Free Web NovelChapter 76: Chapter 72: Rubik’s Cube Calculator
Hi, My name is Zhao Yi, a regular high school student at Zhengyang Thirteenth Middle School.
I and a few classmates had represented Zhengyang Thirteenth Middle School in the ’Youth Cup’ hosted by Nanjiang Province’s Department of Education, and won the championship with the highest score in the final.
That event has passed.
Hardly anyone at school talks about it anymore.
I didn’t expect that someone would challenge my performance.
His name is Jia Hongning.
A cube athlete from the "Brain Power Burst" show.
I don’t know why he said what he did. When I was interviewed by Nanjiang News, I was so angry I told them, "Jia Hongning’s victory in the cube competition is dishonorable."
We’re all aware of what happened afterward.
He apologized.
And he publicly threatened to protect his own and the show’s lawful rights with a solicitor’s letter.
I’m not saying this for sympathy, rather, I want to point out that when I said ’Jia Hongning’s victory in the cube competition is dishonorable’, it was not a vent of emotion, but based on evidence.
The evidence is in the show.
The episode documented the cubes used by Jia Hongning and Zhou Junkai in their competition. To give the audience a clearer view, the show showed all six faces of the cube before each round, to signify fairness.
Though the screen time is short-it is quite clear upon closer examination.
This is the ’evidence’ I mentioned.
By rotating the fixed part of the cube by ninety degrees as one step, the minimum number of steps required to restore the cube can be calculated.
Round One: Jia Hongning, seventeen steps; Zhou Junkai, twenty-two steps.
Round Two: Jia Hongning, nineteen steps; Zhou Junkai, twenty-four steps.
Round Three: Jia Hongning, fourteen steps; Zhou Junkai, twenty-three steps.
If one rotation of the fixed part of the cube (including one hundred and eighty degrees) is considered a step, then Jia Hongning’s data for each of the three rounds are fourteen, sixteen, and eleven respectively;
While Zhou Junkai’s are eighteen, nineteen, and nineteen respectively.
In each round, the minimum number of steps Zhou Junkai’s cube took was more than Jia Hongning’s. In the face of rigorous science and mathematics, sorry, the solicitor’s letter is ineffective.
Let me repeat once more--
In the previous episode of "Brain Power Burst", Jia Honggning’s cube competition was dishonorable!
...
Zhao Yi spent over ten minutes drafting his post, then directly posted it, and announced it in the group like an advertisement.
"My post! On the Horizon Forum!"
"Please help me bump it!"
The group members saw the message, opened the link to quickly scan through, then got drawn in by the content.
Not just for the gossip, though.
As a group of professionals and tech geeks, their interests and hobbies are slightly different from ordinary people’s. Most would just quickly scan through the beginning and go directly to the final data.
Soon, the group began to heat up.
AI Expert Zhang Junlei: "This calculation is complicated!"
Scientific Preacher Ma Xiaojun: "Seems like it wouldn’t be too difficult to design a computer program for it, right?"
Storyteller Zhang Zhen: "It’s difficult, the data is too massive, I can’t think of a solution in such a short time."
Scientific Preacher Ma Xiaojun: "I will research it, going stealth for now."
AI Expert Zhang Junlei: "Why don’t we just ask Zhao Yi?"
Scientific Preacher Ma Xiaojun: "I am a doctor of science!"
AI Expert Zhang Junlei: "So, you are embarrassed to ask a high school student? Is that what you mean? LOL"
Storyteller Zhang Zhen: "Don’t always speak the truth, be a bit deceiving, be euphemistic, pay attention to subtleties! LOL"
Viewing these chat messages, Zhao Yi felt somewhat helpless.
What about the main point!?
He was engaged in a verbal struggle with someone, the matter had even made it to the hot search list. Why did it turn into a technical discussion as soon as the group saw his post?
Luckily, the people in the group were dependable.
Though their focus remained on the algorithm exchange, they still helped share it since it was convenient. And each of them had significant influence.
For example, Zhang Zhen shared it directly into his company’s group.
Everyone had to click on a message sent by their manager.
Scientific Preacher Ma Xiaojun, an overseas returnee with a Ph.D. in science and currently a lecturer at the Capital University of Science and Technology. He also holds the title of associate professor and is qualified to supervise graduate students.
He shared it in his student group.
The others in the group who saw the message also helped share the post, which was both ’gossip’ and ’technical’, after seeing it.
