THE RUBIK’S CUBE MATH AND TUTORIAL – MAXIMUM NUMBER OF MOVES TO SOLVE CUBES WITH N SQUARES

The Rubik’s Cube is a 3D mechanical puzzle invented by the Hungarian architect Ernő Rubik in 1974.

Rubik’s Cube

Its original and simpler version (3×3) – that presents 9 squares on each of the 6 faces, with 54 squares totally – can assume up to 43.252.003.274.489.856.000 positions!

Nonetheless, every position of 3×3 Rubik’s Cube can be solved in 20 moves or less (named “God’s Number”), whereas the maximum number of moves required to solve a Rubik’s cube with N squares per row is proportional to N²/log N.

These two results were found respectively by the cuber Tomas Rokicki and his colleagues in 2010 and by the Erik Demaine‘s (Professor of Computer science and engineering at MIT) research team in 2011.

Finally, I suggest you to watch this tutorial video which explains how to solve a Rubik’s Cube in under a minute.

NEPAL’S NATIONAL FLAG SECRETS – WHEN GEOMETRY AND MATH MAKE UNIQUE A FLAG

Do you remember the last Nepal‘s parade at the London 2012 Olympic Games Opening Ceremony? In that situation, did you note the Nepal’s national flag? What shape is it?

Flag of Nepal

It is the world’s only national flag that is not rectangular- nor square-shaped.

Although officially adopted in 1962, the Nepal’s flag has a long and fascinating history. Overall, it’s certainly peculiar for his odd unique shape, which is based on geometric and mathematical principles. Therefore, the most interesting fact is that Article 5 of the Nepal’s Constitution describes all the instructions to re-create this distinctive, double-triangular flag.

Watch this creative video to discover the mathematical secrets of the Nepal’s national flag:

In conclusion, for the most curious and experts of you, I suggest to have a look at this Geometric/Algebraic Construction of the Nepal’s Flag.