Rubik's Cube: the invention of a professor unable to solve his own puzzle
Budapest, the Iron Curtain, and ingenious tinkering: the unbelievable story of the world’s best-selling cube. 🧩
Everyone has held a Rubik's Cube in their hands, and many have put it down admitting defeat. Don’t worry: its creator, Hungarian professor Ernő Rubik, also took more than a month to conquer his invention. JoJo tells you all about it in the video.
What’s in the video
- Why an architecture professor tinkered with a cube in his Budapest apartment
- The mechanical puzzle that had to be solved before the colorful puzzle: keeping the pieces together
- How long it took its inventor to solve it
- How the cube crossed the Iron Curtain to conquer the world
- From forgotten toy to global speedcubing phenomenon
An object designed to teach, not to play
At first, the cube wasn’t a toy but an educational tool: to show his students how volumes could move independently without the whole structure collapsing. The colorful challenge came later, almost by accident.
From Budapest to the speedcubing podiums
Created in a country that was then closed to Western trade, the cube took years to reach international markets. Today, hundreds of millions have been sold, and the best players can solve it in a few seconds, whereas its inventor spent weeks on it.
Good to know: you don’t need to be a math genius to solve it. With a beginner method learned step by step, most children can solve a cube after a few days of practice.
Watch the video for the full story, then take your cube back out: you’ll never look at it quite the same way again.
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