Share, and share again...
The post’s link was spread rapidly within the Penguin Group.
After reading the chat in the group, Zhao Yi played a game, used up the rest of his ’Leisure Coins’, and then returned to refresh the browser. He found that his post had already gone viral.
Clicks: 8267
Replies: 249
He started reading the replies methodically.
He turned a page.
Then another...
And another...
Most of the posts in the forefront were about ’technical discussions’. Some asked about the algorithm, some proposed algorithm suggestions, while others had different views on the proposed algorithm suggestions.
Then, the debate started.
After scrolling through a dozen pages, Zhao Yi found that there were more tech discussions than gossip. But his intention of posting was not to discuss algorithm with others. His main purpose was to corroborate his theorizing with evidence and reasoning.
The direction of public opinion was skewed!
Luckily, the gossips always outnumbered the techies. Most non-tech people were not interested in algorithm, their only interest was whether the conclusion was true or not.
As long as the conclusion was true, it proved that something was wrong with the competition.
A majority of the gossipers agreed that since Zhao Yi dared to present data, his conclusion must be true.
Science and math would never fail.
Among all the posts with arguments about algorithms, none claimed that the results were wrong. Some even pointed out that even with a rough estimation, the difficulty of restoring Jia Hongning’s magic cube was indeed slightly lower than Zhou Junkai’s.
...
After getting this far, Zhao Yi also found the problem.
The minimum step calculation of the magic cube was not a simple matter.
Although he said the answer directly, he could not show the calculation process. The process in the "Connection Law" was done by manually restoring the magic cube in the simplest possible way, not how to calculate the lowest number of steps.
"Should I film a video as proof?"
That could work.
As long as he filmed a video of turning the cube, transforming it from a six-sided cube back into the state shown in the program, that would directly prove his conclusion.
But still...
This method of proof was not rigorous.
"Even if a video were filmed to manually restore the magic cube, it only proves that it can be restored in a fixed number of steps, but it doesn’t prove it’s the minimum number of steps."
Mathematics is rigorous, and science is rigorous.
This was the crux of the problem.
Zhao Yi went on to search for magic cube calculations and quickly found an even larger issue—calculating the minimum number of steps to restore the magic cube was a problem that had puzzled the scientific community for decades.
The minimum number of steps to restore a three-order magic cube, had a term called -- God’s Number!
The existence of God’s Number was mainly due to the massive amount of calculation required to get the minimum steps to restore a three-order magic cube. The permutations could reach an astronomical number, impossible to be simulated entirely by computer, therefore an accurate minimum restoring step number could not be obtained.
In 1992, the German mathematician Kecsrenba proposed a new approach to finding the magic cube restoration method, which greatly reduced the calculation of cube restoration.
Three years later, the scientist Reed, using Kecsrenba’s method, compiled it into a computer programme for refinement and discovered that "God’s Number" should not exceed 26.
However, Kecsrenba’s calculation method was not precise, his method might lead to a restoration method that is not optimal. Hence, the calculation of "God’s Number" made based on this, could very likely be an overestimation.
Yet, without adopting Kecsrenba’s method, the calculations required would be overwhelmingly enormous.
This issue remained unsolvable.
Zhao Yi smiled wryly and mumbled to himself, "So, my brain can solve mathematical world problems?" freēwebnovel.com
"That’s not right!"
Calculating the minimum steps to restore a specific magic cube and calculating ’God’s Number’ are not on the same level of difficulty as the number of different states of a third-order magic cube, which is astronomical --
43,252,003,274,489,856,000.
If it’s just calculating one of them, the difficulty is much simpler by comparison. However, even using brute force algorithm, the amount of calculation still remains colossal.
That’s certainly unacceptable.
Which is also why many people in the group and under the posts were discussing algorithms.
Zhao Yi stared at the screen, deep in thought.
If there is no valid, accurate, and publicly accepted calculation method, the results given in his post have no meaning. At most, he could film a supplemental video to prove that he could restore the cube in a fixed number of steps.
However, the other party could still dispute it.
The best way is scientific and precise and leaves no room for argument.
"Then we just need to design an algorithm to directly calculate how many minimum steps it takes to restore any magic cube in a fixed state!"
"If that could work, I could name it the ’Magic Cube Calculator’?"
"Just by inputting the colors of the fixed side squares of the magic cube, it would give a way to use the fewest steps to rotate and restore the magic cube..."
