1974: Ernö Rubik—a professor from Budapest in Hungary—wanted to help his students understand 3D problems. His solution? The Rubik’s Cube! Ernö created the first working prototype in 1974. With 8 corner blocks and 12 edge blocks, 8!×12!×38×212 different positions are possible. However, it is not possible to achieve every situation by twists:

• Turns of corner blocks can only be done with at least two blocks at the same time
• Side blocks can only be rotated with at least two blocks at the same time
• Movements can only be made with three blocks at a time

Due to these limitations, the above value must still be divided by 2×2×3=12. Result: 43 252 003 274 489 856 000 (more than 43 trillion) in different positions. Only one of them is the right solution!

1982: The Museum of Modern Art in NYC selects Rubik’s Cube for its permanent collection.

2017: Rubik’s Brand enjoys a record year with retail sales reaching $250 million.

2021: For the trainspotters: as a big fan of this legendary puzzle (I solved it!) with its iconic design I have added a favicon of it to this site.

Tags: Square, Bitmap, Grid