3.  Yes this sounds boring, but without it, you can’t learn the:  Algorithms, Permutations, Orientations, Formulas, Tricks, whatever you want to call them. (the series of movements)

4.  Corner Piece  Center Piece  Edge Piece

5.  F: Front side (side facing you)  L: Left side (facing left hand)  R: Right side (facing right hand)  U: Up (or top) side  D: Down (or bottom) side  B: Back (or reverse) side If holding the cube with two hands with one side facing towards you

6. U side L side D side R side side F side B side For those of you who can picture in 3-D well

7.  F, U, L, R, B, D  Seeing any of these mean to turn the side the letter represents 90° CLOCKWISE

8.  F’or Fi, U’or Ui, L’or Li, R’or Ri, B’or Bi, D’or Di  Seeing any of these mean to turn the side the letter represents 90° COUNTER- CLOCKWISE

9.  F2, U2, L2, R2, B2, D2  Seeing any of these mean to turn the side the letter represents 180° (either direction, doesn’t matter)

10.  So, can anyone figure out what:  “R-F’-U2-B2-D’-L”  Is telling someone to do?

11. Right 90 ° Clockwise Front 90° Counter Clockwise Up 180 ° Either Direction Back 180 ° Either Direction Down 90° Counter Clockwise Left 90 ° Clockwise

12.  The Rubik’s Cube is solved layer by layer by the average solver. Many professional solvers (speed-cubers), have their own special orders that they solve the cube in, but for today, we’ll go with simple.

13.  Solve First Layer (FL) “Cross” (edge pieces)  Solve FL Corners  Solve Second Layer (2L) Edges  Solve Last Layer “Cross”  Then from there, there are many orders you can solve in.

15.  The pieces in between the center tiles on these pictures below are called EDGE pieces.  During this step you line up the EDGE pieces with a white tile on them between the centers with the same colors.  This is done on the first layer, usually the white side.

16. From this: To this To finally, this.

17.  Take an edge piece with a white (or whatever color you are starting with) tile on it.  Line up the piece so that the white tile is on the first layer.

18.  Your cube should now look somewhat like this:  And when the second layer is done, it will look like this:

19. If this is the case: U-R-U’-R’-U’-F’-U-F U’-F’-U-F- U-R-U’-R’ If this happens solve for case one or two anyway, and then start at beginning of layer two. At advanced levels, there is a formula to fix this, but that’s for another day. Case 1: Case 2: Case 3:

20. Visual Example of Second Layer Formulas