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10 Surprising Facts About Rubik's Cube You Can't Miss

TH (according to VNA) October 1, 2024 16:28

Discover 10 surprising facts about the Rubik's magic cube, from its random birth to amazing numbers, as well as interesting records of this timeless toy.

(Ảnh: iStock)

Rubik's Cube, a colorful 3D puzzle, has fascinated and challenged people around the world for decades.

Since its invention in the 1970s, this iconic building block has evolved from a simple toy into a globally-revered cultural phenomenon.

Rubik is not just a toy, it is a challenge of patience, dexterity and quick logical thinking. Discover 10 surprising facts about Rubik, from the random birth, amazing numbers as well as interesting records of this never-outdated toy.

Random Birth

The Rubik’s Cubes we know today were originally called Magic Cubes. In the 1970s, a Hungarian professor and architect named Erno Rubik invented the first version of the Rubik’s Cube using wood and paper clips as a teaching aid to help his students understand three-dimensional geometry.

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Hungarian professor and architect Erno Rubik invented the Rubik's Cube 50 years ago.

One of the first interesting things about Rubik's Cube is that it took its inventor a month to figure out the exact steps to put the cube back into its original state after it was scrambled. The complexity but fun of solving the magic cube immediately captivated many people.

By 1980, when the Magic Cubes puzzle was licensed to Ideal Toy Corporation for international distribution, the name of the magic cube was changed to "Rubik's Cube" in honor of its creator.

Rubik's cube became the hottest toy in Hungary and its appeal quickly spread to other countries, leading to a worldwide craze.

The first Rubik's Cube solving guidebook was written by a 13 year old boy.

The standard Rubik's cube is a cube made up of 27 smaller cubes, measuring 3x3x3 with the faces of the smaller cubes having different colors.

The way to play Rubik is that you can randomly shuffle the colored cells of the Rubik's cube, then you have to rotate the cube so that each of its 3x3 faces has the same color in the fastest time.

In the first 3 years of its release, 100 million Rubik's cubes were sold worldwide, making the magic cube the best-selling toy of all time.

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In 1981, a 13-year-old American boy named Patrick Bossert released a book called “You Can Do the Cube”to guide players to solve Rubik's cube.

The book sold over 1.5 million copies and became a bestseller at the time. You can still buy it today in both paperback and ebook form.

Rubik has more than 43 trillionhow to arrange color blocks

This magical cube has over 43 quintillion possible combinations of shapes (43,252,003,274,489,856,000 to be exact). For comparison, there are only about 7.5 quintillion (7,500,000,000,000,000,000) grains of sand on all the beaches and deserts on Earth.

Surprisingly, shortly after the toy was introduced in 1981, it was estimated that the minimum number of moves required to solve the Rubik's Cube was 52. In 2010, a team of mathematicians and computer programmers used Google's supercomputer to figure out how to solve the Rubik's Cube, and the result was that it only required 20 moves instead of the previous 52.

Not full6% of the world's population can solve the Rubik's Cube

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The truth is that not many people in the world can solve the Rubik's Cube. The official Rubik's website estimates that only 5.8% of the world's population can solve the Rubik's Cube, so if you've ever solved all six colored faces of the Rubik's Cube, be proud that you're among that small percentage.

Versions of Rubik

Rubik's cubes now come in many different shapes and sizes. Just looking at the cube shape, people can create 2x2, 3x3, 4x4, 5x5... up to an infinite number of cubies.

The special thing about the Rubik's cube is that no matter how big it is, it only has the same 6-dimensional core structure.

Rubik's Cube Inspires an Art Movement

Based on the cubism that had long existed in the art world, the appearance of the rubik's cube led to a new variation - Rubik's cubism.

The name suggests the use of perfect Rubik's cubes to create mosaic effects in works of art.

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Josh Chalom's "The Last Supper" Painting Uses Over 4,000 Rubik's Cubes

In 2009, Canadian artist Josh Chalom recreated the painting.“The Last Supper”Leonardo Da Vinci's painting using over 4,000 Rubik's cubes, followed by“Hand of God”Michelangelo's Rubik's Cube consists of more than 12,000 cubes and weighs a ton.

Rubik's Cube Records

Fastest Rubik's Cube Solving Record

Since its inception, Rubik's has become increasingly famous and popular, becoming one of the most played games in the world.

Rubik's variations and solving methods are constantly being created. Rubik's cube solving records are constantly being broken every year.

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Max Park sets record for solving 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in 2023

The current Guinness World Record for the fastest Rubik's Cube solving time belongs to Max Park (USA), who successfully solved a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in just 3.13 seconds at the 2023 Rubik's Pride in Long Beach competition, surpassing the previous Guinness World Record holder Yusheng Du (China) in this category with a time of 3.47 seconds in 2018.

According to Guinness, Max Park also holds "almost all" records for solving the Rubik's Cube. In addition to his recent achievement, he also holds world records for solving the 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x6x6 and 7x7x7 Rubik's Cube.

The most expensive Rubik's cube in the world

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In 1995, to celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Rubik's game, Diamond Cutters International Company launched a masterpiece Rubik's cube plated in 18-carat gold and studded with diamonds and many other precious stones, worth up to 1.5 million USD at that time.

Each colored face of the Rubik's is delicately arranged with white from diamonds, green from emeralds, red from rubies, purple from amethysts...

The special thing is that this expensive Rubik's cube can be played with just like any other regular Rubik's cube.

The world's largest Rubik's cube

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Tony's giant Rubik's cube weighs 100kg. It took him 156 hours to solve this Rubik's cube.

In the 65th edition of the Guinness Book of Records, part of the 2021 yearbook released in early September 2020, in the "Human Creations" section, the Rubik's cube created by famous British designer Tony Fisher, with each side measuring 2.03m, was recognized as the world's largest Rubik's cube.

The world's smallest Rubik's cube

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The world's smallest Rubik's cube can only be solved with tweezers

Tony Fisher is also listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the inventor of the world's smallest Rubik's cube, measuring 0.56cm x 0.56cm x 0.56cm, which can only be turned with the help of... tweezers.

TH (according to VNA)
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10 Surprising Facts About Rubik's Cube You Can't Miss