From: utzoo!decvax!cca!csin!cjh
Newsgroups: net.games
Title: Re Rubik's cube
Article-I.D.: csin.152
Posted: Tue Jun 29 12:31:50 1982
Received: Wed Jun 30 02:28:42 1982

In response to your message of Mon Jun 28 22:49:47 1982:

   In the latest issue of DISCOVER (general-audience science magazine put out
by Time-Life Co.) there is a short take on a combination computer/manipulator
that will solve a given cube disarray and then implement its solution. (I
don't recall that it has sensors; I think you have to enter the contents of
each face, then put it in the press with the white face-cubelet up, but it
then does all the necessary turns itself.) So far it's no threat to the
whiz kids; the manipulators can only shift faces on one axis, so it takes
up time rotating the cube for the next face shift. The story said it took about
5 minutes to solve a typical mess.
   Of course, a much more sophisticated program could solve it in less
practical time (but might take too long thinking) by determining the actual
moves which scrambled the cube and reversing them. It has been hypothesized
that the maximum scrambling takes no more than 12 moves, since that is suffi-
cient to exchange most of the edge cubelets (UDFBLR, or any other sequence of
all three opposing pairs, done twice), but I don't know whether anyone has gone
further with this.