General

Each turn is represented by one to three letters specifying what part of the polyhedron to turn. When needed, this is followed by numbers in brackets specifying which slices to turn. Slices are numbered with the outermost being 1, if there is any ambiguity the Move Types table specifies which slice is which (although middle slices are generally omitted). Generally all letters are uppercase. When lower case letters are used, they refer to the second slice. An uppercase letter without slice numbers refers to either the first slice if no slices are specified anywhere in the algorithm, or to the same slices as were last referred to. For instance, R[23]+ U+ R- D[2]+ uses the 2nd and 3rd slices for the first three turns and only the 2nd slice for the last turn.

On turns with period greater than 2, symbols are used to specify how much and which direction to turn. For period 3 and 4 turns, plus, minus, and 2 specify either a single click clockwise/anticlockwise, or a 180 degree turn. For period 5 turns, a single plus or minus is one click (72 degrees), a double plus or minus is two clicks (144 degrees). For example: R++ U+.

Parenthesis in algorithms are used only for grouping so make algorithms easier to understand and remember.

Tetrahedra

The only notation used for tetrahedra on this site is UFRL. Orient the tetrahedron so one vertex points up and another points towards you. These are the Up and Front vertices, respectively. The other two vertices are Right and Left. For edge-turning puzzles, the edges are labelled in the most intuitive way, so their 6 names are UF, UR, UL, FR, FL, RL. Note that the RL edge is at the back, opposite the UF edge.

Hexahedra

The standard notation for cubes labels the faces U & D, F & B, and R & L. Then edges and vertices are labelled as might be expected. UF, RF, UR, etc are edges. UFR, UFL, DBL, etc are corners. However, for vertex cut puzzles there are two other convenient notations. They are Low-Side Notation (LSN) and High-Side Notation (HSN). In each of the pictures below, there is an obvious U, F, and D corner. Then, the corners closest to you in each picture are R and L. The other two corners are not named (although BR and BL could be used, as is sometimes done in dodecahedron notation).

Low-Side Notation (LSN)	High-Side Notation (HSN)

Octahedra

The standard notation for octahedra labels the verticies U & D, F & B, and R & L. This is because the octahedron is the cube's dual polyhedron. Edge and face names follow naturally. There are two other face-turning octahedron notations. They are UpFront Notation (UFN) and DownFront Notation (DFN). Both designate U & D, R & L, and F faces. No B face is specified. The difference comes from whether the front face faces up or down. Both pictures below show the U, F, R, and L faces.

UpFront Notation (UFN)	DownFront Notation (DFN)