Four-Dimensional Rubik's Cube Craziness 296
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."
this is news? (Score:1, Informative)
mc4d-src-2_1.tgz 17-Jun-2001 15:22 139k
mc4d-src-2_1.zip 17-Jun-2001 15:21 181k
mc4d-src-2_2.zip 03-Mar-2002 17:40 183k
mc4d-win32-bin-2_0.exe 17-Jun-2001 15:19 186k
mc4d-win32-bin-2_1.exe 17-Jun-2001 15:21 187k
mc4d-win32-bin-2_2.exe 03-Mar-2002 17:41 416k
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:damn it.... (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe somebody subjected you to one of my favorite old tricks. Take one corner off of a solved cube and rotate it so that the colors don't match the rest of the cube. Reassemble in this orientation. Presto: unsolveable cube.
Re:damn it.... (Score:2, Informative)
A regular computer would solve it in less than 10 seconds. Really a messy scramble of the 4D cube took only 6 seconds to solve. And it wasn't even backtracking.
http://www.kinnetica.com/cioxx/hypercube.png [kinnetica.com]
Re:damn it.... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Is this actualy 4D ? (Score:5, Informative)
The 4th dimension is whatever you define it as. There's no "true" 4th dimension. Einstein had the idea that time could be treated in a fashion similar to that of the spatial dimensions, and so, in his work, he defined the 4th dimension as the temporal dimension.
However, for this program's purposes, it's assumed that we're talking about the 4th *spatial* dimension. You can (kinda) visualize it if you think of the progression of first 3 dimensions: a line (1st d) can be rotated 90 degrees to itself to form a square (2nd d) which can be rotated 90 degrees to itself to form a cube (3rd d). The 4th dimension is thus hypothesized as the space defined by a cube rotated 90 degrees to itself.
(Granted, I'm no mathematician, so if someone has a better understanding, please correct me.)
Re:Not complete (Score:3, Informative)
Not quite. It's like having a physical 3D rubik's cube and not being able to see all 6 faces at the same time. You can however turn a physical cube around so you can see the hidden face. It's a similar idea in this one. The way to see the hidden "face" is given in the FAQ:
Q: I can turn a real cube around so that I can see the hidden faces, can
I do something similar to see the invisible eighth "face"?
A: Yes. If you hold down the control key and click either mouse button
on any part of a "face", the puzzle will "rotate" in 4D until that "face"
is in the center. That "rotation" will bring the invisible face into the
same position as the one you clicked on. The "face" on the opposite side
of the puzzle will "rotate" out until it turns inside-out and becomes the
invisible "face". This "turning inside-out" motion is very typical of 4D
"rotations". Notice that control-clicking either mouse button on the
central "face" does nothing because it's already in the center.
Re:Is this actualy 4D ? (Score:5, Informative)
This puzzle uses the first model mentioned above, except that you can only see seven cubes at once (the outer cube is hidden so that it won't block the view of the others). If you rotate the model (with Shift-left or Shift-right click), the outer cube comes into view.
You were close... (Score:5, Informative)
And for the previous posts asking how long it takes a computer to do it... it's very, very low. Under a second. Many people can do it, manually (a computer just has to give the moves, it can ignore the time required to actually turn the cube) in under 20 seconds [speedcubing.com] (For the people out there in disbelief, Dan Knights has a video of him actually doing it in 17, it's for real. I won't post the link, because I'm not going to be responsible for slashdotting his site).
There's a huge difference between a computer solving it "brute force", and a person or computer solving it through established algorithms. By brute force, just twirling the cube until the solution popped up, it would take on average however long it takes your computer to process half of the possible combinations. That's quite a long time. However, a computer solving a cube how we would, focusing on time rather than least amount of moves, could easily solve more than one a second.
Not "Cubey", (Score:3, Informative)
Premiered on ABC: September 10, 1983-September 1, 1984.
The series ran for 1 year, and had a total of 12 episodes. It was
originally broadcast as "The Pac-Man/Rubik, The Amazing Cube Hour"
on Saturday mornings in colour with each Rubik segment lasting
22 minutes.
The Plot
--------
Rubik is discovered by a young boy (Carlos) who brings the colourful cube
to life - after he aligns all the cube's sides - an sets out on a magical
adventure tour along with his brother and sister, Renaldo and Lisa.
The series was rebroadcast in the spring of 1985 as a mid-season replacement.
Ruby-Spears Enterprises produced the series.
Voices
------
Rubik: Ron Palillo
Carlos: Michael Saucedo
Renaldo: Michael Saucedo
Lisa: Jennifer Fajardo
Ruby Rodriguez: Michael Bell
Marla Rodriguez: Angela Moya
Episode List
------------
"Rubik, The Amazing Cube," "Rubik And The Lucky Helmet," "Back Packin'
Rubik," "Super Power Lisa," "Rubik And The Mysterious Man," "Rubik And The
Pooch-Nappers," "Rubik And The Buried Treasure," "Rubik And The Science
Fair," "Honolulu Rubik," "Rubik's First Christmas," "Rubik In Wonderland"
and "Saturday Night Rubik."
Movie References (Score:5, Informative)
Hofstadter's the best source for rubik weirdness (Score:5, Informative)
There's also some excellent stuff in that book on Lisp, quantum mechanics, chaos theory, Alan Turing, and nuclear war... great selection of articles by an extremely interesting mind.
Re:nooo (Score:3, Informative)
Bah, as long as one minute? You are slow.
Check out this site [speedcubing.com], especially the multimedia section. There are videos of guys that solve the cube in less than 20 seconds!
Nope... (Score:3, Informative)
A real hypercube looks like a hypercube, not a cube with lines or anything else... of course you need to be five-dimensional to perceive the whole thing at once.
In general you need N+1 dimensions to perceive an N-dimensional object; for example, we can only fully perceive two dimensional objects all at once. Three dimensional objects we only see a particular side of, and generally only the surface. A four-dimensional being could potentially see the entire three dimensional object all at once, just as we perceive two-dimensional objects all at once. A two-dimensional being only sees one dimension around him, and can only see a certain side of, say, a square.
Note that there's nothing magical about any of this, or particularly unbelievable; if you're having trouble believing it's this simple your mind has been corrupted by bad sci-fi, probably Star Trek.