Rubik’s Metallic 40th Anniversary Cube | 3x3 Cube with a Twist, Classic Problem-Solving Puzzle Toy

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Taking advantage of an initial shortage of cubes, many imitations and variations appeared, many of which may have violated one or more patents. In 2000 the patents expired, and since then, many Chinese companies have produced copies, modifications, and improvements upon the Rubik and V-Cube designs. [40] Patent history Rubik describes Cubed, as the product of a hermit who is “coming out of the shadows.” He refers to himself as a “concrete and intuitive thinker” and an amateur inventor, but like his invention, he defies categorization. His resume includes stints as a professor, architect, designer, editor and, now, writer. Rubik takes pride in his ability to self-teach, and bristles at the idea that those in authority are in the best position to impart knowledge. Although the Rubik's Cube reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1980s, it is still widely known and used. Many speedcubers continue to practise it and similar puzzles, and compete for the fastest times in various categories. Since 2003, the World Cube Association (WCA), the international governing body of the Rubik's Cube, has organised competitions worldwide and recognises world records. Each of the six centre pieces pivots on a fastener held by the centre piece, a "3D cross". A spring between each fastner and its corresponding piece tensions the piece inward, so that collectively, the whole assembly remains compact but can still be easily manipulated. The older versions of the official Cube used a screw that can be tightened or loosened to change the "feel" of the Cube. Newer official Rubik's brand cubes have rivets instead of screws and cannot be adjusted. Inexpensive clones do not have screws or springs, all they have is a plastic clip to keep the centre piece in place and freely rotate.

As a “cubing mom,” Kim began shuttling her son to cubing competitions — and became fascinated with the global popularity of the puzzle. Kim documents the way kids are mastering an analog tool using tools of the digital age — YouTube tutorials, articles, and more — and creating online communities around their love of the cube. "I actually think it's found a new niche in popular culture because of its immersion within the digital landscape," Kim said via video chat. An internal pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colours. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to have only one colour. It has inspired other designers to create a number of similar puzzles with various numbers of sides, dimensions, and mechanisms. Despite this fact, over the years a number of algorithms for solving the Rubik's Cubewere published. Some of them are more straightforward and some are more complicated but result in faster solves. The current world record for solving the Rubik's Cube is 3.13 seconds,it was set by Max Park (United States) at the Pride in Long Beach 2023 competition. After the first batches of Rubik's Cubes were released in May 1980, initial sales were modest, but Ideal began a television advertising campaign in the middle of the year which it supplemented with newspaper advertisements. [23] At the end of 1980, Rubik's Cube won a German Game of the Year special award [24] and won similar awards for best toy in the UK, France, and the US. [25] By 1981, Rubik's Cube had become a craze, and it is estimated that in the period from 1980 to 1983 around 200million Rubik's Cubes were sold worldwide. [26] In March 1981, a speedcubing championship organised by the Guinness Book of World Records was held in Munich, [24] and a Rubik's Cube was depicted on the front cover of Scientific American that same month. [27] In June 1981, The Washington Post reported that Rubik's Cube is "a puzzle that's moving like fast food right now ... this year's Hoola Hoop or Bongo Board", [28] and by September 1981, New Scientist noted that the cube had "captivated the attention of children of ages from 7 to 70 all over the world this summer." [29] The puzzle was originally advertised as having "over 3,000,000,000 (three billion) combinations but only one solution". [51] Depending on how combinations are counted, the actual number is significantly higher.

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In March 1970, Larry D. Nichols invented a 2×2×2 "Puzzle with Pieces Rotatable in Groups" and filed a Canadian patent application for it. Nichols's cube was held together by magnets. Nichols was granted U.S. Patent 3,655,201 on 11 April 1972, two years before Rubik invented his Cube. Even while Rubik's patent application was being processed, Terutoshi Ishigi, a self-taught engineer and ironworks owner near Tokyo, filed for a Japanese patent for a nearly identical mechanism, which was granted in 1976 (Japanese patent publication JP55-008192). Until 1999, when an amended Japanese patent law was enforced, Japan's patent office granted Japanese patents for non-disclosed technology within Japan without requiring worldwide novelty. [42] [43] Hence, Ishigi's patent is generally accepted as an independent reinvention at that time. [44] [45] [46] Rubik applied for more patents in 1980, including another Hungarian patent on 28 October. In the United States, Rubik was granted U.S. Patent 4,378,116 on 29 March 1983 for the Cube. This patent expired in 2000.

The Cube can be taken apart without much difficulty, typically by rotating the top layer by 45° and then prying one of its edge cubes away from the other two layers. Consequently, it is a simple process to "solve" a Cube by taking it apart and reassembling it in a solved state. The first book by the reclusive inventor of the world’s most iconic puzzle, the Rubik's Cube. Erno Rubik inspires us with what he’s learned in a lifetime of creating, curiosity and discovery. Buy The original (3×3×3) Rubik's Cube has eight corners and twelve edges. There are 8! (40,320) ways to arrange the corner cubes. Each corner has three possible orientations, although only seven (of eight) can be oriented independently; the orientation of the eighth (final) corner depends on the preceding seven, giving 3 7 (2,187) possibilities. There are 12!/2 (239,500,800) ways to arrange the edges, restricted from 12! because edges must be in an even permutation exactly when the corners are. (When arrangements of centres are also permitted, as described below, the rule is that the combined arrangement of corners, edges, and centres must be an even permutation.) Eleven edges can be flipped independently, with the flip of the twelfth depending on the preceding ones, giving 2 11 (2,048) possibilities. [52] 8 ! × 3 7 × 12 ! 2 × 2 11 = 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 {\displaystyle {8!\times 3 His application to the Hungarian Patent Office in 1975 called the cube a “spatial logic toy.” At the time, Hungary was behind the Iron Curtain — it would remain a communist controlled Eastern bloc state until 1989 — and as Rubik writes, the country had “no particular affinity for toy production.”Douglas Hofstadter, in the July 1982 issue of Scientific American, pointed out that Cubes could be coloured in such a way as to emphasise the corners or edges, rather than the faces as the standard colouring does; but neither of these alternative colourings has ever become popular. [44] Mathematics See also: Rubik's Cube in popular culture The world's largest Rubik's Cube was constructed for the 1982 World's Fair in Knoxville, Tennessee.

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In October 1982, The New York Times reported that sales had fallen and that "the craze has died", [34] and by 1983 it was clear that sales had plummeted. [24] However, in some countries such as China and the USSR, the craze had started later and demand was still high because of a shortage of Cubes. [35] [36] 21st-century revival