History of the Rubik's Cube

Erno Rubik had a creative background and as a child, he liked to draw and sculpt. He took these interests with him as he studied architecture in his adult life and developed a great interest in geometric designs. He when on to teach a class in "descriptive geometry." This course focused on how one could use 2-dimensional designs to solve 3-dimensional problems. His creative background and interest in the connection between the 2-dimensional and 3-dimensional made him the perfect person to create what would come to be one of the most beloved toys across multiple countries.

In 1974, Rubik was trying to find a way to connect 8 cubes to form the corners of a large cube in such a way that the 8 small cubes could exchange places with one another. Initially, he was not very successful. However, after sufficient time and experimentation, he managed to create a 3 by 3 cube where each face of the cube could turn independently. He decided to put different colored stickers on each face so as to more easily track the movement of the pieces.

As he continued twisting the cube, he soon came to an unfortunate conclusion. He couldn't get back. The colors were all jumbled and he had no idea how to return it to it's original state with one color on each side.

But he was not one to give up easily. After a month, he finally managed to restore the cube to its solved state. Over subsequent years, he would use his magic cube in his architecture classes to help students learn about 3 dimensional spaces.

In 1975, Erno Rubik patented the mechanic used in what he called his magic cube. However, he initially had a challenging time finding a company willing to produce his invention. He was told that it didn't look like a toy and that nobody would want to play with it. After some effort, he finally found a company willing to make 5,000 Magic Cubes as a trial run. Over 300,000 Magic Cubes were sold in Hungary within the next 2 years.

In 1977, Erno decided to present his invention at an international toy fair since Hungary's export restrictions were greatly limiting the growth of the cube's popularity. An American company agreed to produce the invention, but insisted on changing the name of the toy from "Magic Cube" to "Rubik's Cube." Within 3 years, 100 million Rubik's cubes had been sold!

In addition to the cube's appeal as a toy, it has inspired the interest of mathematicians since shortly after it's introduction. In 1981, just 1 year after the cube's introduction in the United States, David Singmaster published "Notes of Rubik's Magic Cube," considered to be one of the first papers examining the mathematics behind this captivating puzzle. Since then, interest has not waned. A quick search on Google Scholar produced 1700 results mentioning "Rubik's Cube" and "Math," 113 of which have been published just during 2024. Many of these focus on the many connections between the Rubik's Cube and group theory, but other topics arise as well including several discussing how the Rubik's Cube can be used to teach math in middle and high school.

We can clearly see the Rubik's cube has become quite beloved by children, adults, teachers, and mathematicians alike. Even today, 50 years after its invention, millions of cubes are sold annually. That's quite a legacy for a toy that "nobody would want to play with."