Erno Rubik Explains the Success of His Cube

Erno Rubik Explains the Success of His Cube

flickr / thebetaphase.com

May 9, 2012 10:05 AM Text Size: A . A . A

The exhibition about the Cubeâ€"it’s an idea that started a few years ago . . . Liberty Science Center will organize an exhibition here. They’ll have it for a few months, and then after that we would like to have a traveling exhibition around the world for about six years.

It’s about the Cube, and why and how it was capable [of becoming] the most popular toy in historyâ€"the best-selling toy ever. It’s really popular all around the world; it became a global phenomenon.

Not any of it. I was interested in 3-dimensional constructions in space. I was lecturing design at that time, and I was searching for good examples of 3D constructions . . . to introduce to my pupils. The Cube was one of the results of this research. When I made my prototypes and I was playing with it, I discovered the potential and the difficulties of the solution. So I got the idea, why not make it available to the public.

The construction of the Cube is very simple. It’s really a cheap item in the shop. That’s probably helped to sell hundreds of millions all around the world.

My main profession is architect. So I was used to this kind of thinking and problems. What I was searching [for] was the simplest elements in space to demonstrate the possibility of simple structures. And the Cube proved those possibilities.

The Cube as a structure is very simple. It contains a [small] number of elementsâ€"only 27 small cubes put together, and the combination is tremendous. It’s an astronomical numberâ€"by the capability of human minds, it’s an endless number. So that’s a contradiction, and that gives you surprising effects when you are trying to solve it and play with it. You are not expecting such a difficult task the first time you handle it and try to discover what it is.

It’s symbolic of the capability of human beingsâ€"our sensibility of challenges. To me, the challenge is difficult to solve, but after, if you are capable of doing it, it’s a very emotional feeling.

The Cube is a systemâ€"a closed system. And it’s a way of thinking about the world of one unit. The Cube teaches you it’s not possible to solve something in advance. You need to think about much more complex [patterns]. The Cube is, at the same time, a symbol of simplicity and complexity.

There are many different kinds of people with different capabilities. To solve the Cube, you need special skills and understanding. For example, pattern recognition is very important to solve the Cube. Memory is importantâ€"you need to learn and to understand the positions. You need to memorize a few algorithms and steps you need to follow to discover which one is actually necessary. So not all people can do it easily.

But we are working to teach peopleâ€"[and] the Net is very useful for this. When the Cube was introduced, it was very difficult to find out how to solve it. But right now, today, there is a huge community on the Net. People exchange ideas; you can find many video s on YouTube [that show] how to do it. It’s in the classroomâ€"we are organizing "you can do the Cube" programs to organize competitions between schools.

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