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Bob Burton (born Robert Russell Burton Jr.; February 21, 1985) is an American speedcuber, most famous for competing in and organizing competitions all over the world and his former world records on the Rubik's Magic and Rubik's Master Magic.
Bob Burton grew up in Kearny, New Jersey. He graduated from Kearny High School in 2003. He studied mathematics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey and graduated in May 2007. [ citation needed ] He rowed for the Rutgers Lightweight Crew team and was the president and founder of the Rutgers University Rubik's Cube Club. [1] On March 14, 2015, Bob married Jaclyn Sawler in the Beyond Rubik's Cube exhibit at Liberty Science Center. [2] He currently teaches high school mathematics in New York City. [ citation needed ]
Burton began speedsolving with the 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube in May 2001. He was first challenged by some of his friends in an informal competition to see who could solve one side the fastest and was consistently the last to finish, so he bought a Rubik's Cube and began to practice with it. He was able to solve the cube in under a minute within a few months using a simple layer by layer method. He competed in the 2003 Rubik's World Games Championships. [3]
Burton was one of the pioneers of solving the Rubik's Magic in the United States. After learning how to solve the puzzle, he insisted on it being an official event in competitions. Ian Winokur allowed a Rubik's Magic competition at the Horace Mann Spring 2005 tournament, in which Burton broke the American record for single solve (1.56 seconds) and average of five (1.85 seconds). [4] In his next competition, Burton also insisted on allowing the Rubik's Master Magic to be an event. Tyson Mao agreed, so in the Caltech Summer 2005 tournament, Burton set the single solve world record for the Rubik's Magic (1.28 seconds) and the single solve (3.05 seconds) and average of five (3.54 seconds) world records for the Rubik's Master Magic. [5] At the Trumbull Spring 2006 tournament, Burton also broke the world record for Rubik's Magic average (1.40 seconds). [6] He was the national champion in 2006 for the Rubik's Magic and the Rubik's Master Magic. [7]
At the 2005 Dutch Open Championship, Burton set the American record for the Rubik's Clock for single solve (24.12 seconds) and mean (32.68 seconds). [8]
Burton was the national champion at the 2006 US National Championships in San Francisco for the Square-1. [9] He is also credited with creating a method for the Pyraminx, known as the “Bob Burton Method.” [10]
Burton also practices the art of one-handed cubing, in which the competitor can use only one hand to solve the cube. He was among the best in the world, placing 5th overall (of 61) in the first round of the 2005 Rubik's Cube World Championship. Since then, he has dropped in the rankings, but competes in the one-handed contest nonetheless. [11]
In May 2006, Burton successfully solved the Rubik's Cube blindfolded in an official competition at the Trumbull Spring 2006 tournament in a time of 6 minutes 21.87 seconds. He had failed his first ten attempts before that, dating back to May of the previous year. Burton uses the Pochmann system to solve a cube blindfolded, which solves one piece at a time. [12]
Burton's best official solves: [13]
| Event | Single Solve | Average |
|---|---|---|
| Rubik's Cube | 13.15 | 16.71 |
| 2×2×2 Cube | 1.84 | 6.13 |
| 4×4×4 Cube | 1:27.81 | 1:40.54 |
| 5×5×5 Cube | 3:00.63 | 3:34.55 |
| 6×6×6 Cube | 13:35.00 | n/a |
| 7×7×7 Cube | 18:43.00 | n/a |
| Rubik's Cube: Blindfolded | 3:04.41 | 4:14.35 |
| Rubik's Cube: Fewest Moves | 31 moves | 38.00 |
| Rubik's Cube: One-handed | 25.28 | 31.70 |
| Clock | 11.21 | 13.99 |
| Megaminx | 5:08.22 | 6:21.75 |
| Pyraminx | 7.63 | 13.33 |
| Skewb | 12.76 | 19.73 |
| Square-1 | 54.38 | 1:15.42 |
| Rubik's Magic | 1.17 | 1.29 |
| Rubik's Master Magic | 2.90 | 3.15 |
The Rubik's Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Pentangle Puzzles in the UK in 1978, and then by Ideal Toy Corp in 1980 via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer. The cube was released internationally in 1980 and became one of the most recognized icons in popular culture. It won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of March 2021, over 450 million cubes had been sold worldwide, making it the world's bestselling puzzle game and bestselling toy. The Rubik's Cube was inducted into the US National Toy Hall of Fame in 2014.
The Rubik's Revenge is a 4×4×4 version of the Rubik's Cube. It was released in 1981. Invented by Péter Sebestény, the cube was nearly called the Sebestény Cube until a somewhat last-minute decision changed the puzzle's name to attract fans of the original Rubik's Cube. Unlike the original puzzle, it has no fixed faces: the center faces are free to move to different positions.
The Pocket Cube is a 2×2×2 version of the Rubik's Cube. The cube consists of 8 pieces, all corners.
Minh Thai is a Vietnamese-American speedcuber. As a sixteen-year-old Eagles Rock High School student from Los Angeles, he won the first world championship on June 5, 1982 in Budapest by solving a Rubik's Cube in 22.95 seconds. He is also the author of the book The Winning Solution (1982), a guide to solving the cube. Later, Ortega Corners-First Solution Method for Rubik's Cube was based on Minh Thai's Winning Solution.
Speedcubing is a competitive sport that involves solving a variety of combination puzzles, the most well-known of which is the 3x3x3 puzzle, as quickly as possible. A person who competitively solves combination puzzles is called a speedcuber, or simply a cuber. To solve most puzzles, one must perform algorithms in a specific order.
The Professor's Cube is a 5×5×5 version of the original Rubik's Cube. It has qualities in common with both the 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube and the 4×4×4 Rubik's Revenge, and solution strategies for both can be applied.
The World Cube Association (WCA) is the worldwide non-profit organization that regulates and holds competitions for mechanical puzzles that are operated by twisting groups of pieces, commonly known as twisty puzzles. The most famous of those puzzles is the Rubik's Cube. The WCA was founded by Ron van Bruchem of the Netherlands and Tyson Mao of the United States in 2004. The goal of the World Cube Association is to have "more competitions in more countries with more people and more fun, under fair conditions." In 2017, they started work to become a non-profit organization and on November 20, 2017, the state of California accepted the initial registration of the World Cube Association.
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Leyan Andrew Lo held the world record of 11.13 seconds for the fastest Rubik's Cube solve until Toby Mao in 2006 had a solve of 10.48 at the U.S. nationals competition in San Francisco. Leyan appeared on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, where he solved a Rubik's Cube in 18.9 seconds. He also holds the former world record for the fastest blindfolded Rubik's Cube solve, at 1:28.82.
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The Simple Solution to Rubik's Cube by James G. Nourse is a book that was published in 1981. The book explains how to solve the Rubik's Cube. The book became the best-selling book of 1981, selling 6,680,000 copies that year. It was the fastest-selling title in the 36-year history of Bantam Books.
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