Confounding individuals across the planet for over 30 years,
the Rubik’s Cube, named after it’s Hungarian sculptor Ernest Rubik, is one of
the most hated and loved puzzles that has ever existed. With over 400 million
Rubik’s Cubes sold since its inception and manufacturing, the Rubik’s Cube is
considered the best selling toy of all-time.
Today, there are literally hundreds of variations of the
cube, ranging from many different shapes, sizes, and solving possibilities. The
Rubik’s Cube has even spawned it’s own culture of people that participate in
the world of “cubing”—most notably: speed cubing.
Events are held all over the world, which test the
mind-twisting prowess of cube solvers. Thousands of websites, YouTube videos
and books have been created to discuss and give step-by-step solving techniques
in solving the cube. There are many methods for solving the six-sided monster
and it has been discovered that the cube can be solved in as little as 20 moves.
Given it’s 43 quintillion possible permutations (for your standard 3x3x3 cube).
43,252,003,247,489,856,000 permutations to be exact. Some people have opinion
that there are as many expletives uttered when solving the cube, as there are
combinations.
And anyone can solve by learning a small handful of simple
algorithms. It is amazing the mind power dumped in to the simple cube for the
past three decades.
Ernest Rubik first built his cube, it is interesting to
note, it took him an entire month before he was able to solve it. That is the
most interesting fact about the Rubik’s Cube; that it was not fully understood
in it’s creation—like all monsters. :)
When he was finally able to solve the cube, Rubik
recounts, “I remember it was very
emotional, but I don't remember what time it was exactly. I don't make notes on
that, and I have no diary about it, but I remember it was a very emotional
feeling. But then it's not something like a jigsaw puzzle where you start to
work on it, spend some time on it, and in the end it's solved, it's finished.
If you find a solution with the cube, it doesn't mean you find everything. It's
only a starting point. You can work on and find something else, you can improve
your solution, you can make it shorter, you can go deeper and deeper and
collect knowledge and many other things.”
Attempting to solve the Rubik’s Cube is a right of passage
for life. I strongly encourage you to take the bull by the horns, and give it a
go yourself.
I love how your introduction is so packed with new information to me. Yet, as loaded as it is, it keeps a light tone that keeps the reader interested in reading on, unlike many of those academia world pieces. I'm still awed by the videos you've shown us of how fast ppl can solve those babies! You better have lots of those on your blog!
ReplyDeleteGreat intro! You are funny, engaging, and philosophical! That end bit about Ernest Rubik taking a month to solve his own puzzle- and the emotional experience he had... very cool. You've made me feel like your topic is the most important one anyone in the class could have chosen to write about. That means- your introduction is effective and persuasive. saweeeeeeeeeet.
ReplyDeleteGreat intro Brady, that is a lot of combinations. The part about him not being able to solve it for a month, and the following words you said made me think of Frankenstein and how he didn't understand his monster. It has a lot of great info and was short and captivating, great work! I really think that all of our sites are going to turn out great. We have some talented people in our group.
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