Rubik--The Miraculous Cube

                                     Rubik -    The Miraculous Cube

            We have seen this cute tiny cube in toy shop. We have brought this cube out of curiosity and all of us are attracted by its simple appearance and color . In fact, it is one of the interesting hobbies among  youngsters.

	. Life if full of twists and turns you know,  exactly each side has same color and the  challenge is you have to solve the cube   with twists and turn and get back  to the same color

 

                                                                                                 

Most of us have tried to solve the cube, but at the end we get frustrated and become unsuccessful. But why people love it and why it is a miraculous cube !!!!!!!!.                          

                                 

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Here is the answer, initially it has the name magic cube, but later it is called as speed cube and Puzzle cube. It was the Hungarian Puzzler’s creator Erno Rubik, Professor of Architecture well known for invention of mechanical puzzles invented this cube. 

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Erno Rubik

                                        

But then he struggled nearly a month to solve this cube. In 1980, this cube made its first international appearance in toy fair across the world. In order to honor the inventor, the name was changed as Rubik’s cube, from then it became popular among the toy world. In 1981, this cube has won the UK Toy of the Year and best game of the year award.

It is a mind game, anyone be it at any age can solve this easily. But one must know the logic behind it. It has a simple code word such as front F, Right R, Up U, Left L and Down D. The rotation of clockwise directions is FRULD and the anticlockwise direction is F’R’U’L’D’. Though there are several methods available to solve the cube, the logic behind is simple and same. CFOP (Cross, First layer, Orientation and Permutation) is one of the Friedrich popular methods to solve this cube. Those who love puzzle solving will find it interesting and challenging.

How to solve

                             

                         Step 1: In Top or first layer make white cross (C)

Step 2: Solve white corners in First layer (F)

Step 3: Solve the middle layer by orienting (O) the yellow in edges

Step 4:  Solve the final or bottom layer by permuting (P) yellow cross and  

              to corners, finally

 Step 5: Position the yellow edges

                                                

            Increases spatial intelligence

             Promotes problem solving skills

             Enhances  Logical thinking, Memory power and Critical thinking.

            Develops intellectual skills and

             Prevents joint degeneration at older age

 

Different types

1.      2x2:   It is the pocket cube or mini cube with just two layers. It looks simple but there are more than 3.6 million possible combinations, available to solve. Can you imagine!!!!!!!!

                                                               

2.      3x3: This is the original classic Rubik’s cube. It has 6 faces, 6 colors with 9 cubes on each side white, red, blue, orange, green and yellow. Later the cubes have been updated with slight changes in color.                 

                                                                   

3.      4x4 and 5x5: The 4x4 cube is called as Master’s cube. This cube has 24 centers, 24 edges and 8 corners. It was created by Sebesteny Peter. The 5x5 cube is called as Professor’s cube and was invented by UdoKrell. These cubes consist of both fixed and movable centerpieces.

   6x6 and 7x7: This cube was invented by Panagiotis Verdes. The only way to solve this puzzle is to first identify correct positions of all the colors and then applying the 3x3 cube algorithm.

 

                                  7x7 cube has 218 smaller cubes and are attached to 6 internal frames

Apart from this, there are 8x8 till 13x13 cubes available in the market but are considered to be more complex cubes.

       Mirror cube:  As the name specifies, this cube is colorless. Each cube has different sizes that form different structures. The challenge here is that you have to solve the correct size and not the color.                       

                                                                                                                 

Pyraminx: It is also called as triangle Rubik’s cube. This is a regular tetrahedron shaped 3 layer puzzle which has 4 triangles together and 9 smaller identical triangles in each face. Uwe Meffert invented Pyraminx and many other puzzles in early 1971. But only after the success of Rubik’s cube in 1981 he got patent for his invention.

                

                 Pyraminx is one of the second largest selling

                toys in the world next to Rubik’s cube

       Junior Pyraminx or Pyramorphix: It looks exactly Pyraminx, but the specialty of the puzzle is the four corners of the cube is reshaped into pyramids and the other four  reshaped into triangles.                                       

                                                                       

8.      Master morphix: It is the modification of 3x3x3 Rubik’s cube and more complex variant of Pyramorphix which is tetrahedral in shape. It has 4 corner pieces, 4 face centers, 6 edges and 12 non center pieces                       

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9.      Skewb: This cube was invented by Tony Durham. It looks like Rubik’s cube but differs in the construction. This is the modification of Pyraminx and it has 8 corners and 6 square center pieces. The axes of rotation in this cube is slight different  ie, rotation is  through corners of the cube and not on the center of the faces.

                                                                                      

                              

           

10.  Megaminx: It is made up of dodecahedron which has 12 faces, 20 corner pieces and 30 edges. The challenge here is that you have to scramble the colors and arrange it to  one color per face                                     

                                                                                                                                

                                                                                                                                    

There are lots and lots of cube available today such as Soma cube, Axis cube, Square one cube, Windmill cube, Clock cube, Gear cube, Poly cube and the list goes on…but the seed is Rubik Cube.

To identify best puzzle solver number of competitions has been conducted worldwide every year by (WCA)

            

Fastest Rubik Cube solver:  Yusheng Du, is the fastest cube solver to solve the cube in 3.47sec and it is the current record.

Youngest Rubik Cube solver: Niah Sanjith three-year-old from Alappuzha is the youngest cuber in the world to solve three types of Rubik's cube puzzles.

World Guniness Record: Baby Sarah six-year girl, from Chennai set a Guinness World Record by solving Rubik's cube puzzle blindfolded in just 2 minutes.

    There are many achievers  across the world and the list continues 

 Some requires one week practice and some one month that depends upon one's interest and training.

       

WE all know that hobby is the best stress buster, but I say cube is the best hobby. Solving the cube can you become smarter, the answer  is

                   

                                   Next time if you happen to see this toy in the  shop, 

                            don't forget to buy this miraculous cube.