See the app at shuffle.akselipalen.com
Scrambling your Rubik’s cube might seem a trivial task. Just rotate the faces a few times and you are done, right? However, if you need to be absolutely sure it is properly shuffled, like in a Rubik’s cube competition, that might not be enough.
Humans are known to be poor to produce truly random sequences. Pick a random number between 0 and 9999. Given such task, we tend to think the numbers 1 or 1112 are less random than 4785, and yet if you give the same task to a machine, the numbers 1 and 1112 will show up as frequently as 4785. Therefore a machine is a bit more reliable to produce randomness.
Humans can also cheat and be lazy. Especially in a cube solving competition, these things matter. Every contestant should have properly scrambled cube regardless the mental state or predisposition of the scrambling staff.
To overcome these challenges and also to support my own training, I built the app linked above. The app gives you clear instructions how to shuffle the cube properly. The app also teaches you the shorthand symbols of the moves, for example the symbol B’ means turning the back face counter-clockwise. The symbols are used in various Rubik’s cube tutorials and tips and help a lot when you begin to learn various sequences to solve your cube quickly.
Happy scrambling!
