Rubik’s Cubes provide puzzlement

Lucy Li, Managing Editor/Online Editor in Chief|February 20, 2014

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Lucy Li

Sophomore Joel Tibbetts holds his completed Rubik’s Cube. Tibbetts saw Rubik’s cube gain popularity around the later years of Middle School. “They’re fun to do over and over because you get a different challenge every time,“ Tibbetts said.

In a dark corner of the auditorium at the Minnesota State High School Mathematics League’s state tournament last year, a news reporter spent around ten minutes quietly interviewing a student in the audience. The reporter was as fascinated by the Rubik’s Cube in the boy’s hand as much as she was by the Math Bowl about to happen on stage, and convinced the boy to try to solve the puzzle in front of her cameraman. No matter the occasion or event, Rubik’s Cubes draw the attention of many.

“…It makes you look smart,” junior Daniela Tiedemann said. Tiedemann learned how to solve a Rubik’s Cube at Japanese camp a couple years ago.

Sophomore Joel Tibbetts saw their popularity peak around the later years of Middle School. “I do know that quite a few other people learned how to solve them when I brought them to school,” he said, “and they turned into a big thing for a little while.”

As if a 3x3x3 arrangement wasn’t enough, today’s variations of the Rubik’s Cube can have spinning dials, 7 squares per side (also called the V-Cube 7), triangular faces that form an icosahedron, or even more than 3 dimensions (via a computerized simulator).

The Rubik’s Cube was invented in 1974 by a Hungarian named Ernő Rubik. “I believe probably the most characteristic part of the cube is the contradiction between simplicity and complexity,” Rubik said, according to CNN. “I think probably that’s part of the key to the success of the cube — you are able to have a connection with this order and chaos.”

“It looks complicated and difficult to understand but once you figure it out, it’s very easy,” Tiedemann said.

Tibbetts has been able to solve a Rubik’s Cube in 40 seconds. “Anyone can really learn to do them,” he said. “They’re fun to do over and over because you get a different challenge every time…”

Upper and lowercase letters that represent the different layers and faces of the cube can be used to spell out move sequences. “If someone knows the notation, they can translate it into an algorithm pretty easily,” Tibbetts said.

Still, mastering the puzzle has its challenges. Sometimes one must undo previous progress in order to move cubes to their correct spots. “The problem that people have with Rubik’s Cubes is [that] to solve it, you have to mess it up,” Tiedemann said.