It Seems To Me

Thoughts and Rants on Technology, Business and Politics

On January 14, a new world record was set for solving the Rubik’s Cube. The previous record was 11.75 seconds which has now been shaved to 11.13 seconds! Can this be true? The SF Gate has a great write-up of the event. But to be truly amazed, watch this five minute video.

 But speed is not the only thing that is amazing about the new generation of speed cubers. The World Championships had 5 categories of competition:

• 3 x 3 x 3 Speedsolve
• 3 x 3 x 3 Blindfolded
• 3 x 3 x 3 One Handed
• 4 x 4 x 4 Speedsolve
• 5 x 5 x 5 Speedsolve

One handed cubing is a marvel of dexterity. But solving the cube blindfolded borders on magic. There are even a few people in the world who can solve three or more cubes blindfolded. According to Angela Hayden, blindfold cubing requires no more than the learning of 5 algorithms and the memorisation skills equivalent to remembering about 40 digits. I appreciate your modesty Angela, but solving the cube in less than 20 seconds, or while wearing a blindfold, is not just magic, it is downright awesome.

It was 25 years ago when I fell victim to my first Rubik’s Cube. I was a senior in college studying mathematics and physics. I felt an obligation to my academic disciplines to solve the little devil. A roommate and I spent three months obsessed with the puzzle. The Internet was not available yet and the tell-all books with step-by-step solutions had yet to be written. We would spend hours twisting and turning the coloured labels on the magic cube. We slowly figured out a number of moves (or “algorithms” as the cubers call them today) that would move a single cube from one face to another without disturbing other cubes. We wrote them down in our own cryptic code. By the time we had about a dozen unique algorithms we realized that we had enough moves to solve the damn thing. It was a glorious day when each face was monochromatic.

At my very best, I was able to solve the cube in 63 seconds. Try as I may, I was never able to get below 60 seconds. Perhaps if I had some optimised algorithms that I could have memorised . . . .

Watch the video again. Or take a look at the video clip of the 11.75 second world record. I caught the first wave of Rubik mania back in the early 80’s. It is a joy to see that the magic is still alive.