Message #3999

From: Luna Harran <scarecrowfish@gmail.com>
Subject: Proposed scrambling notation for the physical 2^4
Date: Mon, 26 Feb 2018 01:43:52 +0000

Given that the goal is to scramble as much as possible with as few moves as
possible, and given that any I and O moves produce legal states, I propose
the following simple notation for scrambling:

The first element is (Left move, right move) which describes two twists of
the left and right halves of the puzzle. For example, (xy, z2) or (y’,
x2z). 0 means no move.
The second element is a slab move, either U, F, D or B.
The third is /, representing moving the left end cap to the right.

An example short scramble might look like this:
(x2, z)U/(xyz,x’z)B/(y’, 0)F/(x,z’)U/

Despite being only four iterations, this produces a fairly convincing
scramble. A serious scramble might be 10, 15, or even 20 of these long if
you’re that worried.

What are anyone’s thoughts on this?

~Luna