14 Things You Might Not Know About The Rubik's Cube

It's a struggle we've all had.

It was originally invented by a professor who wanted to demonstrate spatial relationships to his students.

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Erno Rubik's puzzle took himself a whole month to solve, and it was not meant to be physically possible. He did not anticipate for the Rubik's cube to become one of the best selling puzzles ever. The puzzle's popularity spread to the whole world through mathematicians who would bring them to international conferences.

Since then, the Rubik's cube became one of the most popular toys, and the icon of genius or confusion.

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It's literally impossible to solve. Or is it?

In fact, people have become so good at it, they can solve it in under 5 seconds

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You are witnessing the current world record holder, Australian cuber Feliks Zemdegs.

It has become so popular, that it has taken a life of it's own.

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The Rubik's 3x3x3 cube is not the only type of twisty puzzle these days. There are probably more than 20 types of puzzles, all variants of the 3x3. Examples include the tetrahedron shaped Pyraminx, the simpler version of the 3x3- the 2x2, the dodecahedron shaped Megaminx, and all the nxn cubes- (there's even a 13x13).

People can even solve it blindfolded!

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Unbelievable.

Single handedly, with feet, just to name a few...

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Nothing is impossible if you set your mind to it.

There's actually a competition for people who excel at it.

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The World Cube Association holds annual competitions featuring many different events, where people from all over the world compete for the shortest time in solving a puzzle. The world record- 4.73 seconds.

There are even robots who can do it- under one second.

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More evidence that robots are the future of our world.

Now for the question you've been wanting to ask- how?

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It's not impossible, and you can definitely do it.

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As mind-blowing as it may all seem, solving the Rubik's cube is not rocket science. Figuring it out by yourself may take a while, but following a simple tutorial will only take you a few minutes. Most people who can solve the Rubik's cube have followed online tutorials, which teach you step by step.

Layer by layer, not side by side.

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Many people start by trying to do each side, but that method is impractical and inefficient. The Rubik's cube only has 3 layers, so doing the first layer, then the second, then the third will be faster.

Algorithms

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Most people who are not geniuses follow algorithms, a series of twists that get you from one position to another. They are very useful and very easy to learn.

Practice makes perfect

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Once you've learnt to solve it once, practice, again and again. Pretty soon, you'll be able to solve it without even trying to remember how- that's how muscle memory works.

What are you waiting for?

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Even though the cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 configurations, you can find the right one, and when you do, you'll feel pretty darn good about it.