Jersey City, NJ – IT’S a puzzle, a metaphor and a hit toy – and in a couple of years, the Rubik’s Cube will be a museum exhibition in celebration of its 40th anniversary.
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The toy’s creator, Erno Rubik, 67, is being honoured Friday at a gala at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City.
He has travelled from his native Budapest, Hungary, to help develop the exhibit, which will open in April 2014.
The exhibit is scheduled to travel for seven years to design and science museums around the world.
Rubik was an architect teaching a class at the Budapest College of Applied Arts in 1974 when he decided to build a cube to teach students about 3D space. He soon realised it could become a hit toy when students and fellow teachers couldn’t put it down.
It was mass-marketed in the West in 1980 and has been an enduring sales hit, selling more than 500 million all over the world, not counting the counterfeits, according to Rubik.
Rubik insists he “discovered” the cube rather, than invented it.
“In my view it’s part of nature, and it’s not an artificial object; it’s a natural one,” he said.
One feature of the exhibit is a diamond-encrusted version created by Fred Cuellar, the founder of Diamond Cutters International, a company that creates NFL championship rings and other high-profile jewellery.
“My dad puts a Rubik’s Cube into my hand and I remember looking at it and thinking “God, I feel good. I couldn’t explain it,” he said.
Rubik can.
“You can learn it. You can learn it from other people, you can learn it from books, you can learn it from different notes, and explanations on the Internet, but the best is if you find your own solution,” he said.
And I can proudly say that I can complete a Rubiks Cube in under 2 minutes 🙂
True Story.
The man is a genious!
I can proudly say that at age say 10, I was able to solve any rubiks cube on the playground. Sadly, I must report that the technique has been lost to the ages.
MordyS: & you can’t understand how to pay Walmart cash?
stupid toy. we just took the stickers off and put them where they should have been
He invented it, but can he solve it!
Rubic’s cube n goulash
Not a bad combination, what’s the connection here?
Simple! All of it comes out from the land of sola kokosh, and we are proud of it, the simplicity of the cube is in itself its genius, like most things in life, the best food is authentic simple food as any good chef will tell you, some of us always look for mitzvahs above n beyond while failing to properly accomplish the little things laying around in our own back yards which need fixing…loving every jew without getting into hashkafa differences realizing that we are 12 tribes with unique differences that is what we need these days, and that is what keeping it simple is all about yibuna hamikdosh eer tzion t’malei akhor les’ asz mar…..
Working puzzles works your brain, like lifting weights works your muscles. And it’s not muksa, (It’s not, right?) which makes it already better than most toys today.
I learned how to do it when someone taught me
But still amazed that someone figure it out how to do it
Honestly I have completed one successfully,