Pyraminx
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The Pyraminx is a puzzle in the shape of a regular tetrahedron. Its internal mechanism allows to rotate four vertices, as well as four sub-tetrahedrons. The aim is to solve the puzzle in such a way so that each side (face) consists of exactly one color. Puzzles like Octahedron or Skewb have similar properties.
On this page you will find:
- Pyraminx - notation
- Pyraminx - solving of corners
- Pyraminx - solving of centers
- Pyraminx - solving of one face without one edge
- Pyraminx - solving of remaining edges
- world record videos
Pyraminx - notation
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Pyraminx - solving of corners
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Trivial part. Rotate 4 corners so that the colors on them would be in accordance with the colors of centers.
Pyraminx - solving of centers
Solve the centers by means of rotating the sub-tetrahedrons. There is only one shared color on three mutually adjacent sub-tetrahedrons, which implies there is only one possibility of how to rotate the centers towards each other in order to be solved.
Pyraminx - solving of one face without one edge
Note that the yellow-green edge is already solved by luck. That's why one solved face without an edge will be the bottom one. Thus it is only needed to solve either the yellow-red or the yellow-blue edge. Yellow-blue edge will be solved. The same principle can be seen when solving the edges of the second layer on the Rubik's cube.
Pyraminx - solving of remaining edges
Concerning the principle, this phase is similar to solving the edges of the upper layer on the Rubik's cube: solve edge by edge in the upper sub-tetrahedron with the help of an unsolved edge from the bottom face.
Sometimes we can encounter a situation in which the Pyraminx is almost solved - except for two edges. Use commutators to solve this problem.
World record videos
As a football has FIFA and athletics has IAAF, also the Pyraminx has some sort of board that organizes the competitions worldwide. It is WCA - World Cube Association. Thus it can be officially competed in a solving of the Pyraminx. It is competed in two formats: single fastest solve of the puzzle and average solve. As an average, five consecutive times of one round are taken, the best and the worst time is not considered and from the remaining three times an arithmetic mean is calculated.
| event: Pyraminx single solve | ||
| name: Dominik Górny (Poland) | ||
| result: 0.91 s | ||
| scramble: available upon request | ||
| solution: available upon request | ||
| puzzle brand: QiYi MoFangGe X-Man Design Bell M | ||
| solving method: God's algorithm | ||
| personal opinion on used method: see below | ||
| competition: Byczy Cube Race; 23-24. 6. 2018; Polsko |
| event: Pyraminx average solve | ||
| name: Tymon Kolasiński (Poland) | ||
| result: 1.86 s | ||
| scramble: available upon request | ||
| solutions: available upon request | ||
| puzzle brand: MoYu M | ||
| solving method: based on top-first (see below) | ||
| personal opinion on used method: see below | ||
| competition: Grudziądz Open; 6. 4. 2019; Poland |
If you find a so-called speedcubing interesting, check out an article about where to buy a Pyraminx, what brand is the best and how to solve it faster.
Personal opinion on methods used in the world records
Pyraminx:
Optimal solution (God's algorithm, in other words) has been used in the case of a world record for a single solve - which is 0.91 s. Still, I believe the record can be broken much easier than the one for e.g. a 2x2x2 Rubik's cube. However, the basis for success will undoubtedly be a "nice" scramble.
Average time is the indicator of competitor's quality in case of solving an "easy" puzzle. When speedsolving a Pyraminx, one can not rely on just single method in general. The methods need to be changed / chosen in dependence on a scramble.
There are two basic groups of methods: V-first and top-first. While solving one face without one edge at the beginning of a solve is a characteristic for the first group (see the tutorial on this page, for example), the second group is characterized by initial solving of more or less blocks consisting of one three-colored center and 2 adjacent edges. Names of many methods for a solution of the puzzle can be found here.
Since the top-first methods generally allow to solve multiple pieces at a time compared to the methods based on V-first, they may be more efficient in terms of time (number of moves needed for a solve, if you like). However, this is balanced by a higher number of algorithms that a solver must learn in order to use the top-first methods.
The page was graphically improved by Jeremy Fleischman and Lucas Garron.