Cubing Notation

Cube notation is essential to learn before you start cubing. You need to learn the basics of reading algorithms and knowing which face to turn if you want to progress more.

To start off with, we will look at the left and right turns.

Suppose you see the letter R. It means to turn the right side clockwise. R means to turn the right side away from you. If you see an apostrophe after a letter, it means to turn it anticlockwise. R' would mean to turn the right face towards you.

Now let's say you see the letter L. It means to turn the left side clockwise. Turning it clockwise though does not mean that you turn it away from you. You would turn it towards you. Cubing notation is made so that the turns are not from your perspective but as if you were looking at that face straight on. Since L is to turn the face towards you, L' means to turn the left face away from you.

F is probably the easiest one to remember though because you are already looking at it straight on. If you haven't figured it out yet, F means to turn the front face clockwise. You just turn it clockwise since you are already facing it correctly. F' means to turn it anticlockwise.

U is an essential one to learn. It is the top face that you turn. Pretend you are looking at it from a bird's eye view. U is turning the top with your right-hand index finger and U' is turning it with your left-hand index finger.

D is the notation for down. To turn this side, you should use your ring finger which is your fourth finger. To do a D move, use your left-hand ring finger and push it away from your left hand. For D', use your right-hand ring finger and push it away from your right hand.

B is probably the most difficult to learn and includes the back face. You also use your ring fingers for this move but you will have to reposition your hands so that your ring finger can push the back. It is the same as the D move though after you reposition your fingers.

Those are the basics of cube notation. More advanced cube notation includes lower-case letters. Normal cube notation has capital letters for example: R U R' U R U2 R'.

Now, you might be wondering what the 2 in the algorithm above means. For future reference that algorithm is called a Sune and the 2 means to turn the U (top) face twice. U3 would be to turn it 3 times in the clockwise direction. For U2, it doesn't really matter which way you turn it, U prime or not, because you will get the same result.

Now let's move on to lower-case letters. We already said that most algorithms are written in capital. Lowercase would mean to do a wide move. If the algorithm or notation said to do an 'r' move, you would turn the right and middle layer upward.

Last but not least, there are the middle layer moves. For M, you would use your middle finger to push down the middle layer from the top. M' would be to use your middle finger to push up the middle layer from the bottom.

S is the turn of the middle layer usually with your index finger parallel to your body. E would be the middle layer or slice between the top and the bottom layer like something in a sandwich.

Now that you have learnt all the basics and some advanced cube notation, you can go learn some algorithms.

By the way, this site does not include the notation for the Square-1 puzzle. The notation for that is... questionable to say the least. It is basically something like this 3274898re7w897r897we89r79we. Ok that may not be true but it is so confusing.