Rubik’s Cube Celebrates its 50th Anniversary, and So Do I This Year, but I'm Unfit to Solve It? Decoding the Mindset Needed to Solve this Multi-Coloured STEM Toy!

 Dear Friends and Students,

2024 marks the 50th anniversary of the creation of the Rubik’s Cube (1974). Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian architecture professor, created a prototype of a three-dimensional cube. In the years following, he used it to teach his students about three-dimensional spaces and patterns. In fact, he patented this Magic Cube (renamed the Rubik’s Cube) in 1975.

It is believed that it develops visual memory and hand-eye coordination as solvers learn more algorithms and instantly identify what works (The Hindu, 16-06-24). In 1982, someone solved it in 22.95 seconds. In 2017, sales touched $250 million. In 2021, the Canadian children’s entertainment company Spin Master acquired Rubik’s. In 2023, Max Park set a new single-solve world record with an astonishing time of 3.13 seconds – a long way from the 22.95-second solve 40 years prior (rubiks.com).

Can you imagine the magnanimous possibilities it has today? If one Rubik’s Cube has more than 43 quintillion possibilities and millions of Rubik’s Cubes are sold and solved every year, multiply that by 50 years, and you have... so many possibilities!

Let us decode the mindset needed to solve this. If one is good at Group Theory, and understands algorithms (sequences of steps), Pattern Recognition, Spatial Reasoning, and Logical Problem-Solving, they are best fit to solve them.

Recently, I published a simplified Career Planning Framework called the “4H-Smart Framework.” I wish this framework is used in future Skill Census projects of various governments:

1. Head-Smart (More IQ and reasonable EQ, SQ (Social), AQ (Adversity Quotient)) - Good for Research/Head-driven Jobs

2. Heart-Smart (Reasonable IQ and better EQ, SQ, AQ) - Good for Management/Business/Administration Jobs

3.     Hands-Smart (Reasonable IQ-EQ-SQ-AQ) - Good for Skill-oriented Jobs

4.  Heel-Smart (More PQ (Physical Quotient), reasonable IQ-EQ-SQ-AQ) - Good for Physical energy-driven jobs

Definitely, I am neither Head-Smart nor Heel-Smart. I might fall between Heart-Smart and Hands-Smart. Solving a Rubik’s Cube is a Head-Smart job!

Another interesting aspect of the Rubik’s Cube is that a professor/teacher designed this product, patented it, made millions, and now receives royalties! This is definitely an encouragement for the teaching fraternity!

However, we, being Indians, have not monetized multiple games we developed! Snakes and Ladders originated in ancient India as Moksha Patam (karma and kama, or destiny and desire). Similarly, precursors to chess originated in India, as chaturaṅga, a battle formation mentioned in the Indian Vedic history- Mahabharata. However, we did not patent these games!

Do you know/can design any more games that can be remembered after centuries?

Ravi Saripalle