God’s Cubist movement
QUESTION What is the minimum number of moves that can solve any configuration of a Rubik’s cube?
IN JULY 2010, using a bank of supercomputers at Google headquarters, computer programmer Tomas Rokicki, engineer John Dethridge and maths teacher Herbert Kociemba proved that every possible arrangement of the Rubik’s cube can be solved in a maximum of 20 moves. This is known by cubers as God’s Number.
The Rubik’s cube is comprised of 27 smaller cubes arranged in a 3x3x3 grid with coloured stickers on the outer faces. There are 43 quintillion (billion billion) possible configurations.
Since its invention in 1974 by Hungarian professor Erno Rubik, cubers have taken delight in how quickly they can solve the puzzle. The world record is 3.475 seconds by Yusheng Du of China. Ian MacDonald, Billericay, Essex.
QUESTION How many species of early human were there?
NINE human species who walked the Earth 300,000 years ago have been identified.
The best known are the Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis), stocky hunters who lived on Europe’s steppes. They had larger brains than their forebears and their physical features — a barrelshaped chest and shorter limbs — ¬suggest they were adapted for the cold. The related Denisovans, only discovered in 2010, inhabited Asia, while the more primitive Homo erectus, the first human species with a flat face, prominent nose and sparse body hair, ranged from the Iberian peninsula to Java. Homo heidelbergensis in Africa may have been a sub species of Homo erectus.
Several dwarf species survived alongside them: the partly treedwelling Homo naledi in South Africa and the cave-dwelling Homo luzonensis in the Philippines, Homo floresiensis aka ‘The Hobbit’ in Indonesia and the Red Deer Cave people in China.
By 10,000 years ago, these eight species were gone. This may have been due to environmental factors, but the timing suggests they were out-competed by Homo sapiens, a species evolving between 260,000 and 350,000 years ago in Southern Africa.
Owen Lear, Chelmsford, Essex.
QUESTION What is known of the first Duke of Sussex?
ON PRINCE Harry and Meghan Markle’s wedding day in 2018, Queen Elizabeth gifted the couple a dukedom. Harry became the second Duke of Sussex, Meghan the first Duchess.
It was an intriguing choice, because the first marriage of the original Duke of Sussex, Prince Augustus Frederick, was declared illegal and his two children illegitimate, meaning neither could inherit his title. Born on January, 27, 1773, Augustus Frederick was the sixth son and ninth of 15 children of George III and Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.
Instead of following his brothers into the military, he flirted with a career in the Church before travelling around Europe. He had liberal views for the time, being a supporter of parliamentary reform, Jewish rights and an end to slavery.
In Italy, he met Lady Augusta Murray, second daughter of the 4th Earl of Dunmore. They married secretly in Rome on April 4, 1793, and had a second ceremony at St George’s Church, Westminster. Neither marriage had the consent of the king, which contravened the Royal Marriages Act 1772. In August 1794, the marriage was annulled. The prince continued to live with Lady Augusta and their two children, Augustus Frederick d’Este and Augusta Emma d’Este, until May 1801.
The title of Duke of Sussex was conferred on November 24, 1801, when he was also made Earl of Inverness. In 1831, after the death of Lady Augusta the previous year, he married Lady Cecilia Letitia Buggin, eldest daughter of the Earl of Arran. They did not have children. Lady Cecilia was never styled the Duchess of Sussex because the marriage was again without the consent of the king, but she was later made the Duchess of Inverness by Queen Victoria.
Augustus Frederick was Victoria’s favourite uncle and gave her away at her wedding to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840. He died on April 21, 1843. His will specified he was not to have a state funeral and he was buried in a private ceremony at Kensal Green Cemetery.
Ellen Anderson, Frome, Somerset.
QUESTION Is there a term to describe intentional grammar errors in songs?
FURTHER to the previous answer about such errors in songs — socalled code switching — I play piano in a jazz band, and one old song we used to perform was I Ain’t Gonna Give Nobody None Of My Jelly Roll by Clarence and Spencer Williams.
I have difficulty in working out the positives and negatives of that song title! I leave ‘jelly roll’ to the imagination . . .
Peter Godfrey, Lancing, W. Sussex.
QUESTION Can glass bottles and drinks cans be infinitely recycled?
FURTHER to the previous answer, glass can be recycled endlessly with no loss of quality. In practice, this is not the case. Test tubes and lab glass aren’t recycled, nor are incandescent light bulbs.
Heat-treated glass bottles and jars can be made into new containers repeatedly, which is far more energy efficient than using raw materials.
However, it can degrade over time. If contaminants such as paper labels or glues aren’t removed, the glass will take on a blackish hue from carbon contamination.
Glass retains its original colour when re-melted, so if you mix colours you end up with a brownish glass. For technical reasons, Pyrex can’t be recycled with ordinary glass.
Degraded glass can be used as aggregate in concrete, fibreglass for insulation, a flux when producing bricks, in water filters or as an industrial abrasive.
Dean Cowan, York.
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