No. Catalog is spelled with the wrong incorrectly.
Dammit, Aglarond, that sig isn’t funny! I seriously do have that problem. Ever since I started using a Palm Pilot with a keyboard to take notes at school, my ability to write has degenerated quickly. I can barely sign my name anymore, and when I do, it looks like a six year old’s signature.
Since we have totally deviated from the intended subject, allow me to post a question that has been hanging around the back of my mind for a while:
What does the 165 units/Kg on Derleth’s sig mean?
Also, is there an algorithm to solve Rubik’s dodecahedron?
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Answers:
- Yes. The minimum number of moves required to solve a Rubik’s Cube is Zero. Here is the method:
looking at any face of the cube like this:
ABC
DEF
GHI
Using these letters to indicate the faces on one side of the cube, insert a thin coin (a dime will just fit) inbetween faces B and E. Twist the coin, applying some force to face B. It will start to move upwards. Get that cube to push upwards to about a 45 degree angle and it will pop out. Don’t worry, you’re not going to break it, this is how they put it together. Once you’ve popped out the middle piece on any edge of the big Cube, the corner pieces will pop out, and you can now see the inner mechanism and all the pieces can be removed. The mechanism’s disassembly and reassembly is pretty obvious, once you figure out how to pop the first piece out. Now just collect the disassembled pieces, and reassemble in the solved state. Voila! You have solved the Cube without making any moves.
- There are 16 base “antistates” of Rubik’s Cube that are the greatest number of moves from completion: infinity. These cube configurations can never be solved, no matter how many moves you make. But it is cheating, these configurations don’t arise naturally from the Cube. Here’s how to make one:
Take a cube in the solved state. Using the instructions from above, pop out any edge piece and any adjacent corner piece. Put the corner piece back so that it is rotated, that is, when the whole Cube is reassembled, only the faces on this corner will not match. What you end up with is a cube that is completely solved, except for one corner piece. This is not a state that could ever be arrived at by making any number of moves from an unaltered Cube, you have to partially disassemble the Cube to create it, and no amount of moves will ever restore it to a solved condition. It is unsolvable.
This is a great prank to pull on someone who is good at solving the Cube. Modify their cube when they’re not looking, give it a few twists to scramble it, and tell them you’ll give them $100 if they can solve the cube.