The Cube also poses a good challenge for machine learning systems and robots.
Italian theoretical physicist and composer Maria Mannone has invented the CubeHarmonic, a musical instrument she developed with her Japanese collaborators. “It's a Rubik's Cube, with musical chords on each side and musical notes on each side,” she explained in an email. “When you shuffle the cube, you're also shuffling musical chords.”
Parisian street artist Invader creates “Rubik's Cubist” works, representational canvases made from hundreds of cubes arranged like a mosaic. Invader's version of Picasso's first Cubist painting, Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, used 1,848 cubes to create an identical-sized replica of the original.
Mathematician Lauren Rose of Bard College in New York uses the cube as a course material for both math majors (who learn algebra) and non-STEM students (who learn to solve puzzles, look for patterns, count their configurations, and design and build mosaics). “There's a lot of depth to this puzzle,” Dr. Rose said at the San Francisco conference. She thinks one of the reasons the cube has lasted so long is because it's “so accessible and fun.”
“This is a good way to make people want to learn math,” she added.
Now, every Platonic solid has been transformed into a twisted puzzle variation. Variations on the original include the 4 x 4 x 4 Rubik's Revenge, the 5 x 5 x 5 Professor's Cube, and even the 7 x 7 x 7, the largest cube used in World Cube Association competitions. The 21 x 21 x 21 is the largest cube available on the open market ($1,499.99). The 256 x 256 x 256 exists only in the virtual world, and was solved by a team of six in about 96 hours with 633,494 moves.
During the Q&A, Dr. Rokicki asked Rubik about the hollow Void Cube by Katsuhiko Okamoto, a Japanese inventor who made dozens of variations of the original. For some reason, the Void lacks the central cubicle and internal mechanisms that hold together Rubik's iconic invention. On the subject, Rubik again waxed philosophical. “Perfection is the meeting of the ideal,” he said. He understood the quest driven by curiosity, adding something, removing something. He liked the classic combination of cubicles and colors. “I also love the sound of the cube, the movement,” he said.
Rubik later added that he's not particularly interested in puzzles that are designed simply as puzzles: “I like the raw mysteries of life and the universe.”