Author: Quinn Mahoney
In the video, a Rubik's cube is being manipulated out of sight, with pauses for the top to be photographed. If you repeat these moves starting with a solved cube, and record what the top of the cube looks like at every photo, you'll get the following sequence of 22 faces. (Moves are given in Singmaster notation. The exact colors don't matter for the solution.)
| R2 F2 D L2 | D R2 U R2 | D' F2 U' L2 U | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| U D R2 F2 D' F2 | x2 F2 R2 | F2 D F2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| L2 U B2 | D' L2 B2 | x2 U' F2 R2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| B2 U' | D2 L2 | x2 D' B2 R2 B2 D2 B2 D' F2 U' | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D B2 L2 U' | B2 D R2 B2 D R2 | R2 D L2 R2 D R2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x2 D' F2 L2 D L2 D2 B2 U' | (none) | x2 D F2 D' R2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| D2 L2 | D R2 L2 D B2 U | D B2 D' L2 D' L2 D B2 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| x2 F2 B2 R2 D' U2 F2 |
Each face can be interpreted as a Braille letter:
⠜
⠑
⠽
⠳
⠁
⠡
⠊
⠇
⠙
⠕
⠗
⠁
⠦
⠮
⠩
⠑
⠑
⠏
⠎
⠁
⠊
⠙
Translate these to English, noting that some
Braille letters
correspond to English ligatures or common words, and read:
AR-E-Y-OU-A-CH-I-L-D-O-R-A-?-THE-SH-E-E-P-S-A-I-D
The sentence, "'Are you a child or a teetotum?' the Sheep said," comes from
Through the Looking Glass.
The puzzle answer is the missing word, TEETOTUM