The Rubik’s Cube
A fun
and/or frustrating toy that is apart of almost everyone’s childhood is the
Rubik’s Cube. Each side of the cube is one of six different colors with a 3x3
grid on each side. The cube can be twisted up, down, left, and right while the
center squares stay put. To many—especially children— it seems like the Rubik’s
Cube is impossible to solve. There is a relatively short history to the Rubik’s
Cube since it was invented in 1974 and really blew up and became very popular
in the 1980’s. It was invented by a man named Erno Rubik born in Budapest,
Hungary. Rubik’s whole life he was always interested in the concept of space
and went on to teach at the Academy of Applied Arts and Design in Budapest, his
home town.
The
Rubik’s Cube was initially only manufactured in Hungary, a communist country,
so there was there was an original hesitancy to sell the little puzzle in
western states. Once it finally appeared in the west in 1980 millions were
sold. Though a large quantity were sold most were yet to be solved. It made
sense given that there are more than 43 quintillion possible configurations
(43,252,003,274,489,856,000 to be exact). With so many different ways the Rubik’s
Cube could be configured it was very rare that people would solve it without a
strategy.
There
are many ways to solve the Rubik’s Cube. The most basic way is to peel off the
stickers and place them with their corresponding colors. Many would consider
this strategy to be cheating, but I personally believe it’s just clever. There
are step by step beginner strategies that can easily be found on the internet
and there are more complicated strategies that require much more memorization.
Essentially, the more basic the strategy the longer it takes. The more complex
the strategy the faster the puzzle can be solved. It was a fun toy for young
children while fascinating mathematicians at the same time.
As
previously stated you can solve the Rubik’s Cube by peeling of the stickers,
but a more popular way is a mathematical approach that follows a pattern. The first
thing to do is find an edge and connect it with the center square it belongs
to. For example, and yellow and green edge would be turned until it matched the
yellow and green center squares. You
continue to connect edge pieces with the corresponding center pieces until each
color has an edge piece with its corresponding center piece. After all of this
you need to establish one cross of the same color. The next phase is to locate
corners and follow a specific pattern of left, down, right, up. When you follow
this pattern you get to slowly move a corner pieces into their designated
place. After you have completed this phase you should have one side be
completely the same color. In the third phase, after you have solved one side of
the cube, you look for an edge of the cube that is does not consist of a color
that is adjacent to the side of the cube that has already been solved. You then
align the colors to their corresponding squares and continue the left, down,
right, up pattern in order to “place the edges in.” After doing this you have
solved the first two layers of the Rubik’s Cube. The last phase begins by
making a cross that is adjacent to the very first face that was solved in phase
one. This step gets more complicated because there are many different ways that
the Rubik’s cube looks at this point, but no matter what it looks like it can
be solved using the same pattern. It is just a matter of how many times you use
the pattern. The pattern, turn front, lift right, turn top, bring down right, turn
the top back, and turn the front again. After you have created the cross you do
the last part: solving the corner. The pattern to follow is: lift the left,
turn top, lift the right, bring the top back, bring left down, turn top, and
bring right down. After you repeat this algorithm for each side you have solved
the cube. It sounds extremely difficult on paper, but nonetheless it can be
done.
As shown solving the Rubik’s
Cube is no easy task after all it took Erno Rubik a whole month to solve his
own invention. Even though it is approximately forty years since the small cube
was invented it is still just as difficult for people to solve. Now there are
competitions held to solve the Rubik’s cube and the world record time is 5.25
seconds. Now different versions of the game have come out and there are larger
grids than 3x3 and different spins off of the original Rubik’s Cube, but
nothing compares to Erno’s original cube.
Works cited:
Simplest Tutorial for Solving the 3x3 Rubik's Cube (Learn in 15
Minutes). Perf. Surges B. YouTube.
YouTube, n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaltgJGz-dU
"The
History of the Rubik’s Cube." Rubiks. Rubik's Brand Ltd., n.d.
Web. 23 Nov. 2015.https://www.rubiks.com/about/the-history-of-the-rubiks-cube
Tran, Raymond. "A Mathematical Approach To Solving Rubik's
Cube." A Mathematical Approach To Solving Rubik's Cube (2005): 1-8.
Math.ubc.ca. Web. 23 Nov. 2015. http://www.math.ubc.ca/~cass/courses/m308/projects/rtran/rtran.pdf
Weisstein, Eric W.
"Rubik's Cube." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Web Resource.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/RubiksCube.html
As a kid, I always had a few Rubik cubes lying around my house. I used to be able to spend hours just playing around with one. I used to try and solve it, fail miserably then mix it up and start the vicious cycle over again. I think that I was so fascinated by them because I wasn’t allowed to watch TV when I was a kid. Even when I was, it had to be educational. I didn’t know that peeling off the stickers was considered to be “solving” the Rubik cube. I thought and I still think that that is cheating. I think it is interesting how much harder a Rubik cube gets the bigger it is. A 2x2 is easy. A 3x3 is tough. Everything above that is difficult, nearing impossible.
ReplyDeleteI did not know that the Rubik cube is actually named after its creator. Rubik is such an odd name. I think that it’s funny that the cube came into creation just because the creator was bored and interested in spatial puzzles.
