As a kid growing up, I was right in the middle of the Rubik's Cube fascination, but sadly was never able to solve it (not that I spent a lot of effort on it)!
Apparently, a group of mathematicians have cajoled Google into giving them some computing power to try to come up with the ultimate solution. Based on this computing power, they have come up with a solution that they say can be used to solve ANY cube combination in 20 moves.
First of all, I'm astounded that it can be solved in 20 moves, but most of all, as a software developer, I'd be really interested to find out how they came up with this solution. The article goes on to state that there are 43 quintrillion (a billion billion) possible combinations, so they couldn't have gone with a "hit and miss" approach I wouldn't think.
The solution is apparently hosted at Cube 20.org and it actually goes on to talk about how they solved the problem. I am thinking that I should probably make it a goal to get a Rubik's Cube and get this sucker solved!
I'm going to grab my son's Rubik's Cube and go to that website right now! I've always wanted to be able to solve that sucker, without having to take it apart ;)
ReplyDeleteBtw, they sell the cube at Dollar Stores these days or you can pay more for the real deal at Toys R Us.
Thanks for such an interesting post!