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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff. You should know, a production of My

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Speaker 1: Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, You'm welcome to the podcast.

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Speaker 1: I'm Josh Clark, and there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, Jerry's

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Speaker 1: over there, and we're cubing it up with Rubic the Cube.

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Speaker 1: Did you see um that cartoon, Rubic the Amazing Cube?

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Speaker 1: Did you come across that? Okay? I I feel like

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Speaker 1: we are um well within our rights as far as

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Speaker 1: fair use goes, since we are talking about this, to

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Speaker 1: at least play the highly disturbing but also strangely cute

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Speaker 1: voice of Rubic the Amazing Cube. Can I play this

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Speaker 1: real quick? Sure? Okay? That is it. It is awfully unusual,

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Speaker 1: especially when you see this cube. They just basically took it.

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Speaker 1: Do you remember the Goblin face on Maximum Overdrive on

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Speaker 1: that on the front of that semi sort of it's

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Speaker 1: kind of like a cuter version of that that they

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Speaker 1: put onto a Rubik's Cube, put some feed on it,

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Speaker 1: and then gave it superpowers. That's Rubic the Amazing Cube.

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Speaker 1: Before we go any further, Chuck, I just want to

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Speaker 1: give a shout out for my Chicago show. May I. Yes,

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Speaker 1: I'm doing a solo End of the World Live show

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Speaker 1: in Chicago on September twelve at Lincoln Hall and if

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Speaker 1: you want tickets, go to l h hyphen st dot com. Okay, okay,

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Speaker 1: So back to rubic Chuck. Yeah, it was kind of

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Speaker 1: hard to believe that it took until two thousand fourteen

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Speaker 1: for this thing to be granted National Toy Hall of

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Speaker 1: Fame inductee status. Uh. It seems like it would have

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Speaker 1: been much sooner than that because they have sold hundreds

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Speaker 1: and hundreds of millions of Rubik's Cube since I had one.

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Speaker 1: I still have one. I could do it at one point.

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Speaker 1: Oh really, Yeah, I could do it in a couple

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Speaker 1: of minutes. Wow, Chuck, I'm impressed. I had no idea. Yeah,

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Speaker 1: I can still do. I can still do one side

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Speaker 1: and like the top row surrounding that side on all sides,

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Speaker 1: And that's where I completely forget. Oh, I see, So

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Speaker 1: you couldn't do it in a couple of minutes now

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Speaker 1: you just have you could in the past. Yeah, when

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Speaker 1: I was nine. Um, I'm impressed. I've never been able

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Speaker 1: to solve a Rubik's Cube. I've never been sucked in

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Speaker 1: enough to, um like really spend a significant amount of time.

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Speaker 1: But um I was playing with my niece's Rubik's Cube

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Speaker 1: the other day studying for this, and um I was like, yeah,

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Speaker 1: I could see how somebody would become obsessed with this

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Speaker 1: kind of thing for sure. Yeah, it was fun and

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Speaker 1: it was you know, to call it all the rage

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Speaker 1: is an understatement. It was one of the most popular

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Speaker 1: toys of all time, invented in nine by a math

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Speaker 1: enthusiast and Hungary and architect professor named er No Rubik.

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Speaker 1: Appropriately enough, they named him after the cube. That's right.

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Speaker 1: And if you don't know what we're talking about, it

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Speaker 1: seems weird to describe a Rubik's Cube, but we'll probably

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Speaker 1: be taking a task if we do not. I would say,

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Speaker 1: just come out from under the rock that you've been

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Speaker 1: living under. But we may have some young listeners who

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Speaker 1: don't even know what this thing is, this piece of

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Speaker 1: eighties ephemera, even though it's not ephemera because they're still

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Speaker 1: pretty popular. But it is a cube made up of

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Speaker 1: twenty six little mini cubes called cubs, which is kind

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Speaker 1: of a cute little name. I think, so not as

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Speaker 1: cute as Rubic the Amazing Cube, but yeah, little cubs

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Speaker 1: and they're in a three inch by three inch by

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Speaker 1: three inch. Well that's not quite true, a three by

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Speaker 1: three by three grid eventually creating a cube that measures

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Speaker 1: two point two five inches or five point seven centimeters

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Speaker 1: per side. Right, And so what there's six six cube

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Speaker 1: faces because it's a cube, and each face has a

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Speaker 1: different color. There's orange, blue, green, yellow, white, and red

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Speaker 1: and um. When you when you mix these things up,

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Speaker 1: it's just a jumble, a riot of different colors like

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Speaker 1: you've never seen your life. But the point is to

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Speaker 1: move these cubes around through the eighteen different ways you

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Speaker 1: can move any given cube, um, so that all of

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Speaker 1: the colors are lined up, all the colored cubes are

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Speaker 1: all the same on each face. And it sounds easy, friends,

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Speaker 1: it is not easy, not at all. Like maybe for

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Speaker 1: some people it's easy, but for the rest of us,

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Speaker 1: normal focus normis, it is not easy in any way,

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Speaker 1: shape or form. No, it is not. Uh And in fact,

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Speaker 1: they even suggest that you read about how to solve

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Speaker 1: the Rubik's cube. It is the very rare individual that

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Speaker 1: can literally just figure it out without any help at all. Um,

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Speaker 1: that's really tough to do. So it's not like you're

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Speaker 1: not a cheat. If you look at like how to

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Speaker 1: solve the Rubik's cube and then memorize these patterns and

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Speaker 1: practice them. That's sort of the point, right, Yeah, like

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Speaker 1: go look it up like it's fine. No one will

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Speaker 1: will get mad at you for that, because it's no

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Speaker 1: fun to never solve a puzzle. Well, that's why I

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Speaker 1: think I've never gotten sucked in. I was like, I'm

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Speaker 1: not even there's no way I'm gonna possibly stumble across this,

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Speaker 1: and I just don't think like this. My spatial reasoning

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Speaker 1: is terrible. I'm not great at math. I'm color blind.

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Speaker 1: Everything just looks white. No, it's really not. I can't

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Speaker 1: discern squares from from circles. It's just I'm off. So um. Originally,

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Speaker 1: the Rubik's cube was called the magic cube, and it

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Speaker 1: was invented, like you said, by Erno Rubik, who was Hungarian.

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Speaker 1: So it was originally called the Beavish Kotzka, which is

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Speaker 1: magic cubean the Hungarian means butt head. I believe it does.

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Speaker 1: The magic butt head was Bevis and butt head a right,

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Speaker 1: nice man. It's like, where's he going with this after

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Speaker 1: all these years? It's no, I didn't, but I was like,

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Speaker 1: I'm I'm going with this will Chuck. I trust him

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Speaker 1: and I paid off to So Mr Rubik got his

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Speaker 1: Hungarian patent on the mechanical design of this in and

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Speaker 1: it was in Hungary only for a while. Uh, and

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Speaker 1: it did pretty well and hungry. Um, but that's kind

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Speaker 1: of where it stayed. It was. Uh. It was because

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Speaker 1: of the politics of the time and the fact that

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Speaker 1: it was hungry. It was not super easy to get

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Speaker 1: a an American patent or to bring it over and

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Speaker 1: market it here in the West, so it was pretty

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Speaker 1: much a Hungarian local sensation for its early like probably

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Speaker 1: first year. Yeah, he had like a Hungarian toy manufacturer

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Speaker 1: make like ten thousand of them, but he wasn't happy

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Speaker 1: with him, so we cut the run off at five thousand.

