Rubik’s Cube Explorer

An interactive presentation to help you understand the basics of Rubik’s Cube. Have a go experimenting with the different kinds of cubelets—centers, edges, and corners—to see how these simple elements combine to create the beautiful complexity of the cube. While Cube Explorer can be enjoyed in several browsers it is best experienced in the latest version of Google Chrome.

Made with friends

Hi. I’m (not the cube) Stewart Smith. This ’lil demo runs on the Cuber framework that I created whilst at Google Creative Lab. Yup, it’s the very same backbone that powers the Rubik’s Cube Google Doodle as well as the other experiments from Chrome Cube Lab. There are about a hundred people to thank for bringing this to fruition and I’ve tried to do that in detail here. But first and foremost thank you Mr. Ernő Rubik for inventing the cube itself. And thanks for signing one of my old, scuffed up, and half broken cubes. Having to solve that thing in front of you so you could sign it was ... terrifying :)

Hackable by design

Are you familiar with Rubik’s Cube twist notation? Do you like to r-d-R-D six times in a row for fun? Are you a fan of your browser’s JavaScript console? This is your lucky day. Not only does Cube Explorer respond to twist commands, it lets you get fancy like this: cube.twist( 'rdRD'.multiply( 6 )). Cuber also offers deep inspection of the cube right from the console, complete with colorful ASCII diagrams for browsers that support it:
cube.inspect()
cube.front.inspect()
cube.front.northEast.inspect()
cube.front.northWest.up.color.name
cube.standing.setOpacity( 0.5 )
cube.corners.setRadius( 90 )
cube.hasColors( ERNO.RED, ERNO.BLUE ).showIds()
Have a go. I think you’re going to like it. And ping me at @stew_rtsmith when you’ve written your first solver. Happy cubing, everyone.