Rubik's Cube Now Solvable in 20 Moves 309
A few years ago we reported that it had been proven that Rubik's Cubes could be solved in 23 moves. Well now that number is
down to just 20. Proving it required 35 years of computer time donated by Google to get it done.
Re:Thank God! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Thank God! (Score:3, Insightful)
Cancer is unlikely to be cured via brute-force computing. If you've got a computational problem that would help towards a cancer cure, have you asked Google to donate time for it?
Re:Thank God! (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes, you're right, we should devote all our time to getting ourselves to live longer, and none of our time to making our lives more interesting and enjoyable. That'll make a lovely world, won't it.
35 years of computer time (Score:4, Insightful)
Why approximate numbers? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Enough! (Score:5, Insightful)
Tell her to take it off.
Re:Thank God! (Score:5, Insightful)
Thank God! And cancer? Still unsolved. I'll bet computer time could be used for that too. (sorry, bullsh*t like this hits very close to home for me recently. Nothing like having people dying, and then hearing how we are using resources for utter crap)
I don't think the limiting factor in cancer research is lack of computer time. If it were something so simple, getting the resources wouldn't be a problem.
Your raging is pointless.
Re:Thank God! (Score:3, Insightful)
Does this mean that it was somebody's JOB at Google to figure this out?
Re:Thank God! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, you're right, we should devote all our time to getting ourselves to live longer, and none of our time to making our lives more interesting and enjoyable. That'll make a lovely world, won't it.
That's what the lifestyle police are pushing for.
Eat food that tastes like cardboard, run like rabbits, and take pills based on how long they'll help you live (never mind quality of life - e.g. so hormone therapy for women is out - can't have 1 more heart attack per hundered even if it makes life bearable for the other 99) and you'll live longer or at least it will feel like it.
Re:Enough! (Score:1, Insightful)
You gotta do what I did in 8th grade...find a girl who wanted to learn how to unzip a fly with one hand, and was willing to let you practice taking her bra off with one hand.
I haven't seen her in well over a decade, but I hope her training paid off. I know mine did!
Tip: if true, that girl back then just wanted to get in your fly, you lucky son of a gun. Sorry if the news is a little late
Girls have trousers of their own and can practice opening a fly without assistance.
Re:Why approximate numbers? (Score:3, Insightful)
So, they can probably give an upper bound on the number of positions solvable in 20 moves, but not an exact number.
Re:Thank God! (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, you're right, we should devote all our time to getting ourselves to live longer, and none of our time to making our lives more interesting and enjoyable. That'll make a lovely world, won't it.
I agree completely. After watching so many people "live" well past their prime I'd much rather have a good life and a fast death.
Re:Another way of thinking about this. (Score:0, Insightful)
The shortest path between any two configurations (be them solved or not) on a graph of all possibilities will be no greater than 20.
This only guarantees a shortest path of length 40.
If the "solved" state lies on the path then it is no more than 20 to it from one configuration, and no more than 20 from it to the second configuration.
Re:The REAL story here: (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Thank God! (Score:3, Insightful)
Thank God! And cancer? Still unsolved. I'll bet computer time could be used for that too. (sorry, bullsh*t like this hits very close to home for me recently. Nothing like having people dying, and then hearing how we are using resources for utter crap)
Guess you should be using your spare cycles to help cure cancer. Lead by example instead of using your resources for the utter crap that is posting on slashdot!
Re:Enough! (Score:4, Insightful)
Sometimes they like to be told what to do.
This only applies in the bedroom.
In all other circumstances they prefer to be the one telling you what to do.
Re:Another way of thinking about this. (Score:4, Insightful)
As far as I can tell, by simply redefining "solved" any state should be reachable from any other in 20. There's nothing particularly special about all the colours being on the same sides.
1) start from any scrambled state, call it "solved"
2) scramble the cube
3) "solve" in 20 moves.
Re:Enough! (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't think any of them cared that I did it one hand vs two hands...they just cared that I did it quickly. Being able to unhook a bra while having the other hand free to do...uh...other things was nice though :)
Of course, the danger of trying to do it with one hand was if you screwed up or if they had a really wonky bra, suddenly you had to bring your other hand into the equation. That was impossible to do without looking like a moron. If you already started with two hands, that's fine...but if you started with one and ended with two, that meant you thought you were cooler than you actually were -_-;;
Laplace Transforms for Rubik's cube... (Score:3, Insightful)
To answer that question, you need to ask whether there is something inherently special about the “solved” state.
Or, to put it differently:
1) Begin in state A
2) Re-arrange stickers into a corresponding state X, such that state A maps directly to state X in a particular transformation system
3) Solve from state X to S (max. 20 moves)
4) Re-arrange stickers using the same transformation system in reverse, obtaining state B, which mapped to state S in that transformation system
Now, if your transformation system was consistent, you should be able to omit steps 2 and 4, going straight from A to B in 20 moves.
QED.
Re:Enough! (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, because chicks dig recursion.
Re:Enough! (Score:2, Insightful)
More and more women are going braless, or are wearing a sports bra. Gone are the days of the hooks.
Why should we, heterosexual men, be denied that childlike pleasure of opening something to see what kind of prize you'd received? When we were younger, it was a toy in a cereal box, now that we're older the cereal box has been replaced with a bra and the toy, well, I guess you still play with breasts.
Re:Thank God! (Score:2, Insightful)
Poser! (Score:1, Insightful)
Wood nymphs don't WEAR bras!