A Twisty Puzzles blog (mostly the Rubik's Cube): The Rubik's Cube

Picture of a Rubik's Cube
Source:http://i5.photobucket.com/albums/y193/Lloyd1337-2/rubikscubesolved.jpg

The Rubik's Cube is a puzzle invented by Hungarian professor Ernő Rubik in 1974. In a Rubik's Cube, there are six faces and each of the six faces is covered by nine stickers, each one of six colors. The six colors are red, blue, white, yellow, orange, and green. In current models sold, green is opposite to blue, red is opposite to orange, yellow is opposite to white.

The internal mechanism in the cube enables each face to turn independently, so it causes it to mix the colors. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to have only one color. There are methods in solving the Rubik's Cube. One of methods, which is the simplest, is the Beginner's Method. Another is the CFOP Method or sometimes called the Fridrich method, which is the one of the most commonly used methods in speedsolving a Rubik's Cube.

Cube Facts

From the Rubik's website, the Rubik’s Cube was invented in 1974 by Ernő Rubik, wherein he wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry. It took him one month before he was able to solve the Cube for himself. There are over 350 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold worldwide,thus making it the bestselling toy of all time. The best speed cubers (people who take part in speed cubing – a sport where competitors try and solve the cube as quickly as possible) can solve the cube in under 6 seconds. Every legal permutation of the Rubik’s Cube can be solved in 20 moves or fewer. The Rubik’s Cube was first called the Magic cube but was renamed in 1980 for its global release. Also, there are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (43 quintillion) ways to scramble a Rubik's Cube.

Records

From Wikipedia, the current world record for single time on a 3×3×3 Rubik's Cube was set by Collin Burns from the United States in April 2015 with a time of 5.25 seconds at the Doylestown Spring 2015 competition. The world record for average time per solve was set by Feliks Zemdegs at the Melbourne Cube Day 2013, with a 6.54 second average solve time. The fastest single time of solving the cube with one hand is 6.88 seconds by Feliks Zemdegs at the Canberra Autumn 2015. The fastest average time of 10.87 seconds was made by Antoine Cantin at the Toronto Spring 2015. Jakub Kipa solved a Rubik's Cube with his feet in 20.57 seconds at the Radomsko Cube Theory 2015. The record for blind solving is held by Marcin Kowalczyk of Poland, who solved a cube blindfolded in 21.17 seconds (including memorization) at PLS Szczecin 2014. The record for multiple blindfold solving is held by Marcin Kowalczyk of Poland, who successfully solved 41 of 41 cubes blindfolded at the SLS Swierklany 2013. Tomoaki Okayama (岡山友昭) of Japan holds the record of 20 moves set at the 2012 Czech Open in the fewest moves solving category. Kenneth Brandon has solved the 17×17×17 "Rubik's Cube" or the "Over the Top" Cube, which is the largest order Rubik's magic cube that is invented by Oskar van Deventer, for 7.5 hours, and he posted the whole solve on YouTube.

Variations

There are different variations to a Rubik's Cube with up to seventeen layers. The 2-layered variation is called Pocket Cube. The Rubik's branded 4-layered variation is called Rubik's Revenge or Master Cube. The Rubik's branded 5-layered variation is called Professor's Cube. The Rubik's Cube can be modified through modifying the shape or changing the stickers. One example of a shape modification is the Fisher Cube, which is made by Tony Fisher.