RUBIK'S CUBE - Planet's Main Puzzle

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

RUBIK'S CUBE - originally, this puzzle was created as a tutorial. It was invented by Hungarian architecture professor Erno Rubik in 1974. He hoped that this cube would help him explain to students the basics of mathematical group theory.

By the way, Erno Rubik himself spent a whole month when he first tried to solve the Rubik's cube. Erno received a patent in 1975. All rights to any three-dimensional reproduction, and even to any graphic or screen representation of this object, remain with Erno Rubik and will remain valid until the expiration of 70 years from the date of death of the creator.

But Erno didn't put money under his pillow. In October 1983, the inventor announced that he was transferring to the state 7 million forints (part of the proceeds from the sale of the "cube") for the organization and operation of a special fund to promote the implementation of inventions of Hungarian citizens. The State Bank of the country acted as the guarantor of the fund.

And a little later, he founded the Hungarian Technical Academy and was its president until 1996. The academy has established an international Rubik's foundation to support particularly talented young inventors.

In less than 40 years, becoming the first legal millionaire of the social bloc, the richest private person in Hungary and a legendary person, having traveled all over the world, Rubik quickly got tired of public attention and went into the shadows to calmly engage in his experiments and inventions in the Rubik's Studio he founded. The famous Rubik's Snake, the development of the ancient Chinese geometric puzzle "tangram", which appeared in this way, also had a resounding success, but even she is far from the popularity of the unforgettable cube.

And in 2009, at the International Nuremberg Toy Fair, the inventor presented the Rubik's Ball. Today, at the age of 76, Rubik lives with his wife and four children in the suburbs of Budapest. But he does not quit his job. Basically, now the author of the legendary puzzle is engaged in the development of video games. By the way, in four countries of the world - Hungary, Germany, Portugal and China, the toy has retained its original name - "Magic Cube"

The first Cubes were accompanied by the following annotation: “This toy develops logical thinking and stereoscopic vision in children and adults. Synchronous manipulation on many surfaces is a very difficult task that can only be solved by opening the turn logic."

People were so fascinated by the Rubik's cube that they could spend many hours in a row solving it despite the fact that their wrists were already cramping! In response to this problem, books began to be created to help people assemble the puzzle.

More than 350 million Rubik's cubes have been sold worldwide, making it the best-selling toy of all time.

In the USSR, the cube went on sale in 1981. According to some reports, the Union acquired the rights to its release for a fabulous amount at that time - $ 3 million. The issue of Science and Life magazine became incredibly popular, in which there were tips for solving the cube. Sadly, he also became one of the most frequently stolen libraries in Soviet libraries. Too many people dreamed of having illustrations for assembling a puzzle at home.

But the Cube became not only entertainment, but also the cause of nervous breakdowns. An experiment was carried out by English psychologists. First, they let the great apes assemble the puzzle. The chimpanzees became interested in the Rubik's cube, and then they began to worry, worry, and then completely fell into despair. One of the monkeys threw the cube away from the cage, the other tried to eat it, the third angrily broke the Rubik's Cube into small pieces. Then, the same experiment was done with humans. Those who twisted the toy in their hands for more than an hour to no avail, began to get nervous, angry, became aggressive, they had a desire to break the cube.

Do you know how many varieties of Rubik's cube exist today? Don't worry, nobody knows. Because they can no longer be counted.

In total, there are about 120 algorithms for solving the puzzle using the Jessica Friedrich method. It is considered the simplest, most productive and fastest. But, in fact, the speed of assembly depends not only on the method: the cube must be of high quality and pre-lubricated, because the time goes on for a fraction of a second. It turns out that the Rubik's Cube is not a toy for kids, a complex puzzle that can only be assembled using special formulas. However, there are some self-confident people who try to solve the cube intuitively. The most famous achievement of Briton Graham Parker, who has been collecting the puzzle for 26 years! But who are the people who are breaking the Rubik's Cube world records? Whose videos do we see on the Internet and are amazed at how skillfully they do it? People who are fond of speedy Rubik's cube are called speedcubers. And the high-speed assembly itself is speedcubing.