A new puzzle by the millionaire professor who once invented the famous cube. Eleven interesting facts about the creator of the Rubik's Cube Rubik's Cube USSR

This puzzle has embarrassed many geniuses - a special God algorithm was even created to solve it (a way to solve this problem in a minimum number of steps).

At first glance, the Rubik's Cube is very simple, until a person picks it up and tries to collect all the faces of the same color.

These days this exciting puzzle can be purchased at any store or kiosk. Moreover, it was created more than 40 years ago and still continues to be in demand among people of different ages.

The editors of InPlanet have collected the most interesting facts about the Rubik's cube to find out what this amazing thing is!

1. The Rubik's Cube, originally called the magic cube, was created by Ernő Rubik, who worked as an architecture teacher. He came up with such a model to explain to his students the structure of three-dimensional things.
2. The Rubik's cube traditionally consists of 27 parts and 54 visible cube faces of different colors (orange, blue, red, green, yellow and white). The task is simple - make sure that all faces of the cube have the same color.
3. Rubik patented his 3*3*3 invention in 1975, but this was not the first idea for such a toy. In 1972, Larry Nichols filed a patent for a magnetic puzzle with the parameters 2*2*2. But in 1974, inventor Frank Fox received the rights to a 3*3*3 spherical toy.
4. Until 1977, this toy was popular only in its homeland, Hungary, until the German Tibor Lazi saw it in a restaurant. He was so carried away by it that he immediately found Erno and invited him to sell the puzzle in the West.
5. The promotion of the toy was carried out by Tibor Lazi and Rubik's friend, Tom Kremer, who, by the way, still owns the rights to sell the puzzle. Already in 1980, the toy was presented on the European and American markets. At the same time, a massive craze for cubes began and, accordingly, fakes appeared.

1. In 1980 and 1981, the cube puzzle became the best toy of the year in many countries, including America, France and the UK. In addition, the puzzle received the title of best invention of the year.
2. In 1981, a special series of puzzles was created, released in a limited edition and dedicated to the wedding ceremony - Royal Puzzle. It was released and officially presented to Prince Charles and Lady Diana.
3. In those years, the problem of solving the Rubik's cube excited people so much that about 60 books with instructions were written. Even in restaurants, the puzzle was presented as an item included in the classic table setting, along with a pepper shaker or salt shaker.
4. In the USSR, the Rubik's Cube first appeared only in 1981, and purchasing the rights to release this puzzle cost a tidy sum. Rumor has it that the Soviet Union paid $3 million, an amount unthinkable at the time.
5. The Rubik's Cube is unofficially recognized as the leader among mechanical toys in terms of the number of copies sold. Over the years, more than 350 million models have been sold worldwide, both original and various analogues.
6. Combinators have calculated the number of possible states of the Rubik's cube. If you do not take into account the orientation of the main squares, the amount is impressive - more than 43 quintillion! However, with the orientation of the squares, the sum increases by 2048 times...
7. Searches for the most simple way solving Rubik's cubes began in the 1980s. The God Algorithm, as it was called, was found by a group of specialists in 2010. The minimum number of moves, from any position, is only 20!
8. The classic cube now has a lot of variations, the most popular, besides 3*3*3, is 17*17*17. Mofangge is developing a cube with 19*19*19 sides, but at the moment their attempts have not been successful.
9. In addition to the variety of number of sides, the Rubik's puzzle has many varieties in shape. There are cuboids, tetrahedrons, dodecahedrons, rex cubes, master scubes. Ernö himself presented in 2009 new puzzle, which did not become popular - Rubik's Ball.

