The name of the toy was Rubik’s Cube. His brother, also an architect and a professor at the Budapest College of Applied Arts, claims that it was he who came up with the idea that led to its invention in 1977 while still a student for a competition at his university where he had to find an object with six faces and eight corners.
After spending many hours trying to solve the puzzle, Rubik could only manage a solution in 52 moves which made him give up for a while. He kept thinking about it though and later he found a solution in just 20 moves. In 1978, Rubik applied for Hungarian patent HU170062 for his “spatial rotating puzzle”. It was granted in 1983.
Who became one of the richest men in Hungary thanks to a toy he developed?
Rubik’s Cube became one of the most popular toys in the world, selling over 350 million units since its launch in 1980. Nowadays it can be found in more than 100 countries with countless different versions available all around the globe, including a glow-in-the-dark model with multicolored stickers, water-absorbing puzzle pieces to put together a beach scene inside the cube, unbreakable models made of heavy-duty plastic with pictures of animals and colored balls instead of squares on its sides, or even with magnets inside that allow it to be charged by winding up.
Today Rubik is rather infamous for his bad temper and arrogance, spending only a few hours each week with his family because he spends most of his time working to keep up with orders. He also hates interviews and never gives autographs. The emblematic inventor even stated that “invention is not an occupation for leisure” but actually something that should be done at least 16 hours a day, 7 days a week.
His success leads him to win many awards including the 1981 Brand of the Year Award given by the Advertising Club of Hungary for inventing this popular product. The Cube also won the title “Toy of the Century” in 2004 by the British Association of Toy Retailers. His fame also brought him an entry in the Men of Science Fiction Calendar for 2008.
In his free time, Rubik is a devoted fan of tennis and water polo. He even managed to find time to represent Hungary as a goalkeeper at international water polo competitions between 1965 and 1969 during his studies at university. He also enjoys mountaineering and parachuting which he did for the first time when he was already 52 years old.
What is Rubik’s Cube?
Background:
The name of the toy was Rubik’s Cube. His brother, also an architect and a professor at the Budapest College of Applied Arts, claims that it was he who came up with the idea that led to its invention in 1977 while still a student for a competition at his university where he had to find an object with six faces and eight corners.
After spending many hours trying to solve the puzzle, Rubik could only manage a solution in 52 moves which made him give up for a while. He kept thinking about it though and later he found a solution in just 20 moves. In 1978, Rubik applied for Hungarian patent HU170062 for his “spatial rotating puzzle”. It was granted in 1983.
How is Rubik Cube useful?
Although Rubik’s Cube is known as a toy, it has also become popular as an aid for treating people with autism or Asperger syndrome who are unable to understand abstract concepts. It is considered one of the best ways to help them learn patience, problem-solving skills, and cognitive thinking. A video game based on Rubik’s Cube was launched in 1996 by French studio Titus Interactive for Windows and Mac.
Even after becoming a multi-millionaire, Rubik never forgot his first failures. He said that “failure became my greatest teacher.” It made him the person he is today. He always remembers to give credit where it’s due, mentioning from time to time that it was his mother who taught him how to solve the puzzle.
Erno Rubik biography
Erno Rubik (born 13 July 1944) is a Hungarian inventor and architect. He is best known for inventing the Rubik’s Cube, which was originally called the Magic Cube (Bűvös kocka) in Hungary. In this country, it was later also called Rubik’s Magic or simply Rubik. He is also well known for his work as a professor of architecture, which emphasizes study into the essence of human perception. Erno Rubik, “who became one of the richest men in Hungary thanks to a toy he developed”.
Rubik was born in Budapest to middle-class Jewish parents, György Rubik (1913–2009) and Marika Glatt (1922–2004). While growing up in Hungary during World War II , he was imprisoned along with his mother and other Jews in a Budapest brickyard, while his father served on the Eastern Front. When Rubik’s grandmother was killed at Auschwitz, he vowed never to step foot into that building again.
The war had such an impact on him that after graduating high school, he worked as a draftsman for a toy company as well as a local architectural design studio. He later graduated from the Budapest University of Technology as an architect and eventually became a professor at that same university, where he would teach future architects.
Rubik in the meantime began a career in architecture, but he is best known worldwide for his invention of the Magic Cube which changed how people viewed puzzles. He also started a company based on this invention and became so successful he left teaching to devote himself full-time to it.
