Rubik's Cube History

The Rubik's cube is a toy puzzle designed by Erno Rubik during the mid-1970s. It is a cube-shaped device made up of smaller cube pieces with six faces having differ colors. The primary method of manufacture involves injection molding of the various component pieces, then subsequent assembly, labeling, and packaging. The cube was extremely popular during the 1980s, and at its peak between 1980 and 1983, 200 million cubes were sold worldwide. Today sales continue to be over 500,000 cubes sold worldwide each year. The center cubes are each fixed and only rotate in place. When the cube is taken apart it can be seen that the center cubes are each connected by axles to an inner core. The corners and edges are not fixed to anything. This allows them to move around the center cubes. The cube maintains its shape because the corners and edges hold each other in place and are retained by the center cubes. Each piece has an internal tab that is retained by the center cubes and trapped by the surrounding pieces. These tabs are shaped to fit along a curved track that is created by the backs of the other pieces. The central cubes are fixed with a spring and rivet and retain all the surrounding pieces. The spring exerts just the right pressure to hold all the pieces in place while giving enough flexibility for a smooth and forgiving function.

From these early riddles and word problems, toy puzzles were naturally developed. In 1857, the Irish mathematician Sir William Hamilton invented the Icosian puzzle. Sometime around 1870, the famous 15 Puzzle was introduced, reportedly by Sam Lloyd. This puzzle involved numerical tiles that had to be placed in order and became extremely popular in the early twentieth century. In 1883, French mathematician Edouard Lucas created the Tower of Hanoi puzzle. This puzzle was made up of three pegs and a number of discs with different sizes. The goal was to place the discs on the pegs in the correct order.

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