Will There Still Be a Rubik’s Cube Craze When Schools Reopen?

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eometric puzzles you see. While in my day we had two kinds of Rubik’s Cubes (regular and small), there are now at least 32 varieties of Rubik’s Cube inspired contraptions.</p><p id="23ff">Though it no longer commands 100% of the 3D geometric puzzles market, the traditional cube with six faces which Hungarian professor Erno Rubik invented and patented in the 1970s is still popular. If my school’s any indication, Rubik still leads, but its market share is no more that half of what it used to be.</p><p id="cc95">The Rubik’s Cube has a total of 54 little 2D shapes (squares, in a cube’s case) on its 6 faces. But now you’ll find cubes with as many as 384 squares! Plus you’ll see a plethora of color schemes besides the traditional Rubik’s one, including sparkly, pastel, fluorescent and metallic color creations.</p><p id="3b17">There are several competing polyhedrons too. A cube, I’ve learned, is a basic polyhedron, a 3D solid shape with straight sides. Today, you’ll find other polyhedron puzzles that, as with the Rubik’s Cube, the player must arrange to make the sides uniform. I’ve seen tetrahedrons (aka <i>pyramid</i>), dodecahedrons and icosahedrons.</p><p id="4ad2">Fun mind-blowing fact: According to <a href="https://www.rubiks.com/en-us/about">Rubiks.com</a>, the official Rubik’s site, the record time for solving the Rubik’s Cube is 4.22 seconds. Yes, that’s about as many seconds as it takes the average reader to read this sentence.</p><p id="163c">Everyone’

Options

s voicing opinions about whether -and when- things will go back to normal, or if this or that will forever change.</p><p id="0ba1">Logic dictates that things <i>will</i> go back to normal, as they have following previous pandemics. I’m not so sure, however, that we’ll pick up where we left off with the Rubik’s Cube and its imitators. It’s one of the few toys kids manipulate on all surfaces and share. Warranted or not, I imagine taking such items to school will be discouraged, perhaps banned.</p><p id="5713">In time, though, the Rubik’s Cube <i>will</i> make its comeback. In the meantime, I’m determined to learn how to solve it with this how-to guide from <a href="undefined">Jørgen Veisdal</a> I saved six months ago:</p><div id="4a5f" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/how-to-solve-the-rubiks-cube-8d5d3f8f3d80"> <div> <div> <h2>How to solve the Rubik’s Cube</h2> <div><h3>Learn how to solve the “impossible puzzle” in eight simple steps</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*t7inubJ7sxOLp8r86aSWbg.png)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><p id="1e69">Just imagine how impressed everyone at school will be when I can beat anyone’s time at solving the Rubik’s Cube!</p></article></body>

A bit of Rubik’s Cube nostalgia and predictions about its comeback

I must have been in the sixth grade when the Rubik’s Cube came out. A classmate brought one in, and, within a couple of weeks, all the spoiled girls I was always jealous of had one. Eventually I had one too, although I had to share it with my six siblings. We weren’t poor or anything, but I guess toys were less cheap back then or parents didn’t spoil their kids as much.

That was 38 years ago. When we went into lockdown in March, another Rubik’s Cube craze was underway at the elementary schools in the wealthy district where I teach.

This new craze, however, was ten times as intense as the 1980s craze. In the eighties, a lot of kids had one Rubik’s Cube. This time around, it seems all kids have at least one. Often, they have three different kinds. Today, rich kids are certainly more spoiled than they were when I grew up!

Another difference between then and now is the variety of geometric puzzles you see. While in my day we had two kinds of Rubik’s Cubes (regular and small), there are now at least 32 varieties of Rubik’s Cube inspired contraptions.

Though it no longer commands 100% of the 3D geometric puzzles market, the traditional cube with six faces which Hungarian professor Erno Rubik invented and patented in the 1970s is still popular. If my school’s any indication, Rubik still leads, but its market share is no more that half of what it used to be.

The Rubik’s Cube has a total of 54 little 2D shapes (squares, in a cube’s case) on its 6 faces. But now you’ll find cubes with as many as 384 squares! Plus you’ll see a plethora of color schemes besides the traditional Rubik’s one, including sparkly, pastel, fluorescent and metallic color creations.

There are several competing polyhedrons too. A cube, I’ve learned, is a basic polyhedron, a 3D solid shape with straight sides. Today, you’ll find other polyhedron puzzles that, as with the Rubik’s Cube, the player must arrange to make the sides uniform. I’ve seen tetrahedrons (aka pyramid), dodecahedrons and icosahedrons.

Fun mind-blowing fact: According to Rubiks.com, the official Rubik’s site, the record time for solving the Rubik’s Cube is 4.22 seconds. Yes, that’s about as many seconds as it takes the average reader to read this sentence.

Everyone’s voicing opinions about whether -and when- things will go back to normal, or if this or that will forever change.

Logic dictates that things will go back to normal, as they have following previous pandemics. I’m not so sure, however, that we’ll pick up where we left off with the Rubik’s Cube and its imitators. It’s one of the few toys kids manipulate on all surfaces and share. Warranted or not, I imagine taking such items to school will be discouraged, perhaps banned.

In time, though, the Rubik’s Cube will make its comeback. In the meantime, I’m determined to learn how to solve it with this how-to guide from Jørgen Veisdal I saved six months ago:

Just imagine how impressed everyone at school will be when I can beat anyone’s time at solving the Rubik’s Cube!