THE HISTORY AND CREATION OF THE RUBIK’S CUBE

In the year 1974, a young and passionate architect, Erno Rubik, set out to find a way to physically represent 3-dimensional movement to his students. After a few months of analyzing and with the help of wood and some rubber bands and glue; he created the “Bűvös Kocka (magic cube).

This cube of late was renamed the Rubik’s Cube but Erno liked to call it My cube.

When a person first looks at this cube with different colors on it, it seems relatively simple. The movements of this puzzle are also found simple and easy. However, they do not understand that a simple puzzle has over more than 43 quintillion variations.

In the puzzle’s original form each side of the cube has a different color. These colors include red, green, yellow, orange, blue, and white. Each side has nine different pieces all of the same color. For e.g. the top side has nine pieces all white in color.

To play with the puzzle one must twist the cubes so each side the colors are mixed up. Now the objective of the player is to bring the cube back to its original form with each side of the same color.

In order to effectively solve the cube, you have to learn a sequence of moves that have to be performed in a certain case. In the cubing world, these sequences of moves is known as algorithms.

Erno Rubik’s original belief was that this cube will attract people related to fields of science and mathematics, but was surprised when he found out that it “found its way to people whom nobody would have thought might be attracted to it.” He said.

In 1981, the puzzle found itself on the cover of  Scientific American where it was called ‘one of the most amazing things ever invented for teaching mathematical ideas.’

Rubik believes that rather than inventing the cube he discovered it and it was an accidental success. But his success led to another major challenge, how to solve the cube. When he created the cube he doubted that the puzzle can even be solved but to his surprise, he eventually solved it although it took him a full month to do so. It had taken him a month to solve the puzzle, but he had no idea that the future generation would be able to solve this puzzle in a matter of seconds.

During the time when the Rubik’s cube was created a puzzle was not considered a toy for kids. Puzzles could only be found in souvenirs. The Rubik’s cube appeared in a toy store in 1977. By the 1980s, the cube was featured in TV commercials in America. It even got its own animated series in 1983 called ‘Rubik the amazing cube.’

The Speed Cubers

But after some years the interest in Rubik’s cube had declined until recently. Recent years have seen the birth of a new generation of this puzzle ‘The speed cubers’. People, especially children spent hours and hours solving this puzzle only to try to get faster in solving it. Now, this cube is solved in only a few seconds by thousands of young and enthusiastic people.

Rubik’s cube sold over 300 million in 2018. This puzzle has inspired many movies and works of art. It inspired the creation of new puzzles. It inspired companies and a whole new generation.