1. The most expensive example among all existing ones was created by jeweler Fred Cuellar in 1989. It is made of gold and encrusted with diamonds, and its approximate cost is $1.5 million.
2. In addition to the usual cube assembly, there is also a high-speed one, called speedcubing. The cube was also collected by people from eyes closed, legs and even a three-year-old baby! And each category has its own records.
3. There is a worldwide cube association called World Cube Association. Every year she hosts various puzzle assembly competitions - the World, Asian and European Championships. There is also a competition in Russia.
4. There are special robots that are designed to solve the Rubik's cube. The most famous of them was designed in 2014 - CubeStormer III can assemble the toy in 3.253 seconds. The latest of all robots was introduced in 2016 by Jay Flatland and Paul Rose. It completes the puzzle in about 0.9 seconds.
5. According to the classic puzzle assembly in the 3*3*3 variation, today the Australian Felix Zemdex, who holds hundreds of world records in solving different puzzles. In 2016, he assembled a cubic toy in 4.73 seconds, later breaking this record in 4.59 seconds. In Russia, the record holder was Dmitry Dobryakov, who collected it in 6.16 seconds.
6. The largest Rubik's Cube is located in Knoxville, Tennessee. It has three-meter sides and weighs 500 kg. And the smallest one was created by a programmer from Russia Evgeny Grigoriev. It has edges of only 10 mm, but functions like a regular one!

Ernő Rubik managed to create a real bestseller among puzzles. By the way, the same Hungarian architect also invented the famous Rubik’s snake, which was also mega-popular!

According to one version, Rubik invented his main brainchild while trying to explain to students the mathematical theory of groups. This was in 1974. The first testers of the cube were, naturally, students and friends of the teacher. The story of the cube would have ended there, but Rubik decided to patent his brainchild. As a result, four years later, a small Hungarian cooperative, at its own risk, decided to release a puzzle as a New Year's souvenir called the “Magic Cube.”

At first, the invention was criticized: they said that the cube was too abstract and only mathematicians could play it. Indeed, there are 43 quintillion possible combinations of faces in a cube, and only one of them is correct. The global cube mania began after Rubik's invention accidentally caught the eye of a German entrepreneur. “This thing just hypnotized me!” - he later admitted. Soon the puzzle hit the shelves in Europe and the USA. This is where the real “cubic epidemic” began! By the end of 1982, taking into account the colossal number of fakes, according to some estimates, about 300 million (!) cubes were sold. The craze was so widespread that in some restaurants the cube became a mandatory attribute of a set table - along with a salt and pepper shaker. Moreover, the puzzle became an exhibit at the New York Museum of Modern Art.

The rights to produce and sell the cube cost the Soviet Union (according to unofficial data) a lot of money - $3 million! The official price of the puzzle was 4 rubles. 50 kopecks However, the excitement began such that the cube quickly became a scarce commodity and was often sold under the counter for 10-20 rubles. Entire institutions and school classes spent hours and days spinning cubes, holding competitions, and developing theories of assembly. Following the example of world publications, the magazines “Young Technician” and “Science and Life” soon began to publish materials about methods for assembling a puzzle.

Chop him!

In 1982, when all countries were covered by cube mania, the first world championship in timed puzzle assembly took place. Competitors were required to solve the cube in no more than 60 seconds. Best time assembly - 22.95 seconds - was shown by a 16-year-old student from Los Angeles. By the way, the World Cube Association (there is such a thing) still holds world championships in speedcubing (timed solving of a Rubik's cube) every two years. Last set record assembly time is 6.65 seconds. Moreover, today they compete in a variety of categories - assembly with the least number of movements, assembly blindfolded, assembly with one hand, assembly underwater in one breath, etc.

The global cube mania began to decline only in the late 1980s. Ernő Rubik had already become a dollar multimillionaire by this time and decided to sell the rights to produce and distribute the cube to his partner Tom Kremer. According to the most conservative estimates, to date more than 350 million legal (that is, branded) cubes have been sold - an absolute world record among toys!

To study the phenomenon of the Rubik's cube, English psychologists conducted an unusual experiment. They let the chimpanzees complete the puzzle. The monkeys at first treated her with extreme interest, but then began to worry, and the anxiety turned into strong excitement, comparable to despair. One of the monkeys threw the cube away from the cage, another tried to eat it, and the third angrily broke it into small pieces.