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Speaker 1: So there were five thousands of these things floating around

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Speaker 1: Budapest and and maybe Hungry in general. And it was

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Speaker 1: just total serendipity that there was a guy named Tibor Laxi.

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Speaker 1: And I'm quite sure that's not exactly how you say

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Speaker 1: his last name, but that's how it's how it spelled.

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Speaker 1: It's probably like Lucia or something like that. But um,

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Speaker 1: t Bor, I'm I just love that name. It's a

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Speaker 1: great name. Um. He was an entrepreneur who had left

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Speaker 1: Hungry and moved to Austria, so he had really developed

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Speaker 1: a taste for capitalism. While he happened to be visiting

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Speaker 1: back home in Budapest when he was at a restaurant

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Speaker 1: and he noticed a waiter playing with the Beavish kotska,

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Speaker 1: the magic cube, and um, he said, you there, what

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Speaker 1: is that? And uh, he said, well, it's the Beavish kotzka.

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Speaker 1: How about I sell it to you for a dollar?

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Speaker 1: And I believe he bought that for a dollar, played

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Speaker 1: around with it for a minute. It was like this

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Speaker 1: could be big. So he found out who invented it,

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Speaker 1: and he scheduled a meeting with Erno Rubic. Yeah, and

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Speaker 1: he would say later on that he that Erno Rubik

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Speaker 1: had a lot to do with why he decided to

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Speaker 1: get into business with him. And here's his quote. He said,

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Speaker 1: when Rubik first walked into the room, I felt like

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Speaker 1: giving him some money. He looked like a beggar. He

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Speaker 1: was terribly dressed. You gotta remember this guy as a professor,

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Speaker 1: so they're not known for their sharp attire. He was

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Speaker 1: terribly dressed and he had a cheap Hungarian cigarette hanging

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Speaker 1: out of his mouth. But I knew I had a

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Speaker 1: genius on my hands, and I told him we could

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Speaker 1: sell millions. Yeah he was right. Oh man, was he

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Speaker 1: ever right? He understated it actually, um the t Boar,

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Speaker 1: I'm just gonna call him t Boar. He took this

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Speaker 1: magic cube and he started going to toy fairs, uh,

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Speaker 1: and I think he struck out at a few of them.

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Speaker 1: But he really hit it out of the park at

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Speaker 1: the Nuremberg Toy Fair when he met a toy expert

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Speaker 1: who had connections with Ideal Toy Company. Remember Ideal back

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Speaker 1: in the day. I think I do for sure. I'm

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Speaker 1: pretty sure they made that um the uh the uh

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Speaker 1: what was the daredevil's name, Evil Kin? I think they

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Speaker 1: made the Evil kinevil stunt bike. You know what's funny

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Speaker 1: is um they make those now for other they have

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Speaker 1: there's like an incredible stunt bike with plastic girl. It's

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Speaker 1: the same exact function. We have one in our house

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Speaker 1: and you load it up and crank it and there

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Speaker 1: she goes. Is it the exact same mold? They just

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Speaker 1: put like different pain on it or something like that.

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Speaker 1: Knockoff toys. Man, it's slightly different, uh in its design,

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Speaker 1: but it's clearly like the same exact toy. Do you

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Speaker 1: remember that gallery of knockoff toys I made back when

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Speaker 1: we used to blog those. I think it's still up

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Speaker 1: somewhere on our stuff. You should remember how excited we

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Speaker 1: would get about gallery page views. Yeah, oh, we'd be like,

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Speaker 1: holy cow, we're up to seventy and it's only been

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Speaker 1: up for a week and a half. So funny. So

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Speaker 1: at the Nuremberg Toy Fair, uh t boor runs into

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Speaker 1: the guy from Ideal and they end up purchasing it.

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Speaker 1: They purchased the rights to this, the global rights, and

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Speaker 1: they they they basically sign up to create a million

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Speaker 1: Rubik's cubes. Yeah. Also we should say it this toy fair,

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Speaker 1: he did a pretty smart thing. Instead of like buying

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Speaker 1: a booth, he just came and worked the floor with

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Speaker 1: Rubik's cubes and got this like ground buzz going by

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Speaker 1: walking around and giving these things to people, and like

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Speaker 1: that's genius. Like for something like this, that's the perfect

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Speaker 1: way to pique someone's curiosity is not to have some

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Speaker 1: flashy uh like spinning giant Rubik's cube, is to actually

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Speaker 1: get in the hands of people walking around the floor,

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Speaker 1: especially if you say, I'm Tibor Let's party. I bet

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Speaker 1: you want to call it t boards Cube. It's pretty

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Speaker 1: good name. He probably did, although he was smart because

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Speaker 1: I remember originally it was called the Magic Cube. At

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Speaker 1: some point. If it wasn't t Boor, it was Ideal

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Speaker 1: who said we're gonna rename this the Rubik's Cube. And

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Speaker 1: I'm sure Erno Rubik was like, oh, okay, I guess

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Speaker 1: if you insist. I wonder if he was into it

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Speaker 1: or not, or if he pushed forward, or if he

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Speaker 1: was like, I'm not really into that, but if you

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Speaker 1: think it'll sell cubes, that's what I'm guessing he probably did.

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Speaker 1: I don't think he was going to stand in the

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Speaker 1: way of it, but he was not like vying for

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Speaker 1: it by any means. That's my impression. But I'm just

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Speaker 1: totally making that up, but that I have the same impression,

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Speaker 1: which means that if you put our two impressions together,

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Speaker 1: it equals fact. So Ideal sells one hundred million Rubik's

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Speaker 1: cubes in the first two years. They just signed up

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Speaker 1: to sell one million. They sold a hundred million in

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Speaker 1: two years. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure they had problems

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Speaker 1: keeping up with production. Uh, some of the accolades, and

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Speaker 1: eight and eighty one at won the UK's Toy the

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Speaker 1: Year Award two years running. Um In eighty two, there

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Speaker 1: were five books about solving it on the New York

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Speaker 1: Times bestseller list, one of which I owned. I owned

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Speaker 1: the classic, The Simple Solution to the Rubics Cube by

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Speaker 1: James G. Norris Q. He was a chemistry student at

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Speaker 1: Stanford And get this, dude, this book was the number

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Speaker 1: one best selling book of night period. He sold six

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Speaker 1: point seven million books and it is still the fasting

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Speaker 1: selling book in the history of Bantam Books. Is that right?

