Presenting... The most complicated yet elegant artifact.

Let's lead off with a haiku to commemorate the sudden surge in popularity -

Shiny rubik's cube
New era of revival
a complex puzzle

The Rubik's Cube, invented in 1974 by the Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Erno Rubik, is the world's best-selling toy.

In this project, we are looking to find out what it is about this toy that fascinates us so much, and we are following the popularity of the Rubik's Cube from its birth in the late 70's to today. The cube also experienced a revival recently, so some questions we are looking to answer include:

1. How did this become so universal?
2. Why is it so addictive?
3. Why did the inventor design the Rubik's Cube as it is?
4. Did he base it on earlier toys invented by others?
5. Are there actually real mathematics involved in solving the Cube?
6. What kind of people get obsessed with the Cube?
7. How did the Cube make a comeback?

We will also conduct personal interviews with Tyson Mao and Shelley Chang, current world-record holders for solving the Rubik's Cube.

Short History of the Rubik's Cube

The Design of the Rubik's Cube

The Initial Success and Death

The Addiction (with interview!)

The Hobby (with interview!)

In Relation to Mathematics and Science

The Cube in Pop Culture

The Revival

Variants of the Cube

Rubik's Cube Conclusion

Fun Stuff:

• Online Cube!
• Solving the Rubik's Cube

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Posted at Mar 06/2007 02:03AM:
Tina Lin (tinalin@stanford.edu): Hi Tina Lin! Interesting project. I made my own acrylic translucent rubik's cube in ME 203. We're such nerds. <3, Tina Lin