It should be noted that such behavior was observed not only in monkeys. As the same English psychiatrists and neurologists noted, some people, who had been turning a puzzle in their hands for more than an hour to no avail, began to get very nervous, angry, and some became aggressive, they had a desire to break the cube. Entrepreneurs also noticed this feature. At one time, small plastic hatchets were put on sale in a number of countries, designed to destroy puzzles. The purchase came with instructions that told you what could be made from the parts of the broken cube.

Today, 67-year-old Ernő Rubik still lives in a suburb of Budapest with his wife and four children. He categorically refuses to communicate with journalists and prefers not to appear in public. Rubik heads a furniture design studio, writes articles on architecture, participates in the development of video games and... continues to invent puzzles. His latest creation is Rubik-360. It’s difficult to describe a new puzzle - it’s better to twirl it in your hands, like the very first Rubik’s cube.

Today, electronic and computer puzzles and games have come to the fore, but no computer can replace tactile interaction with an object. A person continues to experience constant sensory hunger, a hunger for touches, but he just doesn’t notice it.

by the Hungarian sculptor and architecture professor Erno Rubik.

Rubik worked as a teacher of industrial design and architecture at the Department of Interior Design at the Budapest Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts.

According to one version, the Rubik's cube was originally created as a teaching aid. With his help, Rubik tried to explain to his students the basics of mathematical group theory.

Rubik wanted to assemble the design of the cube in such a way that its individual elements could rotate freely in their places without disturbing the structural unity of the entire device.

At first, the toy was a set of 27 wooden cubes with multi-colored edges. Later, everything unnecessary had to be discarded: in his first cube, Rubik left only 54 external faces: one-color for the six central cubes, two-color for the twelve side cubes, and three-color for the eight corner ones.

In place of the single "inner" cube, a cylindrical fastening mechanism was placed, which was firmly connected to all the outer cubes, but allowed them to rotate freely relative to each other.

Rubik's friends and students of the subordinate Academy acted as the first testers of the puzzle.

In 1975, Rubik received a Hungarian patent for his invention.

The first manufacturer of the cube was a small cooperative in Budapest, which released the cube as a New Year's toy called the "Magic Cube" (Buvuos Kocka) for Christmas 1978.

The Rubik's cube achieved success in 1980, when the license for its production was bought by the Ideal Toy Corporation (it was the company that gave the puzzle the name Rubik's Cube).

Subsequently, this name was fixed in most languages ​​of the world, with the exception of Hungarian, German, Portuguese and Chinese, where its original name “Magic Cube” remained common, as well as in Hebrew, where it is called the “Hungarian cube”.

About 100 million “legal cubes” were produced then, and even more were fakes. The Rubik's cube appeared in Europe and America in May 1980, and the cube came to the USSR in 1981.

Also in 1980, the Rubik's cube received the Hungarian national prize for the best invention and won competitions for the best toy in the USA, Great Britain, France and Germany. In 1981, the cube was exhibited at the New York Museum of Modern Art (MOMA). In the same year, Royal Puzzle, a version of the Rubik's Cube dedicated to the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana, which took place on July 29, 1981, was released in limited edition in England.

Many world publications published articles on the Rubik's Cube, especially often publishing materials on methods for assembling the cube. There were also many such articles in the USSR. For example, the famous Soviet magazine “Young Technician” in 1982 published an article with illustrations about methods for solving a Rubik’s cube. A little later, a similar article appeared in an equally authoritative Soviet publication, the journal Science and Life. The Rubik's Cube has become the most popular toy on the planet.

To study the phenomenon of the Rubik's cube, English psychologists conducted an unusual experiment. They let the apes solve the puzzle. The chimpanzees at first reacted to her with extreme interest, but then began to worry, the anxiety turned into strong excitement, comparable to despair. One of the monkeys threw the cube away from the cage, another tried to eat it, and the third angrily broke it into small pieces.

