Message #3182

From: Ray Zhao <thermostatico@gmail.com>
Subject: Re: Rotations of MC4D
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2015 00:05:10 -0400

Hi there acidic llama,

In 3D, when you rotate a face you’re turning that face, which is 3x3
pieces, so 9 pieces.
In 4D, when you rotate a cell you’re turning that cell, which is 3x3x3
pieces, so 27 pieces.

Visualizing the top cell on the 3^4 as a Rubik’s cube is a tiny tiny bit
like visualizing the 3x3 face on the U layer on a Rubik’s cube as a
"Rubik’s square", which doesn’t work well in this case.
You can’t exactly think of each cell on the 3^4 as an individual Rubik’s
cube, just like how you can’t think of each side on the 3x3x3 as
independent from the rest of the puzzle.

Not sure how else to explain this.