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A cube as cool as ice: know some fun facts about Rubik's cube, the most popular toy of the recent times.

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“Come here buddy, let us talk about what games you play.”, I called out to my friend’s son to strike a conversation with the young fellow when I was visiting my friend’s place. The 8 year-old replied, “Give me two minutes, uncle.”. Well, in my early thirties, I have still not made peace with being called as ‘Uncle’ by kids who are actually of same age as my own nephews and nieces. But we will park that conversation for some other day. The kid was holding a cube with jumbled colored pieces and as he promised, he solved it in two minutes and joined me in what turned out to be a fun conversation filled with child innocence.

The cube that the kid was playing with, or Rubik’s cube as we know it has been a very popular toy, not just among kids but adults as well. Or maybe, it will not be an exaggeration if I say that adults are more crazy about this toy. So let us talk about Rubik’s cube, its history and popularity. Worry not, this is not another post giving you algo and steps to solve the cube. Wittyscribble strongly believes you are capable of solving it on your own without reading the algo or steps.
A Scrambled Rubik's cube


The 3D puzzle, Rubik’s cube was invented by Erno Rubik, a Hungarian professor of architecture and a sculpture, and thus gets its name from its inventor. It was invented in 1974 and was called Magic Cube back then. However, it was not the first attempt to create such a cube. Larry D. Nicholas, a popular puzzle inventor, invented a 2X2 cube in 1970 and got a patent for it as well.

The cube gained a lot of popularity in late 70’s and 80’s and won several awards including ‘German game of the year’ an in various countries like US, UK and France as well. As the cube gained popularity, so did the various publications which presented the steps and algo to solve the cube for all the six sides : no mean feat to achieve even today. Patrick Bossert’s ‘You too can do the cube’ is one of the most popular books. Another book, ‘The simple solution to Rubik’s Cube’ by James G. Nourse was the bestselling book of 1981 in the US selling over 6 million copies.

The popularity of the cube began to decline in 1983, but gained popularity again in 21st century. As Rubik’s patent expired in 2000, more companies began manufacturing the cube, many with better technologies to provide faster movement.
An arranged Rubik's cube

Nerd Note 1: Rubik licensed the Ideal Toy Corp to exclusively sell the cube

Nerd Note 2: Rubik, being a professor in interior design at Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts at Budapest, invented the cube to help his students understand the 3d structures. However, while attempting to restore the scrambled cube, he realized that he has created a puzzle.

Nerd Note 3: Speedcubing is a popular sport of solving the cube as fast as possible.

Nerd Note 4: The Rubik’s cube has got its own governing body called ‘The World Cube Association’ that conducts various competitions and maintain records.

Nerd Note 5: Australian Speedcuber Feliks Zemdeg holds various records including fastest time to solve a 3X3X3 cube in 4.59 seconds. This record is jointly held by SeungBeom Cho of South Korea. Feliks also hold the record for fastest one-handed solving in 6.88 seconds. Unbelievable!!!

Nerd Note 6: Robots also compete to solve the cube in fastest time. Here is one such video


So, grab a cube and record the time you take to solve it. Don’t forget to let us know your best effort in comments.

And as always, thanks for reading.
Ayush!!!

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