Message #289

From: Melinda Green <melinda@superliminal.com>
Subject: New shortest 5^4 solution
Date: Wed, 05 Jul 2006 00:47:21 -0700

I’m happy to announce that Noel Chalmers has now solved the 5^4 and
posted a new record shortest solution with 4013 twists beating the
previous record by 650 twists. I’m sorry Remi. I know that you have
enjoyed holding the record shortest solutions in 3 of the 4 categories,
but you have held this one for close to a year and I think that you
yourself noted that there is a lot of room for improvement in this
category. Of course that also makes it all that much easier for you to
take it back!

With this new achievement, Noel has moved through solving the 3^4, 4^4,
and 5^4 all in under a month. Congratulations Noel! He’s going to take a
well-deserved rest now but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him tackle the
5D cube before too long.

I should note that he is only 17 years old. He wonders whether he is the
youngest person to ever solve the 4D cube but I see from my records that
Douglas Li was also 17 when he first solved the 3^4 over 4 years ago. I
don’t know either of their birthdays so I don’t know who was the
youngest but Noel is certainly the youngest to solve the larger puzzles.
I’m sure that he will have a successful career in whatever field he
applies himself!

Congratulations again Noel!
-Melinda