Submission timeline
2007–2026One slot for every year since HN launched. Height is that year's peak points; orange marks a 100+ point or 50+ comment breakout. Select a bar to open its strongest thread.
First comments on top threads
HN comment orderThis, and P ne NP on the same day - clearly I can resign my post at the patent office now; everything has already been solved.
If you did not solve the Rubik cube (or did not investigate it in general), I highly advice you to try solving it on your own. Just read nothing about it. I did it with the help of programming and it is one of the coolest problems I solved (finding an algorithm to solve any instance). Although I used a computer, it took me something like one or two month to really crack it and lots of RAM to come…
Wow, the code is written in CWEB, a literate programming system. You don't see that every day. The PDFs of the code are, from my brief scan over them, a really well-presented explanation of some seriously deep/mathematical code. When I heard that the solution came from using 52 CPU-years of processing, I guessed that the code was a relatively boring brute-force search. But it appears I couldn't have been more wrong about that.
A small note - is anyone else frustrated that the video can't be played in both directions? Watching someone disorder a solved cube is not particularly interesting or satisfying. I'm sure it does serve the text, but boy it irks me.
The first top-level comment from each of the four biggest threads, in HN’s own order. Excerpts are shortened; open a comment for full context.
- Breakout years
- 5
- Total points
- 1039
- Total comments
- 290
100+ points or 50+ comments
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
reference only — not used in Hall rules or ranking
Every submission
| Date | Title as submitted | By | Points | Comments |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010-08-09 | "God's Number" is 20 - Rubik's cube has been "solved"First breakout · Best thread | RiderOfGiraffes | 276 | 61 |
| 2010-08-16 | God's Number is 20 | tzury | 2 | 0 |
| 2012-05-02 | God's Number is 20 | mrb | 1 | 0 |
| 2013-10-18 | Every position of Rubik's Cube can be solved in twenty moves or less | selmnoo | 177 | 35 |
| 2014-03-10 | God's Number is 20 | mjackson | 131 | 47 |
| 2016-12-17 | God's Number is 20 (2010) | rishabhd | 259 | 56 |
| 2019-04-17 | God's Number Is 20 (2010) | weinzierl | 152 | 83 |
| 2023-03-16 | Every position of Rubik's Cube can be solved in twenty moves or lessLatest 20+ point return | bookofjoe | 34 | 7 |
| 2025-05-04 | Every position of Rubik's Cube can be solved in 20 moves or less (2010) | jinay | 5 | 0 |
| 2026-05-06 | God's Number is 20 (2010) | downbad_ | 2 | 1 |