You may recall that I posted a video of Ravi Fernando solving a Rubik’s cube while juggling it along with two balls.
He has now gone one better, or should I say two better. He solves three cubes while juggling them all, all the while chatting with friends who come by.
When watching such feats on the internet, it is important that the video contain people in the background moving around so that you know there is no trickery. There have been cases of people starting with solved cubes, messing them up, and then running the video backwards.
That’s impressive, but I see the trick. The cubes are “mixed up” in a very specific manner so that the solution follows a simple pattern (I used to do this myself before I figured out how to solve any mixed cube). It also looks like he has the cubes a little bit notched (not put in a perfect cube) so that he can feel his way to the first (pre-programmed) move.
I happen to know Ravi (he is the son of an old friend) and will ask him if he started with a specific orientation or it was random.
I used to be into Rubik’s cubes, and looking at the initial starting positions, I’d say each cube is about 5 moves away from the start, and I would also say that it’s 5 random moves. Someone as familiar with the cube as Ravi appears to be could easily see the solution with a few seconds of studying, so I believe that the first few seconds where he analyzes each cube is where he memorizes the solution.
Regardless, I’m still unbelievably impressed. With each toss iteration, he has less than a second to feel the cube, assess its orientation, retrieve the correction solution and the correct move number, and manipulate the cube in the correct manner.
meh. he solves them one at a time, not simultaneously. 🙂
even if it is a prepared cube, it is still a good example of dexterity!