Solving a Rubik’s cube is too easy.
Solving a Rubik’s cube blindfolded gets interesting, but I need something more.
What if I solve it blindfolded with my feet?
Timothy Goh
Something like that must have been what this cuber thought. He says that it took him 100 attempts to solve the cube. Keep in mind that when solving the cube blindly, any wrong move will cause us not to solve the cube. And with the feet… it is not easy to be so precise.
The Chinese Que Jianyu has managed to beat his own world record in solving 3 Rubik’s cubes while juggling them. You can see in the video how he is solving one by one making movements in the short time he has them in his hands. Slow motion is necessary to see what is happening.
A few weeks ago I received a book entitled ‘Andres and His Rubik’s Cube Madness’. It is a children’s book about the story of a boy (Andres) who discovers the Rubik’s Cube thanks to a neighbor. The book tells a story of overcoming and perseverance in which many of us will be represented. The book is designed for children from 4 to 8 years old, as it does not have much text but many drawings (very nice). However, I believe that older children can also enjoy it as they feel more identified with the main character in his early days of the Rubik’s Cube. I leave you some photos of the book so that you can check the quality of its drawings:
If you’re interested, you can buy the book on Amazon.com.
Gary Yost has sent me this short piece about how his 17yr-old filmmaking intern found true love through Cubing. It’s a sweet and inspiring piece.
Do you like it? Express your opinion in the comments.
This is so impossible! Christ, I feel so stupid and useless!
Professor Rubik 5 minutes after having invented the Rubik’s Cube
Created by Wumo
Mario, from DIYgiveaways, has written to tell me that he has created some headphones to listen music shaped as a Rubik’s Cube. I love them!
It’s a shame not to be very skilled to create my own. But if you are, you can build your own Rubik’s Cube headphones followings the indications of this video:
If you like this kind of DIY (Do It Yourself) construction, you can subscribe to his YouTube channel.
A Rubik’s Cube has 3 pieces wide, so it is called 3×3 Rubik’s Cube. The Rubik’s Cube record is only 5.55 seconds. There are other well-known cubes with more pieces per side as 4×4 and 5×5 cubes. The number of parts and the number of moves needed to solve them increase, also increasing the number of seconds required to solve them (22 and 48 seconds, respectively).
A few years ago they managed to create the first 6×6 and 7×7 Rubik’s cubes. And some time later they became official categories in Rubik’s Cube competitions. Their records are 1:40 and 2:38, respectively.
All these cubes are small, even tiny, compared with 17×17 Rubik’s Cube, the most complicated Rubik’s cube in the world. With 1734 stickers, it is not easy to solve. However, Kenneth Brandon has been able to solve it in 7 and a half hours!!
You can watch the full video (nearly eight hours duration).
Rubik’s Cube is one of the most popular puzzles in the world because of its apparent simplicity, but also because of the great complexity it hides. It is a small cube of colors with a clear objective: “a single color in each face”. It is so simple that anyone can try.
However, after a while with a Rubik’s cube in your hands, you realize that it is something much more complex. One of the ways that we can understand its complexity is by calculating the number of possible combinations of a Rubik’s cube. That is, the number of different ways you can place the pieces.
In total, a Rubik’s cube has 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible combinations. This is a huge number. Although we are so used to seeing large numbers that we are not aware of how big it is. To understand it better, I have created an infographic in which I compare the number of possible combinations of a Rubik’s cube with the number of seconds the universe has since the Big Bang:
Hope you like it and it has helped you to understand better the true magnitude of the number of combinations of a Rubik’s Cube.
By the way, we have to divide the number of combinations Rubik Cube into 12 because it is impossible to perform several operations:
With all these combinations… are you still arguing that you once solved the Rubik’s Cube by chance? Better take a look at our Rubik’s Cube solutions and solve it by yourself.
Some days ago Google created a ‘doodle’ about the 40th anniversary of the Rubik’s Cube. It was a 3D Rubik’s Cube that you had to solve!
If you were not able to solve the cube, you have now another opportunity. Good luck!
Remember, if you are not able to solve the Rubik’s Cube by your own, you can take a look to the Rubik’s Cube solutions.