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Speaker 1: Can you believe that out of all the books that year,

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Speaker 1: that was the number one? I can, because that really

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Speaker 1: kind of underscores just how nuts the not just America,

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Speaker 1: the world went for Rubicks cube. That the number one

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Speaker 1: selling book was a book about solving the toy. That

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Speaker 1: that that was it. Yeah, they had sold five hundred

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Speaker 1: million of them by the time rolled around. So so

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Speaker 1: talking about the books though for another second. At one

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Speaker 1: point the number one, two, and four positions on the

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Speaker 1: New York Times bestseller list where all Rubik's Cube Solution books.

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Speaker 1: Three he was probably Stephen King or something, probably and

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Speaker 1: one of those books was written by a twelve of

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Speaker 1: year old named Patrick Bossert called You Can Do the Cube,

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Speaker 1: which is pretty adorable if you think about it, and

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Speaker 1: Christians later made a movie called Gleaming the Cube, one

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Speaker 1: of my all time favorites, which had nothing to do

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Speaker 1: with Rubik's cubes. As it turns out, it was about skateboarding. Um,

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Speaker 1: so there's a just a craze going on around the world,

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Speaker 1: like everyone is into the Ruby's Cube. Everyone's buying one.

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Speaker 1: They sold, like I've seen anywhere from three hundred and

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Speaker 1: fifty million. The highest I've seen is six hundred million.

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Speaker 1: They sold a ton of these things, hundreds and hundreds

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Speaker 1: of millions of them. Are those are the official ones too?

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Speaker 1: There were plenty of knockoffs. Sure, there was books on

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Speaker 1: the New York Times bestseller list about this. It was

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Speaker 1: featured in Times Scientific, American News Scientists. Um. There was

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Speaker 1: a paper that was printed in the New England Journal

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Speaker 1: of Medicine that talked about cubists thumb, which is a

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Speaker 1: real thing. It's a type of tendonitis in your thumb

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Speaker 1: that you get in your non dominant hand because that's

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Speaker 1: the hand that you used to stabilize the Rubik's cube,

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Speaker 1: and so the edge of the cube pressing into the

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Speaker 1: heel of your thumb where it meets the rest of

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Speaker 1: your thumb um, that could create tendonitis for people who

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Speaker 1: were staying up for days on end just playing with

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Speaker 1: this thing, trying to to beat this puzzle. There was

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Speaker 1: a craze like like no other. I say, we take

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Speaker 1: a break, okay, uh, and we come back and we

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Speaker 1: talk about uh, Mr Rubic or maybe he's a doctor.

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Speaker 1: I'm gonna call him Dr Rubic, and how he created

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Speaker 1: the mechanics of this puzzle. Alright, so supposedly Dr Rubik,

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Speaker 1: surely he's a doctor. I would let's call him Professor

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Speaker 1: Ruby because he was definitely an architecture professor in a

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Speaker 1: math genius. Though I'm I'm with he's got to be

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Speaker 1: a doctor, all right, Professor Dr Rubik, uh supposedly was

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Speaker 1: not even trying to create this puzzle in n I'm

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Speaker 1: sorry seventy four when he first started out um, as

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Speaker 1: legend has it, he was trying to create a mathematical

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Speaker 1: model for three D design class, which makes sense considering

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Speaker 1: his job. Other people say, no, he was just really

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Speaker 1: kind of guy that like to tinker. He was fascinated

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Speaker 1: by geometry and shapes, and he was trying to just

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Speaker 1: solve a problem of mechanics in three dimensions. But according

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Speaker 1: to the Toy Hall of Fame, he was very much

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Speaker 1: trying to invent a puzzle. Uh, and that may just

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Speaker 1: be folklore. Yeah, he he knew what he wanted. He

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Speaker 1: wanted to make this three by three cube that was

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Speaker 1: made up of smaller cubes that could all like interact

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Speaker 1: in twist store around like. He had the idea for

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Speaker 1: the Rubik's cube, which was step one, but step two

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Speaker 1: was a doozy, and that was figuring out how to

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Speaker 1: invent a mechanical solution to make this thing work the

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Speaker 1: way he wanted it to. And apparently he was. Um.

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Speaker 1: There was a pretty good article Mental Floss by a

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Speaker 1: guy named Noah Davis who recounted that um one day

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Speaker 1: Rubic was walking down the Danube alongside the Danube in

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Speaker 1: Budapest and looked down and noticed that there was just

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Speaker 1: a pile of nice, polished rounded river rocks and thought,

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Speaker 1: I've got it. I've been thinking about a cube. Everything's

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Speaker 1: got to be a cube. But what if I added

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Speaker 1: a sphere to the mix? Two? And that these things

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Speaker 1: rotated around us. Fear that would give the freedom of

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Speaker 1: motion that I need to make this thing work. And

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Speaker 1: that was that that that that was the solution to

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Speaker 1: the puzzle, as it were. Yeah, I mean, if you're

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Speaker 1: like me and probably lots of other kids in the

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Speaker 1: early eighties, you took your rubiscube apart at some point,

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Speaker 1: did you? I never, I never saw one. Lots of

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Speaker 1: video on this. Yeah. Oh yeah, I've got a screw

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Speaker 1: driver out in pretty short order and pomp those things apart. Uh.

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Speaker 1: And it's kind of cool when you look at the

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Speaker 1: you know, when you take all those cubs out, you

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Speaker 1: get down to the center and those three x s

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Speaker 1: um and they have each one is tipped with two

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Speaker 1: opposing center cubis. It's kind of cool looking. And then

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Speaker 1: it makes sense how all these things fit together and

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Speaker 1: how it works. Yeah, another way to think about it

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Speaker 1: is just think about like a sphere a ball, and

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Speaker 1: then you've got six arms sticking out in in um

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Speaker 1: at right angles from it, so that it forms a

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Speaker 1: three dimensional plus side plus signed and at the end

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Speaker 1: of each one of these arms is a cube, a

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Speaker 1: colored cube. And though that's the skeleton of the thing,

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Speaker 1: and then what what erno Rubik figured out was that

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Speaker 1: that's all that needed to be attached to the center.

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Speaker 1: You could make the other cubes attached to those those

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Speaker 1: face cubes, those center cubes qubis. Um. You could make

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Speaker 1: some cubes qubis attached to those cubis, and then other

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Speaker 1: cubs attached to the other cubs, and then they will

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Speaker 1: all kind of rotate around each other. But they're all

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Speaker 1: really rotating on three different axis coming out of that sphere.

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Speaker 1: It's a gene like this guy has gotten, like if

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Speaker 1: he started a craze and as you know, kind of

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Speaker 1: viewed as this great inventor for the toy like math, physics, architecture,

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Speaker 1: um in the in a number of different fields. He's

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Speaker 1: botanical engineering for sure. Yeah, he's viewed as just a

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Speaker 1: god in some senses for for cracking this this problem

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Speaker 1: and creating this three dimensional structure that actually works in

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Speaker 1: in reality that people can learn and study from. That's right.

