Color schemes
Hey everyone, this is going to be the most boring post on this already boring blog so bear with me, I couldn't think of anything else to write about. I'm going to be writing a little bit about color schemes and the evolution of them, as well as non-standard color schemes and color schemes for puzzles with more or less than six sides.
So to start out with, a regular Rubik's cube has six sides. Generally white is opposite yellow, green is opposite blue and orange is opposite red. By doing this, they've placed the most similar colors opposite each other. If you hold the cube so that the white side is on top and the red side is facing you, the blue side should be on the right. This is considered the "Standard" color scheme.
This wasn't always the case, however. If you were to buy an original Rubik's cube produced in 1980, you'd see that white is opposite blue and green is opposite yellow. In Japan and some other parts of Asia, Rubik's cubes are still sold this way. In the cubing community it's referred to as the Japanese color scheme.
The standard color scheme applies to all six-sided cubes- generally any nxnxn or nxmxm, as well as puzzles like the square-1 or the hexaminx. When you get puzzles with a different number of sides, the colors of course need to be changed. The standard four color scheme (the pyraminx comes to mind, but any of the morphix puzzles could be counted as well) is yellow, blue, green and red. This is considered "Standard", and most four-sided cubes you buy will come stickered this way. Personally, I prefer to use white instead of yellow. There are no official rules in the WCA against this, as long as each face has one unique color.
Then there are eight-color schemes, for any kind of octahedron puzzle. There isn't really a standard, as there are no WCA events with an eight sided puzzle, but I prefer the regular six color scheme plus pink opposite purple. A lot of mass produced octahedron puzzles use gray rather than purple.
The 12-sided color scheme differs in that usually, white is opposite gray. They also place similar colors opposite each other- so yellow is usually opposite some sort of cream color, pink is opposite purple, and often, light blue is opposite dark blue (Rather than green).
The inventor of the Rubik's cube, Erno Rubik, stated that he added the original colors "to add an objective" to the cube- to make it solveable. He says that it was the simplest reason to do this, and that he chose white, yellow, red, orange blue and green because everybody knows what these colors are. Hard to argue with that.
So to start out with, a regular Rubik's cube has six sides. Generally white is opposite yellow, green is opposite blue and orange is opposite red. By doing this, they've placed the most similar colors opposite each other. If you hold the cube so that the white side is on top and the red side is facing you, the blue side should be on the right. This is considered the "Standard" color scheme.
This wasn't always the case, however. If you were to buy an original Rubik's cube produced in 1980, you'd see that white is opposite blue and green is opposite yellow. In Japan and some other parts of Asia, Rubik's cubes are still sold this way. In the cubing community it's referred to as the Japanese color scheme.
The standard color scheme applies to all six-sided cubes- generally any nxnxn or nxmxm, as well as puzzles like the square-1 or the hexaminx. When you get puzzles with a different number of sides, the colors of course need to be changed. The standard four color scheme (the pyraminx comes to mind, but any of the morphix puzzles could be counted as well) is yellow, blue, green and red. This is considered "Standard", and most four-sided cubes you buy will come stickered this way. Personally, I prefer to use white instead of yellow. There are no official rules in the WCA against this, as long as each face has one unique color.
Then there are eight-color schemes, for any kind of octahedron puzzle. There isn't really a standard, as there are no WCA events with an eight sided puzzle, but I prefer the regular six color scheme plus pink opposite purple. A lot of mass produced octahedron puzzles use gray rather than purple.
The 12-sided color scheme differs in that usually, white is opposite gray. They also place similar colors opposite each other- so yellow is usually opposite some sort of cream color, pink is opposite purple, and often, light blue is opposite dark blue (Rather than green).
The inventor of the Rubik's cube, Erno Rubik, stated that he added the original colors "to add an objective" to the cube- to make it solveable. He says that it was the simplest reason to do this, and that he chose white, yellow, red, orange blue and green because everybody knows what these colors are. Hard to argue with that.
Of my goodness, it's so cool that you know so much about Rubik's cubes! I literally had no idea how much design went into them, it's great to know more. :)
ReplyDeleteGreat post dude!