However, this behavior was not only observed in monkeys. According to the observations of English psychiatrists and neurologists, some people, who had been twirling a toy in their hands for more than an hour to no avail, began to get nervous and angry; people who were overly unbalanced became aggressive, and they had a desire to break the cube. To serve such expansive people, small plastic hatchets were put on sale, designed to “punish” the obstinate toy. The purchase came with instructions that told you what could be made from the parts of the broken cube.

However, the popularity of the Rubik's Cube soon began to wane. And already in 1983, it was almost impossible to find a toy on store shelves.

In 1985, the English company Seven Towns bought the rights to the Rubik's Cube from Ideal Toy Corporation and resumed sales in 1991.

The second wave of popularity of the Rubik's cube began in 1996, when, through the efforts of Seven Towns owner Tom Cramer, sales of the toy in the United States amounted to 300 thousand units, and in the UK a year later - 100 thousand units.

Even global computerization could not reduce the popularity of the cube - in the 1990s, a virtual Rubik's cube was created for Windows. Currently, most gaming services on the World Wide Web offer solving cubes.

You can compete in the speed of solving a Rubik's cube not only on the Internet - every two years the World Cube Association holds world championships in speed solving the Rubik's cube. The last World Championship took place on November 5-7, 2007 in Budapest (Hungary), in 2009 it will be held from November 9 to 11 in Dusseldorf (Germany).

The first World Championship took place in 1982 in Budapest. Representatives of 19 countries - winners of national championships - took part in it. Three tasks were proposed for solution. The best time out of three attempts was counted. Each participant in the competition received a new cube from Politoys. All the cubes were equally intricately entangled with 25-30 rotations using a computer. The computer was programmed as a generator random numbers and, in an unknown way, determined the face of the cube to be rotated, the direction and angle of rotation. Before the start of the countdown, each participant in the competition was given 15 seconds to study the initial coloring of the cube and choose a solution. Competitors were required to solve the cube in no more than 60 seconds. The best assembly time of 22.95 seconds was shown by 16-year-old student from Los Angeles Minh Thai.

Today athletes compete in the following categories: high-speed assembly Rubik's cube, solving with the least number of movements, solving with one hand, solving with your feet, solving with a blindfold, solving a pyramid, solving a rectangular Rubik's cube, megamix. All nominations are held in several categories determined by cube sizes from 2×2 to 7×7, and >7 for megamix.

The record for solving the classic Rubik's cube (side size 3x3) has changed hands several times in past years and today belongs to the Dutchman Erik Akkersdzhik and is 7.08 seconds.

As for the inventor of the cube, Erno Rubik became the first millionaire in Eastern Europe and in 1988 founded the International Rubik Foundation to support young inventors. Since 1990, Rubik has been the chairman of the Hungarian Academy of Engineering, and since 1996 its honorary chairman.

In 1983, Rubik was awarded the Hungarian State Prize, and in 1995 - the Hungarian Prize. Denesh Gabor for creativity and innovative activity, in 2007 - the Kossuth Prize.

Currently, Erno Rubik lives with his wife and four children in a suburb of Budapest, sometimes making meaningful and quasi-religious statements such as: “The fact that each face of the cube consists of three layers of three blocks is of great significance. The number three has enormous meaning, expressed in many strange connections between man and nature."

On February 5, 2009, at a toy fair in Germany, a new version of the Rubik's cube, called "Rubik 360", was presented, which consists of three transparent spheres placed inside each other. In the very center there are six multi-colored balls that need to be brought out. Rubik 360 will go on sale in August 2009.

The material was prepared based on information from open sources

Thirty-year-old Erno Rubik in 1974 did not yet know that a few years later he would become the first official millionaire of the Eastern Bloc. Having decided to make training manual for his students, he had no idea that by doing so he would shock the world. The famous Rubik's Cube was supposed to explain the basics of mathematical group theory to slow-witted students. In those days, Erno Rubik taught industrial design and architecture at the Faculty of Interior Design at the Budapest Academy of Applied Arts and Crafts.

