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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 Ideal Toy Corp. in 1980 via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer. Rubik's Cube won the 1980 German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle. As of January 2009, 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide, making it the world's bestselling puzzle game and bestselling toy.
The Rubik's Revenge is a 4×4×4 version of Rubik's Cube. It was released in 1981. Invented by Péter Sebestény, the Rubik's Revenge 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 facets: the centre facets are free to move to different positions.
The Pocket Cube is the 2×2×2 equivalent of a Rubik's Cube. The cube consists of 8 pieces, all corners.
Minh Thai is a Vietnamese-American speedcuber. He was a sixteen-year-old Eagles Rock High School student from Los Angeles when 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 is based on Minh Thai's Winning Solution.
Speedcubing is a sport involving solving a variety of combination puzzles, the most famous being the 3x3x3 puzzle or Rubik's Cube, as quickly as possible. For most puzzles, solving involves performing a series of moves that alters a scrambled puzzle into a solved state, in which every face of the puzzle is a single, solid color. Some puzzles have different requirements to be considered solved, such as the Clock, for which all the dials must be moved to the 12 'o clock position. The standard cubic puzzle sizes are 2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4, 5x5x5, 6x6x6, and 7x7x7 and the different variations of speed solving, 3x3x3 one handed, 3x3x3 blindfolded, 4x4x4 blindfolded and 5x5x5 blindfolded. There are also different shapes of the famous puzzles, including Pyraminx, Megaminx, Skewb and Square-1. An individual who practices solving twisty puzzles is known as a speedcuber, or a cuber.
The Professor's Cube is a 3-D combination puzzle, 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 Professor's Cube.
The Pyraminx is a regular tetrahedron puzzle in the style of Rubik's Cube. It was made and patented by Uwe Mèffert after the original 3 layered Rubik's Cube by Ernő Rubik, and introduced by Tomy Toys of Japan in 1981.
Rubik's Clock is a mechanical puzzle invented and patented by Christopher C. Wiggs and Christopher J. Taylor. The Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik bought the patent from them to market the product under his name. It was first marketed in 1988.
The Square-1, also known as Back to Square One and Cube 21, is a puzzle similar to the Rubik's Cube. Its distinguishing feature among the numerous Rubik's Cube variants is that it can change shape as it is twisted, due to the way it is cut, thus adding an extra level of challenge and difficulty. The Super Square One and Square Two puzzles have also been introduced. The Super Square One has two additional layers that can be scrambled and solved independently of the rest of the puzzle, and the Square Two has extra cuts made to the top and bottom layer, making the edge and corner wedges the same size.
Lars Erik Petrus is an accomplished speedcuber.
The CFOP method, sometimes known as the Fridrich method, is one of the most commonly used methods in speedsolving a 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube. This method was first developed in the early 1980s combining innovations by a number of speed cubers. Czech speedcuber and the namesake of the method Jessica Fridrich is generally credited for popularizing it by publishing it online in 1997.
Tyson Mao is an American Rubik's Cube speedsolver. He is a co-founder and a former board member of the World Cube Association, an organization that holds competitive events for the Rubik's Cube. In 2005, he set the world record for 3x3x3 blindfolded. In 2006, he appeared on the CW Television Network's Beauty and the Geek as one of the participants of the second incarnation of the reality television show.
Bob Burton 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.
Christopher Michael Hardwick is an American competitive speedcuber.
Eric Limeback is a Canadian speedcuber. He is known for his 11/11 3x3x3 multiblindfold Canadian record solve, as well as his standard 3x3x3 blindfolded solving. Limeback was the first Canadian to record a sub-30 second official 3x3x3 blindfolded solve. Limeback began solving the Rubik's Cube in 9th grade. He graduated from Marc Garneau Collegiate Institute in 2010. He formerly held the Guinness World Record for the most 3x3x3 cubes solved in 24 hours, 5800, set from 3–4 October 2013 at Wilfrid Laurier University, Canada.
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.
RuBot II is a Rubik's Cube solving robot developed by Irish roboticist and inventor Pete Redmond. RuBot II was formerly the world's fastest Rubik's Cube-solving robot, and appeared as such in the 2010 Guinness Book of World Records, although its best time has since been well surpassed by a robot called Ruby built at Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, Australia in 2011.
Feliks Aleksanders Zemdegs is an Australian Rubik's Cube speedsolver. He is the only speedcuber ever to win the World Cube Association World Championship twice, winning in 2013 and 2015, and has set more than 100 world records across various speedcubing events. He is often considered the greatest speedsolver of all time.
The Layer by Layer method, also known as the Beginners method is a method of solving the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube. Many beginners' methods use this approach, and it also forms the basis of the CFOP speedcubing technique.
Krishnam Raju Gadiraju is an accomplished Indian speedcuber and unicyclist. He is a six-time world record holder and the first Indian to ever set a world record in speedcubing and unicycling.
References
- Man solves Rubik’s Cube in 11.13 seconds Associated Press NBC News Updated: 11:48 a.m. ET Jan 15, 2006
- Leyan Lo's website: http://www.leyanlo.com/
