PROJECT EULER · #0599
Distinct Colourings of a Rubik's Cube
The well-known Rubik's Cube puzzle has many fascinating mathematical properties. The 2×2×2 variant has 8 cubelets with a total of 24 visible faces, each with a coloured sticker. Successively turning faces will rearrange the cubelets, although not all arrangements of cubelets are reachable without dismantling the puzzle.
Suppose that we wish to apply new stickers to a 2×2×2 Rubik's cube in a non-standard colouring. Specifically, we have
We say that two such colourings
For example, with two colours available, there are 183 essentially distinct colourings.
How many essentially distinct colourings are there with 10 different colours available?
Write-up coming later
The complete problem is available here. An approach, code, and answer will be added later.