Message #872

From: matthewsheerin <damienturtle@hotmail.co.uk>
Subject: 3^4 news
Date: Tue, 11 May 2010 21:33:25 -0000

Hi everyone,

In response to the posts mentioning the 300 move mark for the 3^4, I felt I should update that information, I have been sitting on this for too long anyway. At the end of November last year I finished trying to beat Roice’s 298 twist record. End of story? Not quite. When I reached the start of the last stage of the solve I thought I had already done enough to claim the title and spent little time optimising the last stage. Record sitting at 282 twists so far, but I wasn’t finished. However motivation started to slip a little at this point and I only spent a little bit of time here and there working on the solution.
One day out of nowhere I decided to tackle it again. The last step of the solve is effectively a 3x3x3, so I worked on the solution on the train and found a good solution on the return journey from university (first year exams soon!), maybe 33 moves but I’m not sure on that. Transferred that solution into MC4D, and with a bit of effort, knocked the move count down to 251. End of. Er … no actually. Our old friend parity paid a visit at the end, adding around 20 moves to the solution (I believe this particular parity has been mentioned here by Klaus and I posted a solution). That was the story at the end of February, and motivation had disappeared for a while. I have a funny feeling I know what I’ll be doing tomorrow though …

As they say, watch this space.

Matthew