This is about the Rubik’s Cube (remember those?) I tried searching the Web for answers, but couldn’t find what I was looking for. Specificly:
Did they ever find “God’s Algorithm”, i.e. a method for finding the minimum number of moves between any two cube configurations?
Is there a single “antistate” that’s the greatest number of moves you can be from the start configuration?
I could (and still can) solve the Cube, in about 1-2 minutes. I’d have friends who would mix it up for me, not letting me see it, and mixing for 5 minutes to make sure it was sufficiently randomized. Still took the same amount of time.
To solve it, I’d put the upper edges in place, then the upper corners, middle edges, lower corners, and finally the lower edges.
The upper edges took 1-3 moves; fairly simple. The upper corners also 1-4. The middle edges took either 0, 8, or 16, plus one positioning move. The lower corners took 0 or 8 to get in place, then 0, 6, or 12 moves to orient. The lower edges had two basic positioning/orienting procedures that took 11 and 29 moves. It took combinations of the two procedures to put the lower edges in place; sometimes two 11’s; an 11, a 29, and an 11; a 29, 11, 11, 29. The latter was the most complex.
So for a theoretically “most mixed” cube, it’d take 4(3) + 4(4) + 4(16+1) + 8 + 12 + (29 + 11 + 11 + 29) = 196 moves.
You might try one of these sites:
http://www.math.rwth-aachen.de/~Martin.Schoenert/Cube-Lovers/Index_by_Subject.html
http://web.usna.navy.mil/~wdj/rubik_nts.htm
(I can’t guarantee you’ll find what you’re looking for, though).
Last time I heard no one has come up with “God’s Algorithm” yet. I used to be on a mailing list about a year ago, too math orineted for me, so that was the last I heard. All I know now is that I first solved it on my birthday with NO outside help. That’s what 30 hours on a train will do for ya huh? 
I know there are other links out there, but I don’t have any of the links anymore. I remeber one that had all sorts of patterns that could be made and stuff as well. sorry I cant remember it now though.
Oops I should read better, from what I remember the theoritcal limit is 19, but there were some people who thought it might be 18. There’s also a book that I found in a number of colleges about the book, just look ub Rubik’s Cube in the card catalog and it might be there.
[adding nothing]What’s a ‘card catalog’?[/adding nothing]
:eek:
One soak cube in hot water
Two wait until the stickers come off
Three remove all black cube and your done!
A very good friend of mine was able to solve both Rubic’s Cube and Rubic’s Revenge on his own and very quickly. At the height of his Cube days, he would average about 30 seconds to solve the Cube and about 1 minute to solve Revenge. He wrote down the steps for solving Revenge (Which I still have a copy of) and it was a guaranteed universal solution, no matter how randomly the puzzle was mixed up. What was interesting was that the steps involved solving the top slice first, and working your way down, eventually turing the Revenge puzzle into a Cube puzzle, then solving from there. His steps were better than anything I’ve seen published. I was able to solve both puzzles just from those directions.
Ah the good ol’ days.
Assuming you’re not kidding, how old are you? I’m only 21 and I know. Back in the olden days before computers kept track of all the books in a library, we used to have to look through little pieces of paper alphabetically organized in drawers. That is called a card catalogue.
By the way, am I the only one around here who spells it “catalogue”?
Heh Aglarond, I think the sense of humor of your sig explains my own comment. FWIW it seemed to me like a part of the library’s soul was ripped out when they converted to computerized card catalogues.
::spelling adjusted in support of Aglarond::
Um… Okay. What’s a “book”?
Johnny L.A., back in the olden days before movies, we had bunches of pages with words that told stories. Kind of like a newspaper, but with a plot. A plot is what keeps some movies interesting. If you take a movie or book and remove the plot, it becomes a porno or romance novel respectively. Pornos are what keep single males busy. Idle hands are the devil’s workshop and pornos keep the hands busy. A romance novel is a porno, but in a book form and written with more sophistication as to not get it banned from the grocery store checkout lines. Grocery stores are what we had back in the olden days before Albertsons.com, etc. They were big stores with lots of food and romance novels in them. You could also buy best selling books off a little rack(that are now available in electronic format) and computer software that hasn’t been published since 1982. If in need of an old game, check out the grocery store. They’re usually on a big rack next to the ice cream. Racks are what you see on women in pornos. I’ve just done a full circle and tied up most of the loose ends. Of course, knowing this board, somebody will find a thread to grab on to.
I just realized how severely this thread has been hijacked. I’m kind of impressed.
Now, if I could only develope a sense of humour and a feel for sarcasm, I might become a useful contributer to this board.
What is this ‘sarcasm’ you speak of?
Is the difference between catalog and catalogue that one is the American spelling and the other is the British spelling?
PeeQueue
No, it’s that “catalog” is spelled wrong.
Catalogue is right.
That’s …is wrongly spelled. Or …is the wrong spelling.
Bill
Actually, according to Merriam Webster
This is why I never try and correct spelling (or god forbid grammar!) on these boards – Murphy lurks ‘round every corner.
Now then,
Aglarond: “I just realized how severely this thread has been hijacked”
Hijacked? What is ‘hijacked’?
Someone, define ‘is’.
(Yet another post that adds nothing. YAPTAN, which forms an interesting-sounding acronym.)