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Speaker 1: So he's figured out this the mechanics of it all,

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Speaker 1: but it's still not a puzzle yet until he applies

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Speaker 1: these colors. That's what makes it a puzzle, because like

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Speaker 1: we said that at the beginning, the idea is that

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Speaker 1: you have all the colors on each side matching one,

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Speaker 1: and there he applies these colored stickers all over mixes

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Speaker 1: and twisted up a little bit, and he's like, I've

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Speaker 1: invented the cube. And then he's like, wait a minute,

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Speaker 1: I don't know how to solve the puzzle. So he

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Speaker 1: actually had built this thing, stickered it up, and looked

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Speaker 1: at it, I imagine with some level of accomplishment, and

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Speaker 1: then realized that the biggest, probably uh, the hardest thing

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Speaker 1: to do in this whole process, still lay in front

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Speaker 1: of him, which was because there were no books out

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Speaker 1: at this point. Right. He invented it, so he had

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Speaker 1: to figure out how to solve his own puzzle, and

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Speaker 1: it took him a while. It took him a month

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Speaker 1: from what I saw, Yeah, and I imagine he worked

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Speaker 1: on this pretty much NonStop to figure this thing out.

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Speaker 1: He he did, and he would like write down like

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Speaker 1: the different different moves, combination of moves which now they're

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Speaker 1: called algorithms. Um, it's just types of moves that if

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Speaker 1: you do them in a specific sequence, will solve a

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Speaker 1: specific jumbled Rubik's cube. Right, Um, So he wrote them down.

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Speaker 1: He kind of kept track of it, and that was

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Speaker 1: like the first the first um, first time anyone had

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Speaker 1: kind of applied analysis to this, but it would not

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Speaker 1: be the last, obviously, is the New York Times bestseller shows.

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Speaker 1: But the reason why it's so difficult to solve a

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Speaker 1: Rubik's cube just by happenstance is that just the sheer

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Speaker 1: number of possible configurations of the cube. Right, each face

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Speaker 1: has nine cubs, and there's six um faces, so there's

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Speaker 1: fifty four cubs, but they all relate to one another,

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Speaker 1: and so if you move one, that's one configuration, If

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Speaker 1: you move it another direction, that's another configuration, and so

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Speaker 1: on and so on, and so with these fifty four cubs, Chuck,

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Speaker 1: are you ready for this? Yes? The possible number of

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Speaker 1: configurations is forty three quintillion, two hundred and fifty two quadrillion,

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Speaker 1: three trillion, two hundred and seventy four billion, four hundred

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Speaker 1: and eighty nine million, eight hundred and fifty six thousand

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00:21:05,080 --> 00:21:09,919
Speaker 1: possible configurations of a Rubri's cube. Amazing, and one of

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Speaker 1: them one is the right one where all six faces

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Speaker 1: are all the same color. Qubi's just one. So just

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Speaker 1: doing it accidentally, your chances are one in about forty

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Speaker 1: three trillion that you're going to stumble upon that right combination,

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Speaker 1: which is pretty amazing, don't you think. And by the way,

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Speaker 1: I think I said in their fifty four there's twenty cubes.

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Speaker 1: I believe there's fifty four faces. Yeah, I mean that's

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Speaker 1: a deal. Each qub has three sides or two sides,

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Speaker 1: depending on if it's a corner or an edge, or

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Speaker 1: one if it's in the center. Right, So it's kind

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Speaker 1: of confusing. But but nine times six, so nine nine

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Speaker 1: squares or nine different colors squares times six faces is

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Speaker 1: fifty four I think fifty four faces twenty something cubies.

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Speaker 1: This is how good at Matthew Man, It's it's really

378
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Speaker 1: because it's so funny because it's such a simple little thing.

379
00:22:09,119 --> 00:22:11,240
Speaker 1: But once you start really breaking it down, you're like,

380
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Speaker 1: we could make this super confusing if we dried hard,

381
00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:16,960
Speaker 1: for sure. But what people have figured out is that

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00:22:17,119 --> 00:22:19,600
Speaker 1: they're they're like, you may have like a one and

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Speaker 1: forty three quintillion chance of stumbling across the right configuration

384
00:22:23,280 --> 00:22:25,480
Speaker 1: by accident, but what people have figured out is that

385
00:22:25,720 --> 00:22:30,000
Speaker 1: there are combination of moves like you know, um uh

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00:22:30,160 --> 00:22:34,720
Speaker 1: front right up, up twice and then down. That's that's

387
00:22:34,720 --> 00:22:37,360
Speaker 1: an algorithm, and if you apply that to a certain

388
00:22:37,760 --> 00:22:41,280
Speaker 1: kind of scrambled a certain configuration of a scrambled Rubik's cube,

389
00:22:41,320 --> 00:22:44,040
Speaker 1: it will bring it back to solved. And so people

390
00:22:44,080 --> 00:22:46,640
Speaker 1: have spent a lot of time developing algorithms, and that's

391
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Speaker 1: why Erno Rubik was originally doing when he was like, oh,

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Speaker 1: if I do this, this and this, it will make

393
00:22:50,760 --> 00:22:53,040
Speaker 1: it solved. And he wrote that down. That's what's called

394
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Speaker 1: an algorithm. Yeah, And I remember in the book, like

395
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Speaker 1: each book had their own little shorthand, I guess, but

396
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Speaker 1: I remember the one that I had. It definitely had

397
00:23:02,800 --> 00:23:06,399
Speaker 1: the algorithms all spelled out with like shorthand for what

398
00:23:06,520 --> 00:23:09,280
Speaker 1: each move was called. So it would sort of look

399
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Speaker 1: like a math problem made out of letters, right, Like

400
00:23:13,400 --> 00:23:16,160
Speaker 1: I saw you for up and dfer down, which makes

401
00:23:16,200 --> 00:23:19,200
Speaker 1: a lot of sense. But then also, um, you can

402
00:23:19,359 --> 00:23:22,080
Speaker 1: you know there you can move something to the right.

403
00:23:22,200 --> 00:23:24,000
Speaker 1: You can twist one of the rows of cubes to

404
00:23:24,040 --> 00:23:26,159
Speaker 1: the right, but you can also twist it to the

405
00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:30,000
Speaker 1: left too. So I saw an apostrophe after like l

406
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Speaker 1: apostrophe would be counterclockwise left, and then you can add

407
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Speaker 1: a number two, so you do that twice, which is

408
00:23:36,320 --> 00:23:40,800
Speaker 1: really a d eighty degree counterclockwise turn. So interesting. It

409
00:23:40,880 --> 00:23:43,520
Speaker 1: really is kind of interesting. It like at first, you know,

410
00:23:43,560 --> 00:23:46,400
Speaker 1: when I first, um went over this article the first time,

411
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Speaker 1: just taking it in, like how this is pretty neat.

412
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Speaker 1: But the Rubik's cube I found has many many layers

413
00:23:52,920 --> 00:23:56,040
Speaker 1: to it, and you can really keep going deeply into it,

414
00:23:56,119 --> 00:24:00,200
Speaker 1: well beyond just playing with the cube and try to

415
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Speaker 1: solve it. Like there's a lot of math involved. There's

416
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Speaker 1: a lot of physics and mechanics involved. You. I mean,

417
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Speaker 1: you can get us sucked into it as you like, Buddy,

418
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Speaker 1: just try not to go insane like erno Rubik did.

