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Erno Rubik
Who is Erno
Rubik? Erno Rubik was the inventor of the world famous Rubik's cube, also spelled rubix cube. Due to Sam Loyd's invention of the Puzzle of 15, Erno Rubik was able to conceptualize the idea behind a three dimensional variation of the sliding tile game using colored squares. Erno Rubik was born in Budapest, Hungary during World War II to a poet mother and aircraft engineer father. Rubik started his career by studying sculpture and architecture. After graduating he taught interior design at the Academy of Applied Arts and Design. It was here where he got an urge to design a cube with independently moving parts.
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"The problems
of puzzles are very near the problems of life, our whole life
is solving puzzles. If you are hungry, you have to find something
to eat. But everyday problems are very mixed - they're not clear.
The Cube's problem depends just on you. You can solve it independently.
But to find happiness in life, you're not independent. That's
the only big difference."
Erno Rubik |
How to solve Rubik's puzzle:
After creating the Rubik's cube Erno became very frustrated because he could not figure out how to get the cube back into the correct arrangement. He theorized that by randomly twisting the Cube he would never be able to fix it in a lifetime, which actually turns out to be more than correct. After analyzing the problem more as a mathematical puzzle he began working out a solution. Rubik started by aligning the eight corner cubies. He discovered certain sequences of moves for rearranging just a few cubies at a time. Within a month, he had the puzzle solved and an amazing journey lay ahead.
Rubik's Cube hits the Market
Rubik applied for a Hungarian patent in 1975 and left his invention with a small toy making cooperative in Budapest. The patent approval finally came in early 1977 and the first Cubes appeared at the end of 1977. Rubik had trouble distributing the product in Europe at first, but after the Ideal Toy Corporation made him an offer to buy 1 million units sales began to soar. The Rubik's Cube, known at its conception as the Magic Cube became a worldwide phenomenon in the 80's. Erno Rubik became the first self made millionaire from the communist block.
Rubik's Cube Explosion
As sales soared, many people formed clubs and groups based on the new puzzle toy concept. Rubik's Cube fans called themselves 'Cubic Rubes' who studied and shared solutions with each other. In fact, people became so obsessed with solving the cube that competitions were held to see who could solve the puzzle the fastest. In 1982 Minh Thai, a sixteen year old high school student from Los Angeles, won the the world championship in Budapest by unscrambling the cube in 22.95 seconds. Now-a-days some people claim to be able to solve the puzzle in ten seconds or less. However no one has solved the puzzle in less than fifty two moves, although it is postulated it could be done in about twenty two.
Erno Rubik Today
Rubik has established a foundation to help promising inventors in Hungary. He also runs the Rubik Studio, which employs a dozen people to design furniture and toys. Rubik has produced several other toys, including Rubik's Snake . He has plans to start designing computer games and continues to develop his theories on geometric structures. Rubik's Cube is now being distributed by Seven Towns.
Influences of Sam Loyd
Sam Loyd's research and knowledge of mathematical puzzles greatly influence
Erno Rubik. Without Loyd's foundation in this puzzle genre it is fair to
say that Rubik would not have created the Rubik's cube. The Puzzle of 15
was a ground breaking game concept that influenced many logic puzzles like
the Rubik's cube.
To read more about the Puzzle of 15 and download a version for your Pocket PC PDA, please click here.
Related topics:
Sam
Loyd
Puzzle
of 15