Wednesday, June 06, 2007

"How many moves does it take to solve a Rubik's Cube?":
The lowest provable number of moves needed to solve a Rubik's cube was 27—until now. A pair of computer science researchers from Northeastern University has developed a proof showing that a Rubik's cube in any configuration can be solved in 26 moves. While that is not much of an improvement, it is still mind-boggling; imagine needing only 26 moves to get from a state as unique as 1 in 43 quintillion to the solution of the puzzle.
(Via Fark.)