What algorithms can solve the Rubik's cube in a reasonable amount of time?

Question

I want to be able to make a program that can solve a Rubik's cube. I know about breadth first and depth first search but with 43 quintillion combinations on the Rubik's cube these graphs will be huge. How can I solve the cube in a reasonable amount of time as well as providing a optimal solution.

Answer 1

Well, you could do it the old-fashioned way; how humans do it. Contrary to popular belief, we do not memorize the ~43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible permutations. Just code the human algorithms and solve it; the computer can probably finish it in the breath of a second.
(Unless you're trying to solve it in the maximum of seven moves, which you'd probably need a quantum supercomputer to do. 😉)