After decades, a group of mathematicians, academics, and engineers discovered a number that explains life, the universe, and everything in between. That is the biggest secret of all – God's Number. The God's Number is the maximum number of moves required to solve any of the 43 quintillions or to put it in perspective, 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 permutations combinations of the cube. Apart from God Number you can also Rubik's cube under 30 second using F2L method.
Studies and research have proven that God's Number is number 20. This discovery is fairly recent (July 2010). The term God's Number was coined to understand that a mind with the capability of finding the shortest sequence of moves to solve any scramble would have to be so much more powerful than the mind of the common man. Such a mind, mathematicians believe, could be possessed only by a Deity.
This is how you can understand this concept better. It is known that 490 million combinations are required for all 20 moves to be solved. Even though 490 million seems like a big number, it is only a tiny fraction of the 43 quintillion possible combinations. However, the number of combinations that can be solved in 19 moves is quite close to 1.5 quintillions.
Therefore, God's Number is much closer to 19 than 20 moves. But even if one scramble sequence was impossible to solve in less than 20 moves, God's Number would still be 20!
The Super-Flip
In 1995 Michael Reid (mathematician) found a Rubik's Cube configuration called the 'super-flip'. He proved that it requires at least 20 moves to solve. This can be performed using an algorithm.
This algorithm will lead to a position wherein all the single corners are solved, and every edge is exactly in its place. This was the first position that was realized could not be solved in less than 20 moves.
Many upper bounds, however, were proven over the decades. Morwen Thistlewaite, an early analyst of the mathematical cube, proved that any cube could be solved in 52 moves at the most.
Tomas Rockicki, a computer programmer, designed a strategy for finding shorter solutions for Rubik's Cube configurations. His strategy was based on a previous work done by Herbert Kociemba that divided solving a Rubik's Cube into two parts based on a set of 19.5 billion partially-solved configurations with short solutions.
God's Number for 2x2
Recommended Read - How to Get Faster in Rubik's Cube [Beginners to Pro]
Conclusion
The strategy for answering the question of God's Number took over three decades! It required a set of supercomputers to finally find out answers that suggested that this may not be the ideal approach to solving a cube hobbyist. But this is the kind of problem that mathematicians love to play around with! Since God's Number for the higher cubes (4x4 and beyond) has not yet been known, we should prepare ourselves for more discoveries in the future!
17 comments
Adam
damn, didn’t mean to comment 4 times
Adam
The number listed for the 4×4×4 combinations is wrong, it should be 7.4 quattuordecillion
Adam
The number listed for the 4×4×4 combinations is wrong, it should be 7.4 quattuordecillion
Adam
The number listed for the 4×4×4 combinations is wrong, it should be 7.4 quattuordecillion
Adam
The number listed for the 4×4×4 combinations is wrong, it should be 7.4 quattuordecillion
Brooklyn
Good morning and happy birthday 🎂 hope February 2003 3 be a mother one day
Anonymous
Any cube can be solved within 20 moves at the most, this shows the algorithm for a particular scramble which you may not have and that is why you were not able to solve it.
Praveen
I Agree with John and kerplowy.This works. I was expecting this algorithm to solve a scrambled cube. But this algorithm can only get you to the superflip stage from the state of a solved cube. Once you get to the superflip stage, repeat the same algorithm to solve the cube. Does anyone know how to get to superflip stage from any scrambled state?
Dazza
Hi there – I think there is an issue with the solution – the third step as it’s written out says “3. Rotate the front face clockwise twice” However, this is at odds with the solution in notation where the third step says “U2” (which I believe means ‘rotate the up face twice’, noting that its immaterial which direction you do this). So, this could be what’s going on – either the worded solution or the notation is wrong (I suspect it’s the worded solution)
A note to all the haters who’ve posted negative comments and think this is a scam. I applied a bit of critical thinking to quickly figure out that nobody is going to take the time to setup a fake solution to a Rubiks cube problem – there is no reasonable motive to do this. Then I applied my intelligence to figure out why it might appear that the provided solution didn’t work. A little investigation revealed the likely problem, as I discussed above (and Kerplowy had already pointed out). The moral of what you’ve just read here is that all you haters don’t have the critical thinking or intelligence to figure out what’s going on so you don’t deserve to be able to solve the cube anyway. Please don’t come back to this forum, or any other, until you’ve learnt how to behave.
Cube Hacker
hello guys
fbtrt5ryd
scam it didn’t work
guys just hear me out
It wasn’t a scam.
It worked for me.
They made it really hard to understand.
Maybe you’re just doing it wrong.
Kerplowy
Turn 3 (U2) should say upper face twice not front face twice – the algorythm
(R L U2 F U’ D F2 R2 B2 L U2 F’ B’ U R2 D F2 U R2 U) is correct, but the list of turns isn’t.
anonymous
This doesn’t work
John
It’s not a scam. It worked the first time I tried it. run the above algorythm, and it will give you a superflip. Run the algorythm again, it will solve the cube. Here’s another way to get asuperflip:
(U’ M U’ M U’ M U’ M) Z Y (repeat this sequence 3 times)
This takes 28 moves, but it’s easier to remember. 2 turns repeated 4 times followed by 2 rotaions of the cube. Repeat 3 times skipping the cube rotations on the last one. Repeat this sequence and you’re back to a solved state.
John
It’s not a scam. It worked the first time I tried it. Make sure you start with a true superflip and then follow the above algorithm precisely to solve the cube in 20 moves.
Anonymous
I tried this with my child and it did not work, we went through it multiple times. I think this is just a dirty scam!