Google cracks Rubik’s Cube by proving only 20 moves are ever needed to solve it

It is a figure that will leave veteran Rubik’s Cube addicts shaking their heads in disbelief. But scientists have worked out that the famous puzzle can always be completed in 20 moves or less. Using Google’s supercomputers, a team of researchers have processed every one of the Rubik’s Cube’s 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 different configurations to work what is the maximum number of moves needed to complete it. Scientists have long believed that 20 was the so-called ‘God number’ in theory but it has been impossible until now to find the processing power to prove it definitively. Only 300 million configurations, a tiny fraction of the total, require 20 moves. The majority needed only between 15 and 19 moves. — Daily Mail (U.K.)