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In 2010 it was finally proven that 20 moves is enough to solve any possible Rubik's cube ordering, and that it can be no lower.
Ernö was a professor of mine in an international School in Hungary when I was there for study abroad. He was one of the most insightful people I have ever met and lessons learned from my conversations with him - about perspective, emotion and complexity - still reverberate in my head daily.
Ernö was a professor of mine in an international School in Hungary when I was there for study abroad. He was one of the most insightful people I have ever met and lessons learned from my conversations with him - about perspective, emotion and complexity - still reverberate in my head daily.
"It also violated the toy industry's standards: it didn't talk, whistle, cry, shoot, change clothes, appear in a movie, or require batteries." And it absolutely will not stop, EVER, until you are dead.
> Mathematicians vied to find the shortest method of unscrambling, which became known as God's algorithm. There's speculation that an all-knowing being could restore any Cube in 22 moves, but the shortest method discovered so far requires 52. It was found by a British mathematician named Morwen B. Thistlewaite. In 2010 it was finally proven that 20 moves is enough to solve any possible Rubik's cube ordering, and that…
> Mathematicians vied to find the shortest method of unscrambling, which became known as God's algorithm. There's speculation that an all-knowing being could restore any Cube in 22 moves, but the shortest method discovered so far requires 52. It was found by a British mathematician named Morwen B. Thistlewaite. In 2010 it was finally proven that 20 moves is enough to solve any possible Rubik's cube ordering, and that…
That's super interesting. Do you have a source?
They pruned a bunch and then did brute force evaluation of the remaining "hard" positions. It seems strange that there hasn't been a more elegant approach to proving this. An interesting (if obvious) corollary to this result is that the maximum moves between any two Rubik's configurations is 20.
The relevant HN thread at that time: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1587340
> Mathematicians vied to find the shortest method of unscrambling, which became known as God's algorithm. There's speculation that an all-knowing being could restore any Cube in 22 moves, but the shortest method discovered so far requires 52. It was found by a British mathematician named Morwen B. Thistlewaite. In 2010 it was finally proven that 20 moves is enough to solve any possible Rubik's cube ordering, and that…
That's super interesting. Do you have a source?
Ernö was a professor of mine in an international School in Hungary when I was there for study abroad. He was one of the most insightful people I have ever met and lessons learned from my conversations with him - about perspective, emotion and complexity - still reverberate in my head daily.
> Mathematicians vied to find the shortest method of unscrambling, which became known as God's algorithm. There's speculation that an all-knowing being could restore any Cube in 22 moves, but the shortest method discovered so far requires 52. It was found by a British mathematician named Morwen B. Thistlewaite. In 2010 it was finally proven that 20 moves is enough to solve any possible Rubik's cube ordering, and that…
That's super interesting. Do you have a source?
Ernö was a professor of mine in an international School in Hungary when I was there for study abroad. He was one of the most insightful people I have ever met and lessons learned from my conversations with him - about perspective, emotion and complexity - still reverberate in my head daily.
Any anecdotes you can recall?