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Thirty-five years after inventing the mind-boggling FOR those who like to unravel puzzles, the Rubik’s Cube has posed an intense challenge for over three decades. In 1977 when Erno Rubik, a Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture, first introduced the Magic Cube (as it was then called), it mesmerised the world completely. People of all age groups began pitting themselves against this brainteaser that not just stretched their logic skills but was also a supreme test of patience.
It is a testimony to its enduring appeal that the Rubik’s Cube has sold over 350 million pieces over the past 35 years. Thousands of articles have been written about it, it has been discussed on TV shows, has created its own competitions and championships and it even has a cartoon series dedicated to it. People who have solved the cube are treated like heroes and a handful of those who can crack it blind-folded have achieved instant stardom. Though it has spawned many imitations, the Rubik’s Cube remains the singular toy that has tantalised generations with its mind-boggling permutations and combinations. It earned a place as a permanent exhibit in New York’s Museum of Modern Art and entered the Oxford English Dictionary. In many Western countries the cube can be found on restaurant tables along with salt and cellar. Even an ailment has been named after it as many people have suffered from the Rubik Wrist from long hours of working on the intricacies of the cube. To give an idea of the complexities of the puzzle, there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possibilities of cube solving, which is around 43 quintillion. Though the cube can be solved in 55 moves but to do that one has to master 120 algorithms — a no mean task by any stretch of imagination. Addictive toy When he first invented it, Professor Rubik invited a few friends and students to try and solve what he called a curious phenomenon. Though no one was able to solve it, the cube’s effect was addictive. The person, who held it, did not want to let it go and would make multiple attempts at solving it. Seeing its popularity and its impact on the psyche, Professor Rubik patented it and began looking for finances to manufacture it commercially. The cube debuted in 1977 without any publicity or fanfare. But its word-of-mouth publicity was so strong that it soon became one of the most popular toys ever invented by man. However, over the years an increasing number of people began solving the great puzzle even as they learnt to crack the code and master the cube. Now 35 years after he challenged the intellect with his deceptively simple toy, Prof Rubik has dared the world yet again with another mind-numbing invention — Rubik’s 360. This new toy, too, looks elementary and easy to solve. But once a person starts unravelling it, the fiendish Rubik’s 360 becomes desperately difficult and virtually impossible to crack. "I feel that the 360 is one of the most innovative and exciting puzzles we’ve developed since the cube — adopting elements of my original design, challenging the solver to use skill, dexterity and logic," says Professor Rubik. New challenge Rubik’s 360 basically has six different coloured balls inside a transparent sphere. A player must figure out how to bring out the balls from the inner sphere and put them in their colour-matched slots on the outer sphere by shaking them through a middle sphere that has only two holes. Sounds easy but this is one of the toughest and most frustrating games and even as you feel you have got the balls in their respective slots, gravity sets in and they roll right back from where they came. Those who have seen the new invention say that 360 takes the puzzle theory to another dimension. The concept of the game is simple to grasp, but extremely difficult to solve. Most people addicted to the cube are keenly awaiting the release of Rubik’s 360, scheduled around July 2009. The World Rubik Cube Association in Amsterdam is keenly looking forward to the release. So is world champion British student Joel Gouly, who can solve the Rubik’s Cube blindfolded in under a minute. — NF
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Puzzling
permutations
