RUBIFIED

Ever since we were kids, we have at least once been addicted to a very interesting toy- The Rubik’s

Cube. All of us tried to solve the mystery. Some of us tried to learn certain algorithms or create

patterns while others just gave up. Similarly, we all had various questions about it too. Well, let’s

take a deep dive back to our childhood fascination.

let’s first address the most common one,” how many different random patterns can we create?” The

actual number is beyond what we could have guessed: We can have approximately 43 quintillion

(yes you read it right) different permutations of the 3x3x3 Cube (To be honest with you, before

writing this I didn’t even know what quintillion was. It’s such an astronomical number). Let’s derive

it:

There are 6 centres, each of a distinct colour, which is fixed. Then there are 12 edges and 8 corners,

which are movable. So, we need to focus on and analyse the corners & the edges to find out the

number of permutations.

Let us first start with the corners. There are 8 corners in a Rubik’s Cube. So, the number of ways to

arrange these 8 corners is 8!. Now, a corner is composed of 3 different colours. So, what is the

number of possible configurations of a corner? If you are thinking 3! then hold on. Actually, for a

corner, the position of each colour is fixed relative to the other colours. Consider the corner in the

above photo with Green-White-Red configuration. This corner will never have a Green-Red-White

configuration (in some permutation of the cube) meaning Green remains at its place while Red and

White colours exchange their positions. So, each corner has 3 different possible configurations

(White-Red-Green and Red-Green-White being the other two configurations for our corner). And, the

next part where we need to pay attention to is that we can only orient 7 corners independently. The
orientation of the eighth corner will get fixed automatically depending on the orientations of the

remaining seven corners. Hence, the number of permutations arising from the 8 corners is- 8! x 3⁷.

Now let us move to the edges. There are 12 edges in a Rubik’s Cube. So, the number of ways to

arrange these 12 edges is 12! Each edge is made of two different colours and hence, can have two

different configurations. Again, we can only orient 11 of the 12 edges independently. The twelfth

edge will get oriented automatically. Hence, the number of permutations arising from the 12 edges is-

12! x 2¹¹.

Are we finished? Actually no. We need to consider one last thing. When we talk about arranging the 8

corners or the 12 edges, we need to take into account an important thing and that is we cannot swap

two corners or two edges in isolation without affecting the neighbouring pieces. We will never have a

cube in a solved state with except only two of its edges or corners swapped. But we have counted

these impossible states as well. So, we will have only half of the permutations we have calculated.

Therefore, the total patterns can be:

(1/2) * (8! x 3⁷) * (12! x 2¹¹) = 43,252,003,274,489,856,000.

43,252,003,274,489,856,000! That’s a mind-boggling number!

Well, that was just for a 3x3x3 cube. Can you find the number of permutations of a Megamix?

Well, the first question was one heck of a ride. But it's not just the permutations we wondered

about. We also wanted to be the fastest cube solver, didn’t we? For that you should also know the

number of moves you need to solve it, right?

Well, there is a number known as “God’s number” = 20, which means that the maximum number of

moves required to solve any cube pattern is 20.

Now there is a rare pattern that takes exactly 20 moves to solve. It is known as “The Super-Flip”.

Understand this pattern and solve it in exactly 20 moves. Can you do it?

Hatim Merchant

2020B4PS1655P