What can you expect from a new toy? As if nothing. However, humanity turned out to be so unprepared for a meeting with this trifle that it simply could not resist it. A toy with multi-colored faces, bypassing state borders, with extraordinary ease captured the entire planet and won the minds. The name of this diversion is Rubik's Cube.
Cubic psychosis
42 years ago, Ernö Rubik's cooperative threw an seemingly innocent trifle on the Hungarian market, which in record time became the top among all consumer goods. Although what popular needs could the puzzle satisfy? The age-old rule of the market - demand creates supply! - was defeated. Initially, there was no demand for a toy. Here the supply generated demand. Phenomenal!
Just think for a moment. A little-known architect in 1974 created a puzzle designed for children, and adults, regardless of nationality, religion and political preferences, began to play it, forgetting about gender and age differences.
Only in 1977 - the first year of its appearance on the market - every eighth inhabitant of the world acquired a Rubik's cube! It was like a global psychosis. Hundreds of thousands of earthlings in different parts of the planet zealously and completely voluntarily creaked into cubes in the hope of bringing the matter to the end - collecting all the colored faces.
Logic toy
Promotional video:
So, on January 30, 1975, the Hungarian designer, planner and teacher of architecture Ernö Rubik patented his invention under the name "Spatial logic toy". The patent office looked at Rubik sympathetically: another "mad professor." Who needs such a weird thing? Nevertheless, the document was issued to Rubik quickly. And soon the first batch of cubes went on sale. They began to buy them out of curiosity: they are not very expensive, they are outwardly unusual, plus the original design and pleasant colors. Nothing foreshadowed a boom, but just a couple of weeks later, a multi-colored toy began to be asked in stores. According to Rubik himself, people liked the beauty, simplicity and form.
Humanity, first with interest, then with concern, and then furiously, began to spin the cube in search of an algorithm for assembling colored faces. The boom started. No wonder already in 1982 - the peak in sales - the cube was equated with the "distribution of drugs". The cube was everywhere: in transport, at school and at work, at home and at a party, on vacation. “We are spinning the cube, and the cube is spinning us…” - Ernö Rubik noted then.
Revenues from the sale of the puzzle at times exceeded the same indicator from the sale of the Barbie doll. By 1980, it had sold about 200 million copies. The cube brought huge profits to its creator: the Budapest architect became the first dollar millionaire of the socialist camp.
Tutorial model
Ernö Rubik began his triumphant ascent to fame and fortune, as is often the case, by accident. He worked quietly at the Faculty of Architecture at the Budapest Technical University. And he attended to the development of a fundamentally new housing design. At the same time, I racked my brains over how to clearly and clearly convey to students the basics of 3D geometry, stereometry and strength of materials. In architecture and sculpture, materials experience loads both in the plane and in the volume in a complex combination. What tutorial can simultaneously illustrate the metamorphosis of an object in two-dimensional and three-dimensional space? None. It was then that Ernö Rubik created the layout of the rotating abstract construction. He collected 26 small cubes together, but dynamically - with a huge number of degrees of freedom and mutual combinations. At the same time, Rubik tried to play with the model and realized that it was extremely difficult to assemble it back to its original state. It took him over a month to do it. After all, the number of possible combinations is 43252003274489856000, or more than 43 quintillion moves!
Who is faster?
Rubik threw a bomb into the outside world. And how much! To date, according to official statistics, about a billion classic Rubik's cubes have been sold worldwide. No other toy in the world had such popularity.
The excitement of the 1980s is hard to describe. Not only did people creak with cubes and brains. Puzzle clubs and professional leagues began to multiply like mushrooms. And all this is around a piece of plastic that costs about $ 12!
The year 1982 burst out. The first world championship in cube assembly took place in Budapest. The winner was Vietnamese American Min Tai, who completed the puzzle in 22.95 seconds, while Rubik's compatriot Zoltan Labas finished third with 24.29 seconds. Then it was a sensation! However, these achievements are no match for today's record set in 2017 by Australian Felix Zemdegs, who completed the puzzle in 4.22 seconds.
The optimal algorithm of the computer solution is known today - 20 movements. Min Tai played 30 more moves in his time …
Rubik's museums
The Rubik's Cube and the ideas of its author constantly inspire many artists, sculptors, designers and architects for unusual and daring projects. The Museum, the Rubik's Cube Exhibition Space and the Rubik Science Center in Budapest should become an unconditional masterpiece of architecture and design. In March 2012, the start of construction of a unique art object was announced. It is planned that the museum and center should showcase the 1,100-year history of the development of Hungarian intellectual activity. The laying of the first stone in 2014 was timed to coincide with the 40th anniversary of the cube and the 70th anniversary of Ernö Rubik. More than a billion forints have already been spent on the construction of the grandiose facility, but the opening planned for 2017 has not yet taken place …
Sergey GOLUBEV