The Story of the Rubik’s Cube

If you thought that Rubik’s Cube that you play with now was invented recently, you are wrong. It is a much older toy that was popular right from the 1980s. But was it a result of any accidental play? Who invented such an interesting puzzle? Well, it was  Erno Rubik, a young Hungarian sculptor and architect, who created this brainstormer. We will take you through its history and journey over the years.  

From Magic Cube to Rubik’s Cube  
What made Erno invent the Rubik’s cube? Not that he had any prior experience in developing math puzzles or algorithms. A son of a poet mother and a glider-manufacturer father, Rubik actually studied sculpture and architecture in his educational years in Budapest. It was when he went on to become the professor of design at an academy, he started developing his hobby of building geometric models. It was one of these experiments in 1974 that led him to build a prototype of Rubik’s cube. Guess how much time he took to solve it, a month. This model proved to be a useful tool for teaching algebraic group theory. Developed into a toy puzzle and named Magic Cube, its first test batches were produced in late 1977 and released in Budapest toy shops. It was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in the UK in 1978, and then by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980 via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer. Ideal wanted at least a recognisable name to trademark; that arrangement put Erno in the spotlight with Rubik’s Cube selected as the new name in 1980 and with that name, the cube was marketed throughout the world. To teach the world, how to solve this complex puzzle, a number of books were also published. And there has been no looking back since then for the Rubik’s Cube.  toy shops. It was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in the UK in 1978, and then by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980 via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer. Ideal wanted at least a recognisable name to trademark; that arrangement put Erno in the spotlight with Rubik’s Cube selected as the new name in 1980 and with that name, the cube was marketed throughout the world. To teach the world, how to solve this complex puzzle, a number of books were also published. And there has been no looking back since then for the Rubik’s Cube.  

Original Rubik’s Cube and its evolution 
On the original (3x3x3) Rubik's Cube, there were six faces each covered by nine different solid colour stickers – each from white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. The position of the colours varied from cube to cube. The later versions of the cube use coloured plastic panels instead to prevent peeling and fading. Also, from 1988 the arrangement of colours has been standardised - white opposite yellow, orange opposite red and blue opposite green and the red, white, and blue arranged clockwise in that order. From a 3x3x3 there are cubes available  in higher configurations as well now – 4x4x4 and 5x5x5. Of course, they are even more complex to solve offering different mathematical principles of group theory.  

But in all these puzzles, the objective remains the same; when the cube is twisted out of its original same colour arrangement, the player must then return it to the original configuration, one among many quintillion possible ones. For example, there are 43 quintillions possible combinations for the original 3x3x3 cube, 7.4 quattuordecillion combinations for 4x4x4 and 283 trevigintillion possible combinations for the 5x5x5 cube. Yet, the masters of this game solve them in just a matter of a few seconds.    

Speedcubing  
Over the years, the cube has inspired numerous artworks and films and has also given birth to a competitive sport called speedcubing that fills arenas with kids, teenagers and young adults racing to complete the puzzle in the shortest amount of time in various categories. The World Cube Association, the international governing body of the Rubik's Cube, has been holding several competitions worldwide giving out world records since 2003.  

Bonus fact: As of January 2023, the 3x3x3 world record single is 3.47 seconds and that is held by Chinese speedcuber Yusheng Du. The 3x3x3 world record average is 4.86 seconds, tied by American speedcuber Max Park and Polish speedcuber Tymon Kolasinski. Do you know, the Rubik's Cube was included in the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014?