Scientists have learned how to solve a Rubik's cube in 20 moves

2024 Author: Sierra Becker | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-26 03:46

Surely everyone has known since childhood the famous puzzle, named after its creator - Erno Rubik. Pretty quickly, she gained popularity and reached the most remote corners of the planet.

Without proper skill, it will not work to put together a puzzle, even after doing a hundred manipulations, but relatively recently, specialists from Google Inc. learned how to solve a rubik's cube in 20 moves. They managed to achieve this phenomenal result with the help of a computer, which was given the task of analyzing all possible combinations.

Where did the Rubik's Cube come from

Back in 1974, the Hungarian architect and teacher at the Academy of Applied Arts Erno Rubik thought about the best way to know the three-dimensional space.

He wanted a new invention to help students explore the world, and one day he had a sensational idea - to create a puzzle. The task, it would seem, is elementary - to rotate the rows of the cube until each of the sides becomes the same color. But the scheme for assembling a Rubik's Cube is not so simple and can take even several hours in time, without givingresult. The students appreciated the interesting invention and got carried away with the new toy. At that moment, the creator did not even suspect that in many years scientists would puzzle over solving the puzzle until they figured out how to solve a Rubik's cube in 20 moves.

How global popularity came about

At first, the original toy was not popular with investors. It was believed that its production would not be profitable, since the assembly of the Rubik's cube could only be of interest to intellectuals. Nevertheless, one small company decided to invest in this unusual project, and the puzzle began to conquer Budapest.

A few years later, Tibor Lakzi, an intermediary of one of the German firms, arrived in the city and became interested in the original puzzle, which at that time was very popular among the townspeople. Realizing that the distribution of an amazing invention around the world could bring huge profits, he decided to promote the Rubik's Cube. For novice businessmen Lakzi and Rubik, the main difficulty was the search for investors. But thanks to Tibor's economic education and his commercial streak, the owner of Seven Towns Ltd, Tom Kremer, was soon involved in the project. He took up large-scale production and distribution, which helped the cube become popular all over the world.

God's Algorithm

Since 1982, competitions have been regularly held in many countries, in which the main task of the participants is the speed assembly of the Rubik's Cube. In order to solve the puzzle as quickly as possible, it is not enough just tohave good dexterity and ingenuity. A person should know the optimal scheme for assembling the Rubik's cube, which allows you to expend as little effort as possible. The minimum number of steps required to solve the problem is the "God's Algorithm".

Many learned minds and simple amateurs have tried to find a solution. At one time it was believed that the minimum number of steps from any position was 18, but later this theory was refuted. Many years have been spent searching for the optimal sequence, and only in 2010, scientists managed to find out how to solve a Rubik's cube in 20 moves, regardless of the position of the puzzle before the assembly began. This is currently an absolute record.

Who is faster - a car or a man?

Currently the fastest human being is American schoolboy Colin Burns - he managed to solve the puzzle in less than 5.5 seconds. And the robot, assembled by British engineers from Lego Mindstorm EV3 parts, completed this task in 3.253 seconds. The advantage of the mechanism is not only that the work of all its parts is more coordinated than the actions of a person. Scientists gave him as many as 4 arms, which allow him to perform all operations 2 times faster.

How to learn to collect it

There is more than one standard Rubik's cube scheme that allows you to learn how to solve this original puzzle in a short time. Different build systems allow you to approach the issue in different ways. Which one to choose is up to you. Of course, hardlywithout the computing power of Google, you will learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube in 20 moves, but you will learn how to find simple solutions in a short time. The main thing is that you have enough perseverance. No technique will help solve the puzzle without problems if you are not ready to spend your precious time learning.

But you shouldn't give all your time to this toy. Doctors have noted an increase in the number of patients in psychiatric clinics after the appearance of the Rubik's Cube. And traumatologists began to regularly encounter symptoms, later called "Rubik's syndrome." It manifests itself in the form of sharp pains in the wrists.

Assembly Diagram

There are several schemes that allow beginners to quickly learn how to add a Rubik's Cube. One of them is attached to this article:

1. First you need to assemble a cross, the ends of which are continued on adjacent faces. There is no universal technique - everything comes with practice.
2. Next, you need to complete the entire side on which the cross was assembled, and collect the belt from the parts around it. It is important to ensure that each belt is the same color.
3. Now you need to collect the second belt and move to the opposite side of the cube.
4. We assemble the cross on this side in the same way as at the very beginning.
5. Finishing the whole side.
6. Now tidy up the corners of the cube - make sure that the colors on them match the colors of the sides to which they are turned.
7. It remains only to correctly rotate the parts that have only 2 sides. Cube completed.

Now you can learn how to solve one of the most popular puzzles in the world. The universal Rubik's cube scheme will help you with this.