March 2021
World’s #1 puzzle
2021/03/13 16:05 Filed in: Fun projects

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.