The Rubik’s cube is a calculator

[cubenerd74]

One of the coolest cubing related videos I've seen. There will probably be more videos about this(as said in the video) so I'm waiting for those as well.

 

[CubeLite]

I saw that video and wanted to make a thread, but forgot
Also does anyone understood what he said in the video?

 

[abunickabhi]

One of the coolest cubing related videos I've seen. There will probably be more videos about this(as said in the video) so I'm waiting for those as well.

Took a few viewings to understand the video.

Definitely an interesting idea and hats off to Enoch Gray for presenting the idea.

 

[Filipe Teixeira]

interesting...

BUT

a mechanical calculator is a better mechanical calculator than a rubik's cube

also a computer is a calculator

if you want to give a read:

Mechanical Calculators

The first Mechanical Calculator was invented in 1642 by Blaise Pascal after 50 prototypes and three years of efforts.

history-computer.com

 

[qwr]

I saw that video and wanted to make a thread, but forgot
Also does anyone understood what he said in the video?

I didn't watch it, but it's an application of the Chinese Remainder Theorem. For finite Abelian groups, there's a unique factorization analogous to the fundamental theorem of algebra. The Rubik's group isn't abelian (for example R U is not equivalent to U R) but the cyclic subgroup generated by a sequence of moves as one element is (for example <U R>)

 

[arbivara]

interesting...

BUT

a mechanical calculator is a better mechanical calculator than a rubik's cube

also a computer is a calculator

if you want to give a read:

Mechanical Calculators

The first Mechanical Calculator was invented in 1642 by Blaise Pascal after 50 prototypes and three years of efforts.

history-computer.com

Nice article. "Calculator" may mean different things so, depending on the definition you use there may be way older calculators than Pascal's. For instance, https://the-past.com/news/ancient-greek-calculator-reconstructed/