Message #3752

From: daniellaing@talktalk.net
Subject: New Member (323rd)
Date: Tue, 11 Jul 2017 19:25:32 +0000

Hello,
My name is Daniel and I am the 323rd person to solve the 3^4 Rubik’s Cube! I am 16 years old and attend an academy in Aberdeen, Scotland. I am in S5 in the Scottish system (but don’t ask me about any other system!) and I take English, Maths, Geography, Physics and Chemistry at higher level. In my Nat 5’s (the level below and replacement for standard grades) I got 6 A’s in my prelims, so I am pretty confident for my results which I get on the 8th of August.
In my spare time, I play the piano; my favourite pieces to play are epic, big sounding songs. Typically they are piano covers of orchestral pieces or electronic dance (I aspire to do this myself one day instead of stealing other people’s). IMO, electronic music sounds much better on piano! My favourite music to listen to is Two Steps From Hell https://www.youtube.com/user/TwoStepsFromTheMusic, my favourite songs being Flight of the Silverbird https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-Dh3ftkRAs, Cannon in D Minor https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKmw9oS__MM (not a musical canon like Pachelbel’s Canon, but the cannon that shoots cannonballs), Dragon Rider https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKv_wua6kFE and Blackheart https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbttZVTSJRU. I also Really enjoy DIY and building and am currently building a mini electrical arc furnace while it is the school summer holidays. The plans are a combination of lots of people’s from all over the internet and it is capable of melting any metal and can reach temperatures four times hotter than the surface of the sun!
Of course, I am an experienced 3D cube and ATM I can solve the 3x3x3 in under a minute consistently and my best time is around 27s. I can also solve a modest variety of twisty puzzles ranging from the Magaminx to the Gear Cube to the 4x4x4.
I really enjoyed solving the 3^4 and had no problem understanding the 4D aspects of it. I used my own method which is a version of a common method used in blind 3D cubing modified to 4D. It involves solving all cubes of one type first then move onto the next until solved. Unlike in blind solving where you make "blind" swaps, here I systematically went through and solved first one cell, then the next, then the next until all those cubies were solved. The macros I used were made myself by the commutators method and, as a result, were very inefficient. I was quite pleased though because I solved the cube on my first attempt, all be it at 18152 moves!
Solving the 3^4 did increase my understanding of the 4th dimension and experimenting with the other puzzles in the programme I find extremely interesting.
Speaking of the 4th dimension, some people are making an incredible game called Miegakure http://www.miegakure.com/ which, if you’re interested in 4D, you should definitely check out!