The real story
In 1974 Ernő Rubik was teaching design in Budapest and wanted a hands-on way to show students how parts could move independently without the whole object falling apart. His first version was made of 27 small wooden blocks. Once he scrambled it, he realised he had built a puzzle, and it took him about a month to find his way back.
It went on sale in Hungary as the 'Magic Cube' in 1977 and was renamed Rubik's Cube for the world market in 1980. Its 43 quintillion positions kept mathematicians arguing for 30 years, until a 2010 project, running on computer time donated by Google, proved that every single position can be solved in 20 moves or fewer.