419
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Speaker 1: He did not when he set that that building on fire.

420
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Speaker 1: He Uh. It's interesting though, how big of a hit

421
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Speaker 1: this became sort of it flew in the face of

422
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:26,199
Speaker 1: a lot of um like sort of rules of the

423
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Speaker 1: toy industry and that uh it didn't make sounds, um,

424
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Speaker 1: it didn't have interchangeable parts. It didn't have things that

425
00:24:33,760 --> 00:24:36,600
Speaker 1: you could sell along with it, like you know, clothing,

426
00:24:36,640 --> 00:24:38,680
Speaker 1: You couldn't. I guess you could dress your little Rubik's cube,

427
00:24:38,720 --> 00:24:41,640
Speaker 1: but then you have a special relationship with it, I guess,

428
00:24:41,680 --> 00:24:44,800
Speaker 1: so you could dress it up and be like him Ruby.

429
00:24:45,200 --> 00:24:48,480
Speaker 1: It didn't have batteries. It was never like, well, I

430
00:24:48,480 --> 00:24:50,159
Speaker 1: guess it appeared on a TV show. Was that a

431
00:24:50,200 --> 00:24:53,160
Speaker 1: TV show? Yeah, it was. It was a Saturday morning

432
00:24:53,200 --> 00:24:55,919
Speaker 1: cartoon that came on right before pac Man, which was

433
00:24:56,359 --> 00:24:58,960
Speaker 1: honestly one of the all time great cartoons ever. Yeah,

434
00:24:58,960 --> 00:25:01,000
Speaker 1: it just it wasn't Mark Codable though, like you would

435
00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:03,800
Speaker 1: think it's toy would be. The reason that it appealed

436
00:25:03,800 --> 00:25:08,440
Speaker 1: and endured is because it is a real challenge and

437
00:25:08,520 --> 00:25:11,840
Speaker 1: you get a real sense of reward once you've done

438
00:25:11,840 --> 00:25:15,120
Speaker 1: it right, and that really hooks people. It really does

439
00:25:15,160 --> 00:25:18,080
Speaker 1: hook people. And again there's like not there's no shame

440
00:25:18,119 --> 00:25:23,439
Speaker 1: in going and looking up algorithms to solve UM Rubik's cubes,

441
00:25:23,600 --> 00:25:26,440
Speaker 1: like just processes. And in fact, if you start doing

442
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: any kind of research on rubicscues, you'll find like there's

443
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:34,240
Speaker 1: actually specific UM methods of attack that people suggest for

444
00:25:34,240 --> 00:25:37,320
Speaker 1: for beginners to start with. There's one called the white

445
00:25:37,320 --> 00:25:41,480
Speaker 1: Cross method class which is um entails eating a handful

446
00:25:41,520 --> 00:25:45,400
Speaker 1: of white Cross gas station speed up for four days

447
00:25:45,480 --> 00:25:49,520
Speaker 1: until you until you get done. It's actually you start

448
00:25:49,560 --> 00:25:51,639
Speaker 1: with the edge pieces and then you move to the

449
00:25:51,680 --> 00:25:54,720
Speaker 1: corner pieces, putting them all in place and then you

450
00:25:54,920 --> 00:25:58,080
Speaker 1: um go on from there, starting with the white face

451
00:25:58,119 --> 00:26:01,159
Speaker 1: of the cube. That's right. And uh, this toy was

452
00:26:01,160 --> 00:26:05,200
Speaker 1: a big hit anyway, but it it is endured, Uh

453
00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:09,920
Speaker 1: not because of stocking stuffers or nostalgia, but it is

454
00:26:10,040 --> 00:26:14,480
Speaker 1: endured all these years later because of competition. Yeah. So

455
00:26:14,560 --> 00:26:17,040
Speaker 1: let's take a break now and we'll talk about speed

456
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:21,240
Speaker 1: cubing right after this. Well, now we're on the road

457
00:26:21,880 --> 00:26:24,520
Speaker 1: driving in your truck. Want to learn a thing or

458
00:26:24,600 --> 00:26:28,560
Speaker 1: two from Josh Man Chuck. It's stuff you should know,

459
00:26:30,840 --> 00:26:52,480
Speaker 1: all right, Okay, So the Rubik's Cube comes out in

460
00:26:52,800 --> 00:26:56,600
Speaker 1: the world basically in ninety and the next year, the

461
00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:00,280
Speaker 1: very next year, countries around the world were whole holding

462
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:05,320
Speaker 1: national championships for um solving Rubik's cubes as fast as

463
00:27:05,320 --> 00:27:08,720
Speaker 1: you possibly could. It's called speed cubing. Yes. And then

464
00:27:08,920 --> 00:27:11,520
Speaker 1: a year after that they all got together, all the

465
00:27:11,600 --> 00:27:14,760
Speaker 1: champions of the countries for the very first Rubik's Cube

466
00:27:14,760 --> 00:27:18,560
Speaker 1: World Championship in Budapest, which is kind of cool. Um,

467
00:27:18,600 --> 00:27:20,920
Speaker 1: And that's what has kept people going for so long,

468
00:27:20,960 --> 00:27:26,080
Speaker 1: because there there's people are still trying to beat these records.

469
00:27:26,600 --> 00:27:28,520
Speaker 1: I saw a kid and it's kind of hard to

470
00:27:28,560 --> 00:27:31,480
Speaker 1: tell what the top times because they list the top

471
00:27:31,480 --> 00:27:34,639
Speaker 1: times in these competitions. But I saw a kid on

472
00:27:34,680 --> 00:27:36,879
Speaker 1: YouTube do it in like six seconds or four or

473
00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:40,480
Speaker 1: five seconds. I saw one do it in three point

474
00:27:40,560 --> 00:27:44,480
Speaker 1: four seven. Yeah, I don't know how, like how it's

475
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:49,080
Speaker 1: officially judged though there's a timer, um and one of

476
00:27:49,119 --> 00:27:51,480
Speaker 1: those there's one of those mats that you keep your

477
00:27:51,480 --> 00:27:55,640
Speaker 1: hands on, But like, why does it say that that

478
00:27:55,680 --> 00:27:59,679
Speaker 1: those aren't world records? Then? I don't know. That's what

479
00:27:59,720 --> 00:28:02,680
Speaker 1: I saw was the world record was in two thousand eighteen.

