In other words, if you spin the right side all the way around (360 degrees), the center will spin halfway around (180 degrees). Each of the Gear Ball’s 6 faces has 13 colored components: 4 plus sign shaped corners; 4 side pieces that are each half of a gear ring; 4 interior pieces that look like block letter “C”s; and 1 square center. References to “sides” or “thirds” (left, right, up, down, center) of the Gear Ball are based on you holding the ball with a single face pointed towards you.
There’s nothing special about red—you can start with any of the six colors you prefer. It may make the process easier if you start with the same “favorite” color each time, though.
If, for example, you’re holding the Gear Ball so that there’s a red corner on top of a yellow corner to the left, you may be able to rotate the right side of the ball up or down until you have a red corner on top of a yellow corner to the right as well. With practice, you’ll be able to quickly decipher which pairs will be easiest to match. If you always start with red, for instance, you might sometimes find matching red and yellow corners to be easier, while other times matching red and green corners will be simpler.
If your 2 starting (red) corners are to your left and facing you, for instance, the other 2 red corners may be to your right and facing away from you. In this case, you’ll need to rotate the right side of the ball either upward or downward 180 degrees in order to bring all 4 red corners into alignment in the same face.
Remember that, whether you’re rotating up and down or side to side, the center section of the ball rotates half the amount of the side section. So, if you rotate the right side of the ball up and all the way around (360 degrees), the center section will rotate up and halfway around (180 degrees). In this example, then, the 2 red corners on the right will rotate all the way around and meet up with the red center square that has traveled halfway around.
Eventually, you’ll be able to match the colors of the corners and centers in each of the other 4 faces. At this point, the corners and centers will be the same color in each of the 6 faces.
Once you’ve solved all the centers and corners, you’ll always find the above scenario somewhere on the ball—but the grouping of colors may vary.
The interior pieces will now be in the correct vicinity, but still in the wrong faces. That is, according to the example, the purple interior piece will be at the bottom of the blue face, and the blue interior piece will be at the top of the purple face. Remember, each time you rotate the top, bottom, or side 180 degrees, the center rotates 90 degrees in the same direction.
In some cases, using R2-U-R2-U will not only put the interior pieces in the proper vicinity, but also place them in the correct face as well (for example, yellow into yellow). Keep repeating this process until all the interior pieces are either in the proper face or are next to the proper face (that is, in the correct vicinity).
For example, with the green face above the purple face, you might find that the bottom interior piece of the green face is purple, and the top interior piece of the purple face is green. This could be the first of your 8 mismatched pairs to fix. If all the interior pieces are already oriented (that is, none of them need switched because they’re already in their proper faces), skip this entire section and move on to the “R4” algorithm section.
If the Gear Ball was a globe, and you were looking straight at the Prime Meridian, the belt would cross over the North and South Poles and follow the 90 deg East and 90 deg West longitudinal lines. This orientation is called a “standing slice. ”
Once you’ve completed the R-U-R-U-R-U algorithm, all the centers, corners, and interior pieces will be match in color within each face. Now, you just need to rotate some of the gear pieces into the correct orientation, and you’ll be all finished!
It’s possible, but very unlikely, that all your gear rings will be in the proper orientation after you finish R-U-R-U-R-U. Look closely to make sure you don’t miss any wayward gear rings!
If you have this line (“/”) you’ll turn R4 upward. If you have this line (“\”) you’ll turn R4 downward.
For example, the red side of the gear ring will be in the red face, and the blue side in the blue face. As a bonus, all the other gear rings in the same vertical slice—the “belt” that this time faces both towards and away from you—will also be properly oriented!
Point the gear ring toward you. Turn R4 upward if the gear ring divider looks like (“/”). Turn R4 downward if the gear ring looks like (“\”). Keep repeating this until all the gear rings are properly aligned. Congratulations—you’ve solved the Gear Ball!
