The problem for mathematicians is that this gives the cube roughly 43 billion billion (43 × 1018) different possible configurations. This many Rubik’s cubes, stacked one on another, would stretch to the sun and back more than eight million times. And there are 18 possible ways to alter any one of these configurations - a half turn or quarter turn in either direction for each of the six faces. This makes for such complexity that the problem can’t be solved by what mathematicians call a “brute force” approach, solving every possible configuration individually. So God’s number has remained an enigma, with enthusiasts harnessing ever-greater computing power to devise progressively better estimates for it.
— Cracking the hardest mystery of the Rubik’s cube - physics-math - 06 August 2008 - New Scientist
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