Every position of a Rubik's cube can be solved in 20 moves or less. That may not seem impressive until you realize that there are over 43 quintillion (43,252,003,274,489,856,000) positions. It took 35 years of CPU time (that is, the time it took a computer) to figure out all the solutions.
More Rubik's cube trivia:
- 18 positions of the Rubik's cube can be solved in one move or less.
- The Rubik's cube was created by Hungarian scientist Erik Rubik. It was first featured at the Nuremberg Toy Show in 1979, and by 1982, over one million cubes had been sold.
- The fastest Rubik's cube solve time by a human is 5.55 seconds. The fastest solve time by a robot is 64 seconds.