480
00:28:02,760 --> 00:28:05,080
Speaker 1: It was three point four seven seconds by Yu Shang

481
00:28:05,520 --> 00:28:07,920
Speaker 1: Yu Shang do sorry of China. So you've seen other

482
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:10,600
Speaker 1: things listed. I just don't know if there's like the

483
00:28:11,040 --> 00:28:14,800
Speaker 1: bodies aren't speaking to one another or what. Maybe it's

484
00:28:14,880 --> 00:28:22,679
Speaker 1: that was a a non championship uh time sanctioned event

485
00:28:23,080 --> 00:28:25,480
Speaker 1: or even even maybe it was a qualifier or something

486
00:28:25,520 --> 00:28:27,919
Speaker 1: like that. So it doesn't count as the world record

487
00:28:28,000 --> 00:28:31,280
Speaker 1: unless you get whatever time is done at the World

488
00:28:31,359 --> 00:28:35,160
Speaker 1: championship that's considered the world record. Who knows. It's crazy

489
00:28:35,200 --> 00:28:37,879
Speaker 1: to see how fast these kids and it's usually kids

490
00:28:37,920 --> 00:28:41,320
Speaker 1: that win, um, I guess with their little nimble fingers

491
00:28:42,400 --> 00:28:46,320
Speaker 1: and brain sponges. Uh it's crazy how fast they're doing.

492
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:48,440
Speaker 1: It doesn't look real. It looks like some sort of

493
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:50,920
Speaker 1: weird faked video. Yeah. And here's the other thing too.

494
00:28:50,920 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 1: I'm glad you mentioned brain sponges because it is like

495
00:28:53,400 --> 00:28:58,600
Speaker 1: a um, an intellectual pursuit. Like from the beginning of this,

496
00:28:58,600 --> 00:29:01,720
Speaker 1: this toy's release in nine teen eighty, like they win

497
00:29:01,760 --> 00:29:04,680
Speaker 1: a different route, like you're saying it doesn't require batteries.

498
00:29:04,720 --> 00:29:07,560
Speaker 1: It was you know, um, it doesn't make a noise

499
00:29:07,680 --> 00:29:09,800
Speaker 1: or anything like that, so they went a different route

500
00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,640
Speaker 1: in advertising it. And so this is an intelligent game,

501
00:29:12,760 --> 00:29:15,600
Speaker 1: like I'm sure Isaac Newton discovered gravity, but could he

502
00:29:15,680 --> 00:29:18,320
Speaker 1: solve a Rubik's cube? You know, So they really kind

503
00:29:18,360 --> 00:29:20,720
Speaker 1: of play that up. And it's true because these kids

504
00:29:20,760 --> 00:29:23,920
Speaker 1: who are solving or people who are solving Rubik's cubes

505
00:29:24,080 --> 00:29:27,600
Speaker 1: super fast. It's not just like look or their fingers

506
00:29:27,600 --> 00:29:30,800
Speaker 1: are just moving forward them. They have memorized hundreds, if

507
00:29:30,840 --> 00:29:34,200
Speaker 1: not thousands, of these algorithms and have gotten to the

508
00:29:34,240 --> 00:29:37,120
Speaker 1: point where they can look at a cube and figure

509
00:29:37,120 --> 00:29:39,760
Speaker 1: out which algorithm is going to solve it the fastest,

510
00:29:40,120 --> 00:29:42,600
Speaker 1: and then when the time starts, they can also move

511
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:45,760
Speaker 1: their fingers really really quick and that's how they're getting

512
00:29:45,800 --> 00:29:49,120
Speaker 1: these amazing times. It's not just speed and dexterity, it's

513
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:53,360
Speaker 1: also knowing what algorithm is going to work best. Yeah,

514
00:29:53,400 --> 00:29:57,200
Speaker 1: for sure, you know, it died out pretty quickly, like

515
00:29:57,320 --> 00:30:00,880
Speaker 1: most fad toys. Um, once you sell a lot of these,

516
00:30:01,520 --> 00:30:04,160
Speaker 1: you don't need another one unless you break yours or something.

517
00:30:04,800 --> 00:30:06,280
Speaker 1: So it's kind of one of those things where and

518
00:30:06,320 --> 00:30:08,040
Speaker 1: which is again why it flew in the face of

519
00:30:08,120 --> 00:30:12,360
Speaker 1: the toy industry because they couldn't sell ancillary products alongside it.

520
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:15,400
Speaker 1: But uh, you know, it died out pretty quickly in

521
00:30:15,440 --> 00:30:19,120
Speaker 1: the championship. Uh two was the last one for about

522
00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:23,520
Speaker 1: twenty years until the Internet comes along and all of

523
00:30:23,560 --> 00:30:26,840
Speaker 1: a sudden there are people posting faster times than ever

524
00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,959
Speaker 1: before than twenty years earlier. And in two thousand three,

525
00:30:30,520 --> 00:30:34,440
Speaker 1: UM in Canada, there was a speed cuber named Dan

526
00:30:34,520 --> 00:30:39,840
Speaker 1: Gosby who organized a competition in Toronto. And this is

527
00:30:39,840 --> 00:30:42,240
Speaker 1: where they're getting it down to, like twenty seconds, and

528
00:30:42,280 --> 00:30:46,720
Speaker 1: they have different categories like blindfolded, fewest moves, one handed,

529
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:50,560
Speaker 1: feet feet feet dude. Last year someone did it in

530
00:30:50,720 --> 00:30:54,040
Speaker 1: twenty three seconds by foot, which was about the quickest

531
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:57,720
Speaker 1: time by hand at the first competition, Yes, and it

532
00:30:57,760 --> 00:31:00,360
Speaker 1: took them longer to figure out that they had solved

533
00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:02,520
Speaker 1: it then it did to actually solve it because they

534
00:31:02,520 --> 00:31:04,960
Speaker 1: had to use a stick to turn the Rubik's cube

535
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:06,920
Speaker 1: over because they had used their feet to solve it.

536
00:31:08,320 --> 00:31:11,720
Speaker 1: And I think, uh, when you participate, it didn't pay

537
00:31:11,720 --> 00:31:14,680
Speaker 1: off as well as I thought it would. Sight. Uh,

538
00:31:14,720 --> 00:31:16,960
Speaker 1: you get fifteen seconds to look at the cube over.

539
00:31:18,120 --> 00:31:21,240
Speaker 1: Um they are all started. Uh, like the cubes are

540
00:31:21,280 --> 00:31:25,920
Speaker 1: all started the same with like a computer generated random scramble.

541
00:31:26,120 --> 00:31:28,360
Speaker 1: It's just fair. You get that fifteen seconds, you check

542
00:31:28,400 --> 00:31:30,760
Speaker 1: it out, you set it on your mat, and then

543
00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:35,040
Speaker 1: you go and it's just like I said, it's amazing

544
00:31:35,080 --> 00:31:37,960
Speaker 1: to see these things done in like sub four seconds. Yeah,

545
00:31:37,960 --> 00:31:40,080
Speaker 1: because they're there. I mean their hands actually do kind

546
00:31:40,080 --> 00:31:42,320
Speaker 1: of blur, like you can't really follow where their hands

547
00:31:42,320 --> 00:31:45,360
Speaker 1: are at any given time. They barely touch the rubrics cube.

548
00:31:45,440 --> 00:31:49,200
Speaker 1: And they're using To be fair, they're using specialized speed cubes.

549
00:31:49,320 --> 00:31:51,960
Speaker 1: They're not just using like off the shelf rubrics cubes.

