Rubik's cube solving algorithm

Question

I am aware of God's number and how there is a lower bound of 26 quarter turns on such algorithms. However, I wished to know if there is a certain algorithm that can look at the faces of the cube and give a set of moves to solve the cube even if it does not do it in 26 moves and takes more time?

Answer 1

There are ~43 quintillion possible configurations of the Rubik's cube, any one of which can be reached from any other by specific series of moves. A very naive algorithm for solving any cube is to simply have a series of steps that visits every single configuration, including the solved one. It doesn't matter what the cube looks like when you start, since you'll be visiting every possible configuration of the cube, regardless of what color stickers are on the surface. At some point, you'll arrive at the solved configuration. It'll take awhile, but you're guaranteed to get a solved cube, and you don't even need to look at it before you start!

To get a sense of the practicality of this method, see this question.