As I recall, I never managed to solve a Rubik’s Cube. (Not legitimately anyway.) Not that I dedicated a lot of time to it. I don’t think I ever even owned one. But I’ve noticed the progress of others: doing it faster, doing it behind their back or while juggling, having a robot do it, and then a faster robot. But this one beats everything I’ve ever seen, and I can’t imagine anything faster. On the off chance that you haven’t already seen this, here ’tis:
The Rubik’s Cube was created in 1974 by Ernő Rubik, a now 80-year-old Hungarian architect and inventor. Known worldwide for his Cube, he went on to create Rubik’s Magic and Rubik’s Snake. I don’t remember the Magic at all, but I had several different Snakes. I kept one on my desk at work and played with it in idle moments between deadlines. I remember specifically a green-and-blue one and a brown-and-cream one.
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You are not alone. 🙂
Oh, that’s good to know. Thank you!
I solved it once — after buy a book on how to solve and following the directions in the book — but I solved it, once. Then I lost the book.
I never had a book, just a son who loved to taunt me by quickly solving it while I watched.
I never even knew there were Other Rubik Things !! How did the snake work, Colorado ?
The Snake comes in a ball form (see “ball” in the middle of the bottom row). I suppose the basic challenge is to get it back into the ball shape after you’ve opened it up. I never did that. I just messed around with it, but the link shows a lot of things you (can try to) make with it.
Or click “source” at the bottom of that first page and there are even more ideas.
The progress of technology has been accelerating.
200,000 years ago homo sapiens evolved
10,000 years ago agriculture evolved
7,000 years ago metals discovered
5,000 years ago the wheel
585 years ago the printing press
130 years ago radio
80 years ago TV and the atomic bomb
35 years ago the PC
31 years ago the smart phone
Where will it end? Don’t know, obviously, but it won’t be long I think.
That’s an impressive and eye-opening list. The way time is compressing, there’s no telling what we might see by, say, the end of this year. Who knows, the next big thing may be announced next week. At any rate, I agree; it won’t be long. I imagine AI will greatly accelerate the arrival of things already in development.
my sisters and I all had one but have never solved one. some of my grandchildren have solved them and I still cannot fathom it.
As I recall, you could cheat and rearrage the colored stickers on the cubes so it looked like you had solved it, but of course that ruined the cube. Glad to hear I’m not the only one who couldn’t solve it. My son taunted me with how fast he could do it. He’s in his 50s now and instead of taunting me, he’s my IT support. Time marches on …