“If you are curious, you’ll find the puzzles around you. If you are determined, you will solve them.”
Erno Rubik
40 years ago today, the colorful puzzle known as the Rubik’s Cube was invented. The Rubik’s Cube is named for its inventor, the Hungarian sculptor and architecture professor Ernő Rubik. It was originally patented in Hungary as the “Magic Cube.” The cubes were first sold in toy shops in Hungary in 1977, and worldwide in 1980.
The Rubik’s Cube is a fun way to explore numbers. The original Rubik's Cube is 3x3x3, it has eight corners and twelve edges. There are 40,320 ways to arrange the corner cubes, and that is just the corner cubes! In all, there are about 43 quintillion starting points. Dutch teenager Mats Valk is the current world record holder for the fastest solving of the puzzle at 5.55 seconds (see video above)
Your students can play with an online version of the Groovix Cube on display in Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J as part of their “Beyond Rubik’s Cube” exhibition. You can teach your students more about different sizes of cubes with my second-grade level L reader reader Cubes - Alike or Different. It is a great option to combine reading, language, and math skills!
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