Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Rubik’s Cube

The Rubik’s Cube is quite an engaging puzzle! Many use this puzzle religiously to work on their motor skills, concentration and logical thinking skills. If you want to own this puzzle, click here. However, many captivating facts about a Rubik’s Cube make this puzzle all the more interesting! 

Facts You Probably Didn’t Know About Rubik’s Cube

1. It was originally called the Magic Cube. 

Back when the Rubik’s Cube was first introduced in the market in 1974, it was termed as the ‘Magic Cube’ or ‘Bűvös Kocka’ in Hungarian. In order to overcome the international patent challenges that had arisen in Hungary, the Ideal Toy Corporation, which had bought the rights to this puzzle, changed the name to ‘Rubik’s Cube’ in 1980.

2. 3-D Geometry was the source of inspiration. 

The creator of the Rubik’s Cube, Ernő Rubik, was a professor of architecture, who was fascinated by the concept of three-dimensional geometry. This was the driving force that led to the creation of this Cube. Little did he know, his creation would gain such popularity over the years.

3. Rubik’s Cube was a challenge for Ernő Rubik himself.

It was never certain that Rubik had managed to find a solution for his invention. It is said that he spent about a month trying to perform different moves to solve this challenge. Once he found a way to solve it, people went frenzy and were motivated to find different ways to solve the Cube.

4. Rubik’s Cube had some unsuccessful competition. 

Rubik’s Cube was not the only unique puzzle. Larry Nicholas, an American, has invented a cube that was held together with magnets and patented it. However, all the toy companies back in the day have rejected such a toy design, even including Ideal Toy Corporation! Terutoshi Ishige, another Japanese competitor, was too late with his patent as his application was completed almost a year after the Rubik’s Cube had hit the market.

5. Speed Cubing competition. 

Back in 1982, people began competing in the Cube Solving Events. The first ever World Championship was hosted in Budapest, and the winner was Minh Thai from the United States, at a speed of 22.95 seconds.

6. Permutations of a Cube. 

If you were to count the overall permutations in a Rubik’s Cube, you would receive a crazy result! The number of configurations in the Cube reaches 43,252,003,274,489,856,000, which is over 43 quintillion moves! Isn’t this fascinating?

7. The most expensive Rubik’s Cube ever. 

The Masterpiece Cube was created and designed in 1995 on the occasion for the 15th anniversary of this iconic toy. It was created by Fred Cueller along with Diamond Cutters International.

The Cube encompasses 18 karat gold and precious gems like amethyst, emeralds and rubies. The estimated value of this Cube is $1.5 million!

8. Awarded the Toy of the Year 

The Rubik’s Cube was awarded the Toy of the Year for two years in a row in 1980 and 1981. Everyone was thrilled to get in the craze of solving this 3-D puzzle, and it is still evident that this enthusiasm has not faded over the years.

9. The first-ever guide was created by a 13-year-old.

In the initial days of Rubik’s Cube release, a 13-year-old boy, Patrick Bossert, had published a book called ‘You Can Do the Cube’ in 1981. This guide sold over 1.5 million copies. In fact, it had become a universal seller and is it still available for purchase!

10. Finding God’s Number. 

In the year 2010, a team of researchers proved that any random scramble could be solved in 20 moves or less. Initially, in 1981, it was known that this number is somewhere between 18 and 52. However, it took 35 CPU-years of Google’s supercomputers to prove this. 

Another interesting aspect is that finding the Devil’s algorithm is far harder than finding God’s Number. The 2×2 Cube has fewer scrambles, and yet the number is still unknown. If you are enthusiastic to know more. 

Take a look at this video by the Cubing Historian – 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4zAcT1ex9oU&feature=youtu.be

11. Robots can solve it in under one second. 

A Robot named Sub1 solved the Rubik’s Cube in 0.887 seconds! It used two webcams to capture the arrangement of the sides. It then calculated the solution as the Arduino-compatible microcontroller board applied the 20 Steps. The MultiCuber999 robot received a Guinness World Record for solving 9x9x9 cubes. 

Conclusion 

Do these facts about the Rubik’s Cube inspire you to get started with cubing? You don’t really need a real cube as there are many online simulators available to learn the basics. When you get your new puzzle, try to solve it at least once to experiment how far you can get without help. Who knows, you might become a speedcuber yourself someday!