Rubik's Cube: A Review

The Rubik's Cube is a mechanical, cubical toy invented in the 1970s by Hungarian sculptor Erno Rubik. Its ubiquitous, multi-colored visage has been a cornerstone of the culture of the United States in the 1980s and beyond into our present day, when it is even now resurging into popularity through the World Championship competitions in speed cubing that have captured the imagination of people around the globe.

I first bought the Rubik's Cube a few years back, after being amazed by a friend who demonstrated his newfound ability to solve the Rubik's Cube in less than 1 minute. Naturally, to any layman to the art of Rubik's Cube solving or speed-cubing, this feat would have been impressive. But I soon learned that 1 minute solves were nothing; the world record was pushing 10 seconds, and the average for competent solvers was closer to 30 seconds. Thus, I purchased my own cube and decided to spend what free time I had to attempt to learn to solve the cube.

The average Rubik's Cube is the 3x3x3 cube, a small cube structure of around 2 inches to a side, divided into nine congruent squares on each face. Each rectangular prism of nine small cubes, called a layer, is able to be rotated in its two intuitive directions. That's pretty much all there is to it! Scrambling the cube merely entails rotating different layers of the cube until the faces of the cubes appear random and confusing. Solving it is simple; one memorizes several algorithms and applies them according to the current state of the cube.

The cube is an eternal puzzle, a game that can be played forever and not grow dull, something that can keep you company on lonely flights and long road trips. It is an intellectual exercise, keeping your mind sharp and alert in the grip of growing years. It is a skill that can be shown off, that can get you wide-eyed expressions of amazement, that can even garner you a job, or a friend, or a lasting relationship. But moreover, it is a source of achievement, the joy of success that comes when you first solve it, or when you achieve the goal of a certain time.

Something that I have found about cubing is that at some point, continuous cubing can turn into a sort of trance or meditative state. At some point, the consciousness of the area around the cube in space melts away, and the consciousness of the algorithms and techniques in your mind disappears, and your fingers solve the cube on instinct, without your willful input, and it all feels somewhat ethereal and surreal. Cubing can help you achieve such a peaceful state; it can be like playing an instrument; you can lose yourself in it, and escape from the stress and demands of the real world.

The Rubik's Cube in its present form is for all practical reasons, perfect in its design. A little oiling would help on a lot of commercial cubes in the beginning, as they usually tend to come rusty and hard to turn. Also, the majority of cubes on the market owns their colorful sides to stickers, which are as they seem, terribly vulnerable to being slowly peeled off from successive solves. Over time, the stickers come off at the edges, and at that point, all one can do is either replace the stickers at an additional cost, or try and glue them back on. Neither are optimal solutions. Therefore, I believe that a painted or colored plastic side can do much better than stickers, and will last exponentially longer than small pieces of cellophane. Of course, that might cost more for the consumer, but factoring in the expense of stickers, it is definitely worth it.

The Rubik's Cube is an item of mystique and romance among the general populace, and I certainly recommend it to all persons with ample patience and interest to take its complexity on, and challenge themselves to discover its nuances and secrets, and gain an intriguing skill that can help them throughout their life.