.

cube trick

24. Advertising plan: I would make advertisements that would show the cube with many things that are currently popular, and in the advertisement, encourage those who have solved the cube to show it off on social media, that way, it spreads among those platforms as well. People would likely see their friends had solved it and purchase one, and continue the cycle.

25. Task for the third round: A fun task would be something to do with shape modding, maybe something like having people draw out a theoretical mod idea that is also physically possible.

3. Hard-working challenge

31. Title of the movie and the scene described: WALL-E, I found the cube three times throughout the movie.The first was when WALL-E added the cube to his trash collection. Afterwards, he also adds a few other things to it. He ends up having to stay in his home due to a sand/dust storm. He also appears to rock himself to sleep. He then goes out, compressing trash and adding to his collectiion, also finding a plant. The second time, WALL-E shows Eve the cube, walks away, and when comes back, she has it solved. He then shows her a tape, which she breaks and he fixes. He shows her a movie and then dances and when Eve tries, shakes WALL-E’s house and throws him into the wall. He then has to fix his “eye.” He shows Eve the plant and she closes herself up with it, until the ship takes her back to space. The final time I saw the cube in the movie was when Eve shows it to WALL-E to try to help him remember the things that happened before he got hurt. He doesn’t remember, compresses part of his collection and leaves his home. Then Eve holds his hand, and he comes back to normal.

32. Pattern algorithm: F2 U2 B2 U2 F2 U2

33. 15-puzzle link:
[Link no longer available]

34. URL with our backlink:
https://sites.google.com/view/cubedata

35. Solution algorithm: F` B L R` U` D F` B R` L2 U2 D2 F2 B2 L` U D F2 L2 U` D` F2 R2 U2 F2