Is it a game? A time-passing toy? A skill-building brainteaser? The answer is all of the above, and more. Whatever the original intention for the Rubik's Cube might have been when kids first picked it up some four decades ago, it has transformed into a cultural phenomenon, found in almost every corner of the world and featured in art exhibitions, TV shows, and social media. With more than 450 million sold, the iconic puzzle has also inspired some of the quirkiest competitions imaginable.
The Man Behind the Fad
In 1974, Erno Rubik was a professor of architecture in Budapest, Hungary. He was letting his mind wander about ways to help his students contemplate spatial relationships—how rearranging objects in a space affects other objects around them. To make the concepts more concrete, he started tinkering with small wooden cubes and elastic bands to create the prototype of what became the world-famous toy. If you find unscrambling the Rubik's Cube daunting, don't be dismayed—it took Erno Rubik an entire month to solve his own invention!
Rubik patented his idea, and by the early 1980s, the now familiar six-color, six-sided, three-leveled plastic cube was being marketed and sold worldwide, each offering more than 43 quintillion different ways for the cube's 54 squares to be scrambled (that's a 43 and EIGHTEEN zeros!). It inspired other three-dimensional puzzles, though none have come close to matching its popularity, and the success of this elegantly simple yet prodigiously complex puzzle was honored with its 2014 induction into the National Toy Hall of Fame.
Crazy Competitions
Today, the Rubik's Cube has evolved from its early days as a schoolyard fad into a gaming subculture. Speedcubing—the solving of a randomly scrambled cube as fast as possible—has grown into a global competition that features specially designed cubes allowing lightning-fast turns. At elite levels, speedcubers compete for thousands of dollars of prize money, and the fastest of the fast take mere seconds to complete the challenge. The world record, set by Yusheng Du of China, has fallen to an unbelievable 3.47 seconds, a mark sure to be broken.
Other competitions are quirky, creatively awesome, and just as jaw-dropping. Feliks Zemdegs of Australia solved a cube with one hand in 6.88 seconds, while Polish speedcuber Jakub Kipa has done the feat with his feet in 20.57 seconds! Solving three cubes while juggling them is a relatively recent addition to the omnium-gatherum of crowd-wowing Rubik's Cube challenges, which also include being the fastest to solve the puzzle while blindfolded or underwater. Records have even been set for the most Rubik's Cubes solved while riding a unicycle. Relatively tame in comparison, re-scramble events require contestants to manipulate a solved cube to make it match one that is pre-scrambled.
Not Just a Puzzle Anymore
As far as popular culture is concerned, the Rubik's Cube has transcended its identity as a toy. Sculptors have constructed giant versions in public parks, and "Rubik's Cube Art" refers to mosaics that are crafted with small colored squares. The 3-D puzzle often appears in two dimensions in graffiti and other works of art—even designs for fingernails.
In short, the Rubik's Cube has grown into a symbol recognizable the world over—a symbol of intelligence, creative problem-solving, and fast-fingered perseverance.
Video credit: Achieve3000
QUESTION 4
4 / 8
Which question is not answered by the Article?
How many different ways are there to scramble the colored squares of the Rubik's Cube?
Which global competition features specially designed cubes that turn quickly?
What other popular toys have been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame?
How did Erno Rubik create the prototype for what would become the Rubik's Cube?
1 answer
The question that is not answered by the article is:
What other popular toys have been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame?
The article mentions the Rubik's Cube's induction into the National Toy Hall of Fame but does not provide information about other toys that have been inducted.
