From Ian Cairns
I read Jason Palmer’s article on Rubik’s Cube (9 August, p 40) with interest, principally because the three pages of text did not once mention , nor any of his reference works on the mathematics of the cube.
Palmer mentions that , created the “most common” speed-cubing method. I cannot dispute that her method may be the most commonly used by speed-cubers.
As a point of interest, Singmaster’s early books on the maths of Rubik’s Cube cited the earliest solution (which also happened to use “way-stations”, or intermediate positions), which was provided three years earlier in a private publication by Colin Cairns (my brother) and David Griffiths called Teach Yourself Cube-Bashing (September 1979). Over the next couple of years, I received several requests for photocopies of the text from Eastern European universities. So, this early solution was certainly known the length of Europe within a couple of years.
Tilehurst, Berkshire, UK