The story of the creation of the Rubik's Cube cannot be told in a few words. Even the cube project took several years to mature. The original idea for a toy of 27 interconnected multi-colored cubes, i.e. design with 156 colored edges, simplified to a set of 26 small cubes with 54 outer edges. Instead of the inner cube, there is a clever fastening mechanism.

The testers were Rubik's friends and students. By the way, even Erno himself at first did not know how to solve a Rubik’s Cube and for the first time it took him a month to assemble it.

In 1975, the idea arose to obtain a patent for the invention, which was implemented, but the first industrial batch was released only at the end of 1977. The first cubes were made in a small Budapest cooperative for Christmas 1978 and called them “Magic Cubes.” Several pieces from that batch ended up in the USSR.

Maybe this is where the story of the creation of the Rubik's Cube ended, but good higher powers did not let the wonderful invention go to waste and attracted Tibor Lakzi to participate. Tibor Lakzi lived in Germany, but was of Hungarian origin, so he often visited Budapest. During one of his trips to a cafe, he saw a funny puzzle in the hands of the waiter. Lakzi was fond of mathematics and at the same time was a computer entrepreneur, which is probably why he was able to appreciate the prospects of the cube and contacted its inventor. Tom Kremer, a successful game inventor who founded the company Seven Towns Ltd., was brought in to promote the entertaining puzzle.

Things went much better for the newly formed trio and in 1980 the world recognized the Rubik's Cube, which was now called that way. Ideal Toy Corporation bought the license to produce the Rubik's Cube and placed its first order for a million copies. The order had to be repeated 100 times that year, and even more fakes were produced.

In Europe, a licensed Rubik's Cube appeared in May 1980, and in the USSR it went on mass sale in 1981. Some sources claim that the rights to release the toy Soviet Union bought for 3 million dollars. In the first years in the USSR, the Rubik's Cube was “taken out from under the counter” and on the recommendation of “Ivan Ivanovich”. In retail trade, they often gave out no more than two pieces per person, so people stood in line several times, because they had to have the cube in their family, give it to the “right” people, etc. It got to the point of being ridiculous - they bribed officials with licensed cubes. And in some countries, even in restaurants, a Rubik’s Cube was included in the mandatory table setting next to the salt shaker.

In those years, every tenth resident of civilized countries was interested in collecting toys. There were no restrictions on age, education, social status, gender or nationality. Everyone played everywhere. Rubik's Sandpiper has become one of the most anticipated birthday gifts and New Year. First spontaneous and then official collection competitions began to arise. The first champions appeared.

Even those who didn’t have one were interested in how to solve a Rubik’s Cube. By the way, in 1982, the magazine “Young Technician” published an article with illustrations and drawings, explaining in detail how to make a Rubik’s Cube yourself.

In the USSR, critical articles on the topic of bourgeois and time-killing “Cubism” first appeared in the press, but they quickly dried up. Either the powers that be gave their strong orders, or the spiteful critics were infected with the Rubik’s Cube virus, but soon in the respected and significant magazine of that time “Science and Life”, next to an article about achievements in space, they posted an article “How to solve a Rubik’s Cube.” This became a new impetus for popularization and now mantras like PV2FP2F1P1V1F1V2FP were distributed everywhere without hesitation. And they meant - to the right, up 2 times, forward (front), etc.

To prevent people who couldn’t solve a Rubik’s Cube from going on a binge, but rather venting their anger, plastic hatchets were specially sold for destroying “unsolvable” cubes.

In Budapest in 1982, the first official World Rubik's Cube Championship was held with the participation of representatives from 19 countries who won their national championships. The winner was Minh Thai, a 16-year-old student from Los Angeles, who showed a result of 22.95 seconds. At the same time, there were rumors about heroes who solved the Rubik's Cube in 10 seconds. These days, the latest world assembly record traditional cube– 7.08 seconds, demonstrated by Dutch teenager Erik Akkersdijk. By the way, Eric is a champion in solving all types of Rubik's Cubes from 2x2x2 to 5x5x5.

