Sharjah24 - Reuters: The Bulgarian inventor of the Rubik's Cube on Saturday (November 9) celebrated the 50th anniversary of the creation of his spatial puzzle that became a global craze, sold half a billion units and has 43 quintillion possible combinations.
Erno Rubik, Inventor of the Rubik's Cube : “Our hands partly made us human. Because we were able to create tools and we learned how to use our tools. And in that sense the cube is a tool for thinking. Using the capacity of our mind for thinking, problem solving, understanding situations, understanding space, movement in space and so on and so forth. In the meantime, we’re using our hands – there’s a very strong connection between the mind and the fingers.”
The spatial puzzle was initially designed as a teaching aid for mathematics
Surrounded by world cube champions, influencers and fans, Rubik said he felt the cube would be as relevant in the 21st century as it was when he first designed it in Cold War-era Hungary in 1974.
A lecturer of design at a technical university in Budapest, he used his cube as a teaching aid for mathematics.
Struck by its popularity with students, Rubik patented it and it entered the global market at the end of the decade, becoming a worldwide craze in the 1980s. More than 500 million units have since been produced.
The current world record for solving a randomly scrambled cube is just over three seconds, held by Max Park. There are just over 43 quintillion possible combinations and orientations for the 26 different components. The exact number of permutations is: 43,252,003,274,489,856,000, it’s makers say.
For an optimal experience, please
