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Four-Dimensional Rubik's Cube Craziness

Posted by simoniker on from the my-mind-hurt-enough-solving-the-original dept.

roice writes "Rubik's junkies and puzzlers will be interested in this software rendered four-dimensional analog of Rubik's Cube. With over 1.75E120 possible combinations, it's a mind bender. Free versions are available for both Windows and Linux, and they even publish their source code for download. Solving it will get your name listed in their Hall Of Fame, and there is also a running competition for the most efficient solution. To help get you started, you can check out a solution algorithm based on techniques used to solve the popular three-dimensional version."

5 of 296 comments (clear)

  1. damn it.... by deadsaijinx* · · Score: 4, Interesting

    you know how long I've been working on my three dimensional one? over a year. Perhaps I'm stupid, but that thing is impossible to solve. Anyone have any clue how long it would take a computer to solve your standard rubics cube through brute force?

    --
    YOU SUCK BALLS!
  2. Anyone remember "Cubey"? by Nova+Express · · Score: 3, Interesting
    For those spared this atrocity, it was a Saturday morning cartoon featuring, I kid you not, a living Rubik's Cube. It was an idea that filled me with loathing even at that age, and I can't tell you what it was about because I always switched to something else as soon as it came on.



    The 1980s certainly seemed the nadir of American animation...

    --
    Lawrence Person (lawrencepersonh@gmailh.com (remove all "h"s to mail)

    http://www.lawrenceperson.com/

  3. Is this actualy 4D ? by Forge · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I don't know. It looks like a more complex 3D version that's just real togh to build with plastic.

    Maybe it's because I read some quack's claim that the 4th dimension was time. In which case a 4D rubics cube would solve itself over time or be onsolvable because it rescrambled while you were trying to solve.

    --
    --= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
    1. Re:Is this actualy 4D ? by blincoln · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Here's a Java animation that will show you a 2D projection of a 4D hypercube:

      http://dogfeathers.com/java/hyprcube.html

      It's really tough to wrap your head around another spatial dimension. Books like Flatland and Realware make the comparison to a 2D person's world being interrupted by one of us.

      For example, if you were 2D, living on your flat plane, and a 3D person passed an orange through the plane, you would perceive it as a round shape which grew out of nothingness, got bigger and changed shape for awhile, then shrank and disappeared.

      A 3D person could also see into your house, because a 2D person would just build four walls and no ceiling or floor. Similarly, a 4D creature could see through all of us and our buildings, because we only build in three dimensions.

      --
      "...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
  4. Re:nooo by Jason1729 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Rubik's makes a special cube for "less intelligent puzzlers". You might want to pick up one of these.

    Jason
    ProfQuotes