This was the time of peak popularity. Then manufacturers felt a drop in demand, but this was influenced by the fact that at some point too many copies of the cubes were made, so everyone already had them. The production of Rubik's Cubes practically ceased, so stores sold out the remnants and since 1983 it was no longer easy to find them on the shelves.

In 1985, Tom Cramer's English company Seven Towns bought the rights to the Rubik's Cube and resumed production by 1991. The second wave of the “advent” of the Rubik's Cube came in 1996, when 300 thousand copies were sold in the United States.

For reference: The Rubik's Cube was awarded the Hungarian national prize for the best invention, and has repeatedly won competitions for the best toy in Germany, France, the UK and the USA. Since 1981, the cube has been on display at MOMA (New York Museum of Modern Art). In 1988, the International Rubik Foundation was founded, which supports young inventors.

Share your successes, be a man!

1) Ernő Rubik was born in Budapest in 1944. His father was a famous aircraft engineer, and his mother was a poetess.

2) By first education, Rubik is a civil engineer. Then in graduate school he studied to be a sculptor and interior designer. And he worked as an architect. In this specialty he received the title of associate professor. Soon he rose to the rank of professor. In 1990, he founded the Hungarian Technical Academy and headed it until 1996. The idea to create a “Rubik’s Cube” came to him during a lecture - he wanted to clearly convey the mathematical theory of groups to students.

3) He invented the Rubik's Cube at the age of 30, in 1974. And he patented it a year later. Mass production began at the end of 1977 - the Budapest cooperative announced it as an unusual New Year's toy. But the cube became popular only in 1980, when the Ideal Toy Corporation bought the license for its production.

By the way, the puzzle was originally known as the “Magic Cube”. Now this name is used only in Hungarian, German, Portuguese and Chinese. And in Hebrew it is called the “Hungarian cube”. Meanwhile, the name Rubik’s Cube was given to the puzzle by the Ideal Toy Corporation. This is how it became established in almost all languages ​​of the world.

By the way, it took Rubik himself several months to solve his first cube.

4) Back in the 80s of the last century, in the wake of the popularity of the Rubik's Cube, a whole movement appeared - speedcubing (this is a high-speed puzzle assembly). The current record is 5.55 seconds (set by Mats Volk).

5) And the longest time to collect the cube was the Englishman Graham Parker - 26 years! He received a puzzle as a gift for his 19th birthday and promised to solve it. He fulfilled his promise only at 45...

6) In the USSR, the cube went on sale in 1981. According to some reports, the Union acquired the rights to release it for a fabulous sum at that time - $3 million. The issue of the magazine “Science and Life”, which contained tips on assembling the cube, became incredibly popular. Sadly, it also became one of the most frequently stolen books in Soviet libraries. A lot of people have dreamed of having illustrations for assembling a puzzle at home.

7) In the 80s, Rubik was the editor of a games and puzzle magazine. And in 1983 he founded his own Rubik Studio, which is still developing various kinds educational games.

8) Ernő Rubik was the first millionaire in Eastern Europe! In 1988, he founded the International Rubik's Foundation. The foundation still supports young inventors.

9) Over 40 years, about 350 million copies of the Rubik's Cube have been sold on the planet.

10) Now the rights to Ernő Rubik's puzzles belong to the English company Seven Towns Ltd. It is owned by Ernő Rubik's close friend, Tom Kremer. By the way, manufacturers have recently noted another increase in sales. Apparently, another “spring” has come in the life of the “Rubik’s Cube”.

11) These days, at almost 70 years old, Rubik lives with his wife and four children in the suburbs of Budapest. But he doesn't leave his job. Basically, now the author of the legendary puzzle is developing video games.