From cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Sat Nov 22 23:38:50 1997 Return-Path: Received: from sun30.aic.nrl.navy.mil by mc.lcs.mit.edu (8.8.1/mc) with SMTP id XAA07249; Sat, 22 Nov 1997 23:38:49 -0500 (EST) Precedence: bulk Errors-To: cube-lovers-errors@mc.lcs.mit.edu Mail-from: From cube-lovers-request@life.ai.mit.edu Sat Nov 22 08:31:49 1997 Message-Id: <3.0.32.19971122082850.007b25c0@po9.mit.edu> Date: Sat, 22 Nov 1997 08:28:51 -0500 To: cube-lovers@ai.mit.edu From: Dennis Okon Subject: Large Cube I realize this is impossible to make, at least in the traditional way, but... I just saw an add for some computer conference which displayed a 9x9x9 cube (with some rather strange colors - at least 7 different ones too!). The text read something like (really paraphrased): "When you were young you could work a cube in 27 seconds, but now you're older and only have a week to solve this." So, my question is: Assuming the cube is solvable, can it be done? What kind of order of growth to the current algorithms, for human algorithms and computer algorithms, have in relation to the size of the cube? -Dennis [ Moderator's note: For solvability, see J.A. Eidswick's article "Cubelike Puzzles -- What Are They and How Do You Solve Them?" (American Mathematical Monthly', 93:3 (March 1986), pp. 157-176). There are some loose bounds in my two articles of 24 Jun 1987 in the archives at . ]