3D cube puzzle: a spatial reasoning tool

Welcome to the 3D cube on four in a row dot online. Learn to look around the cube, turn exactly the layer you want, and use every tool on the page.

First, a quick tour. Four in a Row is a free games site, with a clean, dark design that works on any screen. The home page opens straight onto the game. Along the top is the main menu. Open "3D Cube", and you'll find the cube, the solver, the trainer, the timer, and the bigger and smaller cubes. Choose "3D Cube" to open the puzzle.

Want it on your home screen? Press "Get the free app". No app store, no sign-up, and it works with no internet.

Here's the cube screen. The cube sits in the big panel, with the move counter top left, and "Reset view" top right. On the right are the controls, and below them, "Your moves" lists every turn you make.

Lesson one: looking around. Drag the empty space around the cube, not the cube itself. The whole cube spins, so you can see every side. No moves are counted. Lost your way? Press "Reset view", and white is back on top, with green facing you.

Lesson two is the big one: turning a layer. Tap any sticker, and you choose the face that sticker sits on. A small bar appears, with the name of that face, and two arrows. Press the clockwise arrow, and that face turns a quarter turn. The other arrow turns it back.

The trick to never turning the wrong bit? Before you press an arrow, read the name in the bar. If it says "Front", the face looking at you will turn. Wrong face? Tap a sticker on the face you want, or press the cross to close the bar.

You can also swipe. Drag a sticker the way you want its row to move. The layer follows your finger, so you can see exactly what you've grabbed. Go past halfway, and it clicks into place. Stop short, and it springs back, with no move counted.

So, whole cube, or one layer? Drag the empty space, and the whole cube turns, just so you can look. Drag a sticker, or use the arrows, and one layer turns. That counts as a move.

Now the other tools. Scramble mixes the cube with twenty-five random turns, and writes them out underneath. Undo and Redo take back a turn, or put it back. Reset gives you a solved cube. And your cube is saved on this device.

Every turn appears under "Your moves", in cube notation. R means turn the right face clockwise. R prime turns it anticlockwise. Solve the cube, and you'll see "Solved!", with your number of moves.

Stuck? Press "Solve this cube for me". The solver finds about twenty moves, right in your browser. Press Next for one turn at a time, or Play to watch them all. You can even colour in your real cube.

To learn to solve it yourself, open the cube trainer. It teaches the beginner's method in seven stages. Press Hint for what to do next, or "Show me", and it does the moves for you, slowly.

Ready to go faster? The cube timer gives you a scramble for your real cube. Hold the space bar until the time turns green, then let go. Press any key to stop. It keeps your best times and averages.

There's a two by two, and a four by four, with buttons that turn two layers at once. And on the patterns page, press "Make it" to watch a pattern appear.

Prefer a keyboard? Press U, D, L, R, F or B to turn a face. Hold Shift to turn it the other way. X, Y and Z turn the whole cube, and Control Z undoes.

On a phone or tablet, it all works by touch. Tap a sticker for the arrows, swipe a row to turn it, and drag the empty space to look around. You can even twist a face with two fingers, like opening a jar.

Time for your first practice. Press Reset. Tap the front face, and press the clockwise arrow once. Now press the other arrow, and it's solved again. Then try two turns, and undo them both. When that feels easy, press Scramble, and open the trainer at stage one.

That's the 3D cube, at four in a row dot online. Have fun, and happy turning.

Welcome to the 3D cube on four in a row dot online. Learn to look around the cube, turn exactly the layer you want, and use every tool on the page.

First, a quick tour. Four in a Row is a free games site, with a clean, dark design that works on any screen. The home page opens straight onto the game. Along the top is the main menu. Open "3D Cube", and you'll find the cube, the solver, the trainer, the timer, and the bigger and smaller cubes. Choose "3D Cube" to open the puzzle.

Want it on your home screen? Press "Get the free app". No app store, no sign-up, and it works with no internet.

Here's the cube screen. The cube sits in the big panel, with the move counter top left, and "Reset view" top right. On the right are the controls, and below them, "Your moves" lists every turn you make.

Lesson one: looking around. Drag the empty space around the cube, not the cube itself. The whole cube spins, so you can see every side. No moves are counted. Lost? Press "Reset view", and white is back on top, with green facing you.

Lesson two is the big one: turning a layer. Tap any sticker, and you choose the face that sticker sits on. A small bar appears, with the name of that face, and two arrows. Press the clockwise arrow, and that face turns a quarter turn. The other arrow turns it back.

The trick to never turning the wrong part? Before you press an arrow, read the name in the bar. If it says "Front", the face facing you will turn. Wrong face? Just tap a sticker on the face you want, or press the cross to close the bar.

You can also swipe. Drag a sticker the way you want its row to move. The layer follows your finger, so you can see exactly what you've grabbed. Go past halfway, and it clicks into place. Stop short, and it springs back, with no move counted.

So, whole cube, or one layer? Drag the empty space, and the whole cube turns, just so you can look. Drag a sticker, or use the arrows, and one layer turns. That counts as a move.

Now the other tools. Scramble mixes the cube with twenty-five random turns, and writes them out underneath. Undo and Redo take back a turn, or put it back. Reset gives you a solved cube. And your cube is saved on this device.

Every turn appears under "Your moves", in cube notation. R means turn the right face clockwise. R prime turns it counterclockwise. Solve the cube, and you'll see "Solved!", with your number of moves.

Stuck? Press "Solve this cube for me". The solver finds about twenty moves, right in your browser. Press Next for one turn at a time, or Play to watch them all. You can even color in your real cube.

To learn to solve it yourself, open the cube trainer. It teaches the beginner's method in seven stages. Press Hint for what to do next, or "Show me", and it does the moves for you, slowly.

Ready to go faster? The cube timer gives you a scramble for your real cube. Hold the space bar until the time turns green, then let go. Press any key to stop. It keeps your best times and averages.

There's a two by two, and a four by four, with buttons that turn two layers at once. And on the patterns page, press "Make it" to watch a pattern appear.

Prefer a keyboard? Press U, D, L, R, F or B to turn a face. Hold Shift to turn it the other way. X, Y and Z turn the whole cube, and Control Z is undo.

On a phone or tablet, it all works by touch. Tap a sticker for the arrows, swipe a row to turn it, and drag the empty space to look around. You can even twist a face with two fingers, like opening a jar.

Time for your first practice. Press Reset. Tap the front face, and press the clockwise arrow once. Now press the other arrow, and it's solved again. Then try two turns, and undo them both. When that feels easy, press Scramble, and open the trainer at stage one.

That's the 3D cube, at four in a row dot online. Have fun, and happy turning!