Gleaning The Secrets Of Rubik's Cube

The 80s Puzzle Is Back And More Popular Than Ever, But It's Not Any Easier To Solve

(CBS)  Remember the Rubik's Cube? The crazy, confounding puzzle was all the rage in the 1980s. Well, it's back and more frustrating than ever. CBS News correspondent Joie Chen went to one Rubik's contest outside of Atlanta to try to discover the secrets of the cube. She described how it went.

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The Rubik's Cube contest at this north Atlanta high school is just humiliating. These kids flip, spin and click the cubes into place in seconds, and you can't solve this thing in ten hours.

Well, I couldn't anyway – even with a lot of expert help.

Joy Wang tried to show me how to solve the puzzle.

"You're going to take all your white petals and move it around," she said.

That should have been doable, but it wasn't.

"We want to bring this one back, right?" Joy suggested.

I was totally lost.

In this back to the future moment, I was once again the class idiot.

I didn't even realize how hot the cube had gotten. Hasbro says it's seen double digit sales growth, thanks in past to Will Smith's movie The Pursuit of Happyness.

That's not a stunt double solving Rubik's Cube on screen. Will learned how to do it from one of Joy Wang's best friends.

She'll tell you the secret: just learn the algorithms – whatever they are.

"It's just seeing different patterns and using an algorithm, which is a set of moves, to put it back," Joy told me, but I was never very good at math.

"No math required," Joy said.

She didn't mention that she got a perfect score on her math SATs and hangs out with other braniacs like 16-year-old Grace Greenwood.

I asked Grace what her best time was.

"Oh, I'm not as fast as some of the kids here," she said. "There was a kid who solved it in 11 seconds."

That kid is Andrew Kang – aka "The Beast." I watched him finish a cube in 10.69 seconds.

He held a new world record… for a couple of weeks.

"I just lock myself in my room two to four hours a day practicing," Andrew told me. I asked him if his parents knew about that.

And then there's Chris Hardwicke. The 3-by-3 cube is too easy for him. He does the 4-by-4 version and the 5-by-5 ones. Blindfolded. In 20 minutes. Really.

Everyone asks him how he does it.

"I tell myself a story, a particular journey through my neighborhood where I grew up so it's a way to file the information away," Chris answers.

So this is what becomes of a UNC honors graduate in mathematics.

Chris works at Starbucks, but hopes to make his fortune on the international cubing circuit.

Me, I'm gonna stick with my day job. Even with Joy Wang's help I couldn't finish Rubik's Cube.

There was one person at the contest who was on the same level as me. She looked to be about two years old, and her mom was coaching her through the puzzle.

[Googleanator]

The rubix cube is so easy even a dumass will say that it is easy

[denise4math]

The comment in the article about what becomes of a UNC Math major was off based. Chris Hardwick is actually the Assistant Director of a Math Learning center and spends his days teaching our children. We are all very lucky he has chosen to give back to the community with his time and talents.

[michellem99-2009]

I had a RUBIK'S cube in the late 70s.I hated it so I pitched in the trash.

[ekucrew]

GREAT WAY TO MAKE RUBIK'S CUBE FANATICS GO NUTS!!
I worked for a major department store for two years during college in the early 1980's when mothers regularly dumped their brats in the department I worked in to play with display Rubik's cubes and MORE brats stopped by the mall store after school to show off their quick "cube" solving speed skills.

The day I reached my limit with the brats I found a solution. A co-worker and I spent a Sunday afternoon peeling off the colored stickers, then replaced the stickers randomly on the display cubes.

It was great watching the kids getting mad trying to speed solve the cube and failing!! HAHAHA

Mine just one color on all six sides so its easy to solve

[apdepetris]

Wow. I used to just get a screwdriver and pop the pieces off and put them back on where they were supposed to go.

I didn't know these we're back. I'll have to pick one up for my kids. Maybe it will keep them busy for awhile.

[brianbwb-2009]

I used to solve other peoples cubes, so they could take them home and say they did it, I charged $1 per cube, made about $20 per month, didn't know there were competitions, I once solved a 3x3 in under 15 seconds for a lady in a car at a red light, made $5 for that one...

[beadazzle]

I'm a lover of brain teasers like the rubik's cube,been playing it one since the 80's,plus love doing a sudoku puzzle atleast twice a day once when I get up to get the brain cells going and once before bedtime to relax me.