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Rubik's Cube Essay

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Background Rubik’s cube is a toy puzzle designed by Ernö Rubik during the mid- 1970s. It is a cube- shaped toy consisting of smaller cube pieces, called “cubies” with 6 faces possessing contrasting colors. This rather primitive-looking phenomenon was exceptionally popular during the 1980s, and peaking 1980 and 1983 with around 200 million cubes sold worldwide. Even today sales continue to exceed 500,000 sales worldwide each year, subsequently earning the title “the best-selling toy of all time”.(“How Rubik’s Cube”) Seen as an object of art, the Rubik’s Cube brilliance is perceived to reside in its ability to embody and symbolize the evident contrasts in the human conditions: simplicity and complexity, order and mayhem, bewilderment and comprehension, as Ernö remarks.(Davis) Comparably, these traits can be observed when examining the most integral parts of the cube: its history, design and mechanics, and mathematical applications. History Puzzle makers have been creating complications and presenting adversities for people to solve and overcome for …show more content…

Around 1983, however, the popularity of the cube began to die down and sales slowed drastically. That was because the cube stayed in small scale production, but that changed when Seven Towns took over the marketing, and licensed the Rubik Cube to the Oddzon Company for the United States in 1995. Since then, sales have steadily increased to over 500,000 units a year. (“How Rubik’s Cube”) Moreover, in 1980, the cube won the prestigious German Game of the Year award and similar decoration in France, Britain, and the United States. Also, books covering the cube were simultaneously on the New York Times best-seller list. Finally, today, with more than 350 million cubes sold and at least one billion imitations in circulation, it is the best-selling toy of all-time and a true cultural icon that will forever be recognized.

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