Rubik’s Cubes
RECORDMANIA
FASTEST ROBOT TO
SOLVE A RUBIK’S CUBE
Built by Albert Beer
(DEU), Sub1 Reloaded
completed a Rubik’s
Cube in 0.637 sec in
Munich, Germany, on
9 Nov 2016. It used two
webcams to capture the
arrangement of all six
sides of the cube, then
employed an algorithm
to devise a solution.
This was passed to a
microcontroller board
that orchestrated
20 moves of six stepper
motors to turn the sides.MOST PEOPLE SOLVING RUBIK’S CUBES
On 4 Nov 2012, the College of Engineering, Pune (COEP) arranged for 3,248 people to try to
solve Rubik’s Cubes simultaneously at an arena in the college grounds in Maharashtra, India.
A total of 3,267 people were brought together to take part in the attempt, although only
3,248 of them completed the Rubik’s Cube within the allotted time of 30 min.There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (43 quintillion) ways to
scramble a Rubik’s Cube. But any 3 x 3 cube can be solved in 20 moves or fewer.FASTEST TIME TO
SOLVE A RUBIK’S CUBE
WHILE JUGGLING
Singapore’s Teo Kai
Xiang simultaneously
juggled two balls and
solved a Rubik’s Cube
in 22.25 sec on 14 Feb- He used his
right hand to juggle
and his left to align
the facets of the
puzzle. The attempt
took place at the
National University
of Singapore as part
of the Rubik’s Cube
Competition 2015.
Fastest time to complete two
Rubik’s Cubes simultaneously underwater
David Calvo (ESP) solved two cubes at the same
time underwater in 1 min 24 sec on the set of
Lo Show dei Record in Rome, Italy, on 1 Apr 2010.Fewest moves to complete a Rubik’s Cube
Marcel Peters (DEU) took just 19 moves to finish a
Rubik’s Cube at Cubelonia, held on 9–10 Jan 2016
in Cologne, Germany. In doing so, he equalled
the record by Tim Wong (USA), achieved at the
Irvine Fall 2015 speed-cubing event in Irvine,
California, USA, on 11 Oct 2015.The World Cube Association also monitors
the record for the fewest average moves to
complete a Rubik’s Cube, which is calculated
from performances over the course of three
rounds in the competition final. Peters scored
an average of 24.33 moves (24–25–24) to solve
a 3 x 3 x 3 cube at the Schwandorf Open in
Germany on 28–29 May 2016.MOST RUBIK’S CUBES SOLVED...
Underwater
Anthony Brooks (USA) solved five Rubik’s Cubes
on a single breath at the Liberty Science Center
in Jersey City, New Jersey, USA, on 1 Aug 2014.Blindfolded
On 16 Nov 2013, Marcin Kowalczyk (POL) broke
his own record by solving 41 out of 41 cubes
in one hour while wearing a blindfold, at
SLS Świerklany 2013 in Świerklany, Poland.
It took him 54 min 14 sec.LARGEST ORDER MAGIC CUBE
Oskar van Deventer (NLD) has created a 17 x
17 x 17 Magic Cube comprising 1,539 parts. He
took 10 hr to sort and dye all the pieces, which
were 3D-printed by US company Shapeways,
and a further 5 hr to assemble the cube. It
was presented at the New York Puzzle Party
Symposium in New York City, USA, on 12 Feb 2011.LARGEST
RUBIK’S CUBE MOSAIC
On 7 Dec 2012, this
277.18-m² (2,983.54-sq-ft)
artwork of famous views in
Macau, China, was unveiled
at One Central Macau. Canadian design studio
Cube Works, led by creative director Josh Chalom
(USA), made the 68.78- x 4.03-m (225-ft 7.87-in x
13-ft 2.66-in) mosaic out of 85,626 cubes.FIRST RUBIK’S CUBE
The Rubik’s Cube was invented in 1974 by Ernő Rubik,
a professor of architecture in Budapest, Hungary.
It resulted from his attempts to build an “impossible
object” to engage his students – and once he’d
made one, it took him three months to solve it! The
first cubes were sold as Bűvös Kocka (“Magic Cubes”)
and were twice as heavy as today’s cubes. Around
400 million Rubik’s Cubes have been sold since 1980.