550
00:31:52,280 --> 00:31:56,320
Speaker 1: We'll talk about those, go ahead, talk about them. Sure. Yeah.

551
00:31:56,360 --> 00:31:58,600
Speaker 1: So so people go to the trouble of getting a

552
00:31:58,600 --> 00:32:00,960
Speaker 1: speed cube. It's like, you know, you can get one

553
00:32:01,040 --> 00:32:03,520
Speaker 1: for you can get a good one from what I understand,

554
00:32:03,520 --> 00:32:06,720
Speaker 1: for about seventies seventy five bucks. And these things are

555
00:32:06,920 --> 00:32:11,920
Speaker 1: literally well oiled machines that are just super fast. Some

556
00:32:11,960 --> 00:32:14,120
Speaker 1: of them use magnets so that you can tell when

557
00:32:14,120 --> 00:32:17,040
Speaker 1: they're snapped into place, and um, they move a lot

558
00:32:17,080 --> 00:32:20,440
Speaker 1: more easily and quickly. Um. There you can just look

559
00:32:20,440 --> 00:32:22,400
Speaker 1: at and be like, that's a high end Rubik's cube

560
00:32:22,480 --> 00:32:25,240
Speaker 1: right there. Yeah. Like you can pay to get your

561
00:32:25,280 --> 00:32:29,560
Speaker 1: cube serviced, uh and checked out at speed cube shop.

562
00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:33,080
Speaker 1: So someone will take it apart, a technician and they

563
00:32:33,080 --> 00:32:36,400
Speaker 1: will look at each of those little cubs for defects

564
00:32:36,440 --> 00:32:38,320
Speaker 1: and like, has it got a little bump here that

565
00:32:38,360 --> 00:32:41,720
Speaker 1: will slow it down? They'll smooth that out, like you said,

566
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,280
Speaker 1: Sometimes they use magnets, um. And one of the reasons

567
00:32:45,360 --> 00:32:48,160
Speaker 1: for the magnets is it creates that snap when a

568
00:32:48,200 --> 00:32:50,760
Speaker 1: turn is completed. Because if you want to move these

569
00:32:50,760 --> 00:32:53,840
Speaker 1: things really fast, you don't want it to be you know,

570
00:32:54,320 --> 00:32:56,440
Speaker 1: even if it's an eighth of an inch out of whack,

571
00:32:56,760 --> 00:32:58,480
Speaker 1: you're not gonna be able to turn it the other way.

572
00:32:59,080 --> 00:33:02,120
Speaker 1: So you want it to snap up and lock into place. Uh,

573
00:33:03,080 --> 00:33:07,640
Speaker 1: you know, you want it's just amazing, how how engineered

574
00:33:08,040 --> 00:33:11,800
Speaker 1: these things have become. What in these speed cubing competitions, right, well,

575
00:33:11,840 --> 00:33:13,960
Speaker 1: I mean just to keep up, you've gotta you've gotta

576
00:33:14,000 --> 00:33:16,000
Speaker 1: get yourself a speed cube. If you showed up, like

577
00:33:16,360 --> 00:33:19,840
Speaker 1: to an actual competition with just a regular Rubik's cube,

578
00:33:20,600 --> 00:33:22,240
Speaker 1: I don't know if you'd be laughed out of place,

579
00:33:22,320 --> 00:33:26,840
Speaker 1: but they would. They would certainly feel bad for you.

580
00:33:26,840 --> 00:33:29,160
Speaker 1: You know. What they should do is like because you know,

581
00:33:29,200 --> 00:33:32,160
Speaker 1: I remember them loosening up really well and getting faster

582
00:33:32,280 --> 00:33:35,000
Speaker 1: just because you played with it more. Instead of giving

583
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:38,040
Speaker 1: everyone speed cubes and trying to get this ultra red

584
00:33:38,080 --> 00:33:43,200
Speaker 1: Bull record, which they sponsor the events now by the way, Uh,

585
00:33:43,400 --> 00:33:46,080
Speaker 1: they should give everyone like out of the package. Make

586
00:33:46,120 --> 00:33:48,680
Speaker 1: it as hard as possible. I agree. I think that

587
00:33:48,720 --> 00:33:52,240
Speaker 1: there would be some um, you know, preteens who are

588
00:33:52,280 --> 00:33:55,280
Speaker 1: really high strung that would cry if they were confronted

589
00:33:55,320 --> 00:33:57,200
Speaker 1: with that challenge, if they had to put their speed

590
00:33:57,240 --> 00:33:59,280
Speaker 1: cube down. Yeah, they'd be like, this is not fair.

591
00:33:59,400 --> 00:34:02,800
Speaker 1: No one prepared me in my life for this. I

592
00:34:02,840 --> 00:34:05,240
Speaker 1: did mention Red Bull because it was kind of controversial

593
00:34:05,520 --> 00:34:10,799
Speaker 1: for many years. Uh, the Rubics World Championships, Uh, we're

594
00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:15,040
Speaker 1: co hosted by the World Cube Association with the support

595
00:34:15,040 --> 00:34:18,560
Speaker 1: of the brand. But then clearly some money changed hands

596
00:34:19,320 --> 00:34:21,200
Speaker 1: a couple of years ago. That was the Red Bull

597
00:34:21,280 --> 00:34:25,360
Speaker 1: Rubik's Cube World Championship. Uh you know, red Bull got involved,

598
00:34:25,800 --> 00:34:28,439
Speaker 1: the brand, Rubik got involved, which means there was money

599
00:34:28,520 --> 00:34:32,040
Speaker 1: changing hands. You're really fascinated with that money changing hands,

600
00:34:32,080 --> 00:34:34,040
Speaker 1: aren't too? Well? I mean sure, because it was I

601
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:36,400
Speaker 1: think everyone saw it as for what it was, which was,

602
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:39,160
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, there's a corporate sponsor attached to it. Yeah,

603
00:34:39,200 --> 00:34:42,080
Speaker 1: and that that is like a pretty important point because

604
00:34:42,239 --> 00:34:44,759
Speaker 1: like this was there was already a World Championship and

605
00:34:44,800 --> 00:34:47,799
Speaker 1: it was like a grassroots organization that had grown up

606
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,160
Speaker 1: since two thousand and three and they were doing really well,

607
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,759
Speaker 1: and then all of a sudden, fifteen years later, red

608
00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:55,080
Speaker 1: Bull comes along attached to the Rubik's Brain is like,

609
00:34:55,120 --> 00:34:57,800
Speaker 1: out of the way, nerds, this is the real one.

610
00:34:58,200 --> 00:35:00,360
Speaker 1: And so apparently, um, it was a there was a

611
00:35:00,440 --> 00:35:03,200
Speaker 1: lot of controversy, like you were saying, but um, now

612
00:35:03,239 --> 00:35:06,840
Speaker 1: they kind of coexist and the Red Bull Rubics sponsored

613
00:35:06,880 --> 00:35:10,400
Speaker 1: one changed their name from World Championship to World Cup

614
00:35:11,040 --> 00:35:12,920
Speaker 1: so that they don't step on each other's feet. At all.