I feel a little silly though, because in all my efforts to solve Rubik cubes as a child, I never realized there was a pattern I could have followed to help me solve it.
I have always been fascinated by Rubik’s cubes. I’ve never been able to solve one by any other strategy besides what you called the most basic (peeling off the stickers), but I’ve always wanted to know how. If I owned a Rubik’s cube, I definitely would’ve had it in my hands as I read your post. The pattern that you explained seemed pretty manageable, but I don’t thinkI could memorize it. I found it very interesting that even the creator of this game had difficulties solving it, especially since now some people can solve them so easily. Nonetheless, I’m excited to try your strategy on a Rubik’s cube.
ReplyDeleteI loved playing with Rubik’s Cubes when I was a kid. I was never any good at them, and often applied the peel off the stickers strategy. I always tried to just spin the colors and hoped it worked. The fill out the corners strategy seems pretty confusing. I know that people at my high school would just keep doing the same pattern over and over again until they got all the colors in order. It’s extremely interesting how fast some people can solve a Rubik’s cube when it took the creator an entire month.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up I had a Rubik’s Cube and still to this day I have never been able to solve it. I also live with two older sisters who have also tried to solve the puzzle but with no more success than I failed at completing the Rubik Cube. I was clever enough to pull the stickers off of the sides and place them where they are supposed to go, but personally I don't get a sense of accomplishment from doing that. Being so young when I had a Rubik Cube there was no YouTube or internet to look up the patterns or methods to solve the puzzle so I grew frustrated and gave up on the cube.
ReplyDeleteI had a Rubik’s cube when I was younger too. I always thought that the strategy to just peel off the stickers was cheating just that jo did. I got close to solving it but not fully. I would spend some time trying to solve it but after about 30 minutes I would just get frustrated and give up. I remember there were kids my age able to solve it in just 5 minutes and be able to do it in front of everyone so they knew that they weren’t cheating. It’s unfortunate that it “went out of style” for kids these days because it would have been a good problem solving and thinking toy.
ReplyDeleteI always found the rubiik's cube to be very tricky and I have personally never been able to solve it without peeling all the stickers off and replacing them. I found this post very interesting and it really made me want to try immediately after reading. The directions in this blog post making solving the cube seem extremely easy, but I have a feeling that if i actually tried, I still would not be able to figure out how to solve the cube. I also find it extremely challenging to think about how someone invented this and made a solution possible. I also found it interesting that there are multiple ways to solve the rubik's cube, I had always thought there was only one way possible to solve the rubiks' cube.
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ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I found it thoroughly comedic when Charlotte mentioned that one way to solve a Rubik's cube is to just simply peel off the colored stickers and move them around. Good thinking, that's resourcefulness if I've ever seen it. That, or just straight up cheating. I found this post very entertaining and I'm still in awe at the fact that a human could solve this thing in 5.25 seconds!! I would be proud of myself for being able to finish the puzzle in like a few hours or something. I also found it both confusing and cool that more intricate strategies produce a faster solution than simpler strategies.
ReplyDeleteWho hasn’t tried to solve a Rubik’s cube? I have tried many times and have never been able to complete one. I usually get to frustrated after a while and give up. After reading Charlotte’s post, I was surprised to know there are so many strategies to solve the puzzle. My personal favorite is peeling the stickers off and putting them in color code to complete the puzzle. Although this is cheating, it is indeed very clever. Personally being unable to solve the Rubik’s cube, it is sometimes very disheartening to see videos of kids completing it in under 15 seconds or while doing crazy things such as being blind folded. Hopefully after reading this post and doing some studying, I will be able to complete the very frustrating puzzle.
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ReplyDeleteThe Rubik's cube is a very popular toy today and even when I was a kid I can relate to this post because I liked to play with them. Although I would get frustrated at the cube and never finished a single one I still thought it was fun. The post made it seem like solving a Rubik's cube was a breeze which really shocked me at first, just like I know it just can't be that simple. If I had a Rubik's cube after reading this post I would have tried it and see if it worked, because I would like for one day to solve a Rubik's cube. Also it is kind of amazing to think about the person that thought of this. I would never be able to think of something that looks so simple but yet sophisticated all at the same time. It was kind of funny to read how it took him a whole month just to solve his own invention, because I feel like we would be the same in how long it would take me to solve the cube.
ReplyDeleteEveryone knows the famous Rubik's Cube puzzle from their young child hood age. I would always try to solve them when I could never get all sides the same and end up in some confusing position with one color not being right on two of the sides. Some of my own friends were able to solve it in less than 30 seconds which was amazing and leave me in awe. I never knew there was a mathematical approach to the Rubik's Cube. This explains why people are able to solve it so fast and why created machines are able to as well. Maybe next time I see a Rubik's Cube in the store ll pick one up and return to this post and find a way to actually solve one for once!
ReplyDeleteFor me this post brings back memories. When I was in seventh grade I noticed a lot of my friends started to carry around Rubik's Cubes with them. Eventually they all learned to solve them so in turn I decided it was time to learn how to solve one. So every day I would spend my study hall trying to learn how to solve it. Through many days of practice and help from friends I was able to memorize the patterns and algorithms. My friends and I would always time ourselves and race each other to see who was better, even though most of the time it dwindled down to sheer luck. The thing I liked about this post is that it follows the same method that I use to solve it.
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