|
Erno Rubik has a lot to answer for! Professor Rubik was an
Architecture Professor at the Budapest School of Commercial Art in
Hungary. Now, however, he is far better known as the father of the
Rubik's Cube.
Rubik originally designed the small puzzle as a way of teaching
his students about three dimensional objects. He patented it in 1975
and began marketing it throughout Europe and the USA. When toy
manufacturer Ideal contracted it in the US, sales skyrocketed, and
in 1980 it sold more than 4.5 million units.
The cube was split into three rows and three columns, each of
them able to rotate through 360 degrees. Each side of the cube was a
distinct colour but when the cubes rows and columns were twisted or
rotated, the colours moved to other sides. The object of the game
was to twist and rotate the cube until it was a multicoloured mess
and then try and figure out a way to return it to its original
state. No mean feat, since there were more than
43,252,003,274,489,856,000 possible positions into which the cube
could be manipulated!
For many, the simplest solution was to peel each sticker off
one-by-one! It was a messy job and often ended in disaster because
the coloured squares refused to stick back on. It did make it easier
to solve though, as it was now completely black.
The cube sold over 300 million worldwide but Herr Rubik was not
satisfied - he tried to introduce the Rubik Snake and a multitude of
mathematical problem solving games. Several sequel puzzles and many
solution and hint books rapidly appeared on the market. Many of the
books became the biggest sellers ever for their publishing houses.
|
