20 May 2007

5x5 Clover


This pattern uses a fairly simple opposite-face two-color scheme. It's a nice exercise for cubers who are just learning to do 5x5 patterns. How few moves can you reduce it to?

The string winds up to the top face, then curves down and back up onto three adjacent sides, then winds back down to the bottom (where it repeats the pattern). If the sides were folded up where you could see them they would form two three-leaf clover shapes.

The pattern is illustrated schematically at left. There are straight line on only one side. It's more interesting to look at in person than in a photo.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The shortest algorithm I could find so far has 22 moves:

5x5 Clover
NB2 NL2 MF2 NR2 MF2 MR2 NF2 ND2 MR2 MF2 ND2 MF2
B MR (MD2 · NF NB- · MD2 · NF- NB) MR- B- (22 btm)