615
00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:14,799
Speaker 1: But if you think about it, that's a pretty big

616
00:35:14,800 --> 00:35:19,520
Speaker 1: win for this grassroots world cubing association to to be

617
00:35:19,600 --> 00:35:21,440
Speaker 1: able to keep their original name and not have to

618
00:35:21,520 --> 00:35:25,160
Speaker 1: change their name. You know, Hats off to them. Hats

619
00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:30,560
Speaker 1: off indeed. So um one of the uh the the

620
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:34,000
Speaker 1: things that I said about the Rubik's cube, Chuck is

621
00:35:34,040 --> 00:35:36,600
Speaker 1: that it's got a lot of layers too, and there's

622
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:39,600
Speaker 1: a lot of surprising math involved. Specifically, there is a

623
00:35:39,719 --> 00:35:45,000
Speaker 1: kind of algebra called UM group theory, and um one

624
00:35:45,040 --> 00:35:46,960
Speaker 1: of the one of the things that has long kind

625
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:51,799
Speaker 1: of fascinated mathematicians is that there is somewhere in there

626
00:35:52,440 --> 00:35:56,880
Speaker 1: a a number of moves, there's an algorithm that has

627
00:35:57,760 --> 00:35:59,839
Speaker 1: or there's a number of moves associated with any number

628
00:35:59,840 --> 00:36:02,319
Speaker 1: of algorithms. Man, I'm making this way harder than it

629
00:36:02,360 --> 00:36:07,480
Speaker 1: actually is. Where it represents the maximum number of moves

630
00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:11,600
Speaker 1: you would need to use to solve any configuration, any

631
00:36:11,719 --> 00:36:16,200
Speaker 1: of the forty three quintillion configurations of a Rubik's cube.

632
00:36:16,320 --> 00:36:19,360
Speaker 1: And some people figured out that this number must exist,

633
00:36:19,760 --> 00:36:23,440
Speaker 1: and brother they got obsessed with it. From to two

634
00:36:23,480 --> 00:36:27,360
Speaker 1: thousand ten, some people almost set a building full of

635
00:36:27,440 --> 00:36:31,360
Speaker 1: Rubik's cubes on fire yeah. I mean they've really researched

636
00:36:31,360 --> 00:36:35,320
Speaker 1: this stuff to the point where, uh, like computer scientists

637
00:36:35,360 --> 00:36:38,200
Speaker 1: are looking into this. There was a guy, uh named

638
00:36:38,200 --> 00:36:42,799
Speaker 1: Thomas rakiki Um who got that the upper limit down

639
00:36:42,800 --> 00:36:45,600
Speaker 1: to twenty two moves and this is like Google is

640
00:36:45,640 --> 00:36:49,440
Speaker 1: helping him out with the processing power. So they call

641
00:36:49,480 --> 00:36:52,760
Speaker 1: it God's algorithm. I mean, in the case of Rubik's cube,

642
00:36:53,520 --> 00:36:57,840
Speaker 1: um they got down to twenty is where they landed, right, Yeah,

643
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,560
Speaker 1: But God's algorithm can be used for any uzzle really,

644
00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:04,600
Speaker 1: uh you know, and that is and why do they

645
00:37:04,640 --> 00:37:07,120
Speaker 1: call it God's algorithm? It's what how God would solve

646
00:37:07,120 --> 00:37:10,480
Speaker 1: the puzzle. So from what I saw is God's God's

647
00:37:10,560 --> 00:37:13,920
Speaker 1: number is that the maximum number of moves that God

648
00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:20,440
Speaker 1: would require to solve any configuration of the puzzle. Got

649
00:37:20,480 --> 00:37:24,719
Speaker 1: a little confusing in this article because it's a bit

650
00:37:24,719 --> 00:37:28,040
Speaker 1: of a brain trick. It's like the fewest moves, but

651
00:37:28,160 --> 00:37:31,880
Speaker 1: it's a maximum number of moves right right exactly. It's

652
00:37:31,920 --> 00:37:34,080
Speaker 1: it's hard to wrap your mind around. And then there's

653
00:37:34,120 --> 00:37:39,120
Speaker 1: actually fewer moves for other algorithms. So I saw God's

654
00:37:39,200 --> 00:37:42,920
Speaker 1: number is actually probably more like somewhere between nineteen and twenty.

655
00:37:43,360 --> 00:37:47,600
Speaker 1: But because there are algorithms out there that have to

656
00:37:47,680 --> 00:37:51,359
Speaker 1: be done in no less than twenty moves. That's still

657
00:37:51,480 --> 00:37:54,080
Speaker 1: God's number. And there's also the Devil's number. I saw

658
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:56,879
Speaker 1: it too, which is the number of moves in an

659
00:37:56,880 --> 00:38:00,960
Speaker 1: algorithm that it would take to go through all forty

660
00:38:01,040 --> 00:38:07,200
Speaker 1: three plus quintillion um configurations before you solve it. Which

661
00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:10,520
Speaker 1: I think that's a pretty good name for that one. Yeah,

662
00:38:10,560 --> 00:38:12,759
Speaker 1: now that's the one that they're on the trail of now.

663
00:38:13,120 --> 00:38:15,640
Speaker 1: But they're they're done at twenty, right, they are. But

664
00:38:15,760 --> 00:38:18,520
Speaker 1: I think I think it's interesting that that we're not

665
00:38:18,840 --> 00:38:22,560
Speaker 1: entirely certain. It's not like, okay, this has been proven,

666
00:38:22,600 --> 00:38:25,640
Speaker 1: it's done. What the reason why they arrived at twenties

667
00:38:25,760 --> 00:38:28,600
Speaker 1: because they actually built an algorithm to try to solve

668
00:38:28,600 --> 00:38:32,239
Speaker 1: these algorithms. They taught an AI basically how to play

669
00:38:32,360 --> 00:38:36,160
Speaker 1: Rubik's Cuba. They said, here's a Rubik's Cuba teacherself, and

670
00:38:36,200 --> 00:38:40,640
Speaker 1: then they had it play just just some mind numbing

671
00:38:40,719 --> 00:38:44,359
Speaker 1: number of different Rubik's cubes hands trying to solve it,

672
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:47,920
Speaker 1: and it kept coming up with twenty and so it

673
00:38:47,960 --> 00:38:49,799
Speaker 1: came up with twenty enough times that they're like, well,

674
00:38:49,800 --> 00:38:52,360
Speaker 1: our computer God has told us that twenty is the

675
00:38:52,880 --> 00:38:55,239
Speaker 1: is God's number. So there you have it. But we

676
00:38:55,440 --> 00:38:58,160
Speaker 1: no one, It wasn't proven, it wasn't solved. It was

677
00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:00,799
Speaker 1: just like, this thing is so so smart that we're

678
00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,239
Speaker 1: just gonna go with twenty. So someone still working on

679
00:39:03,280 --> 00:39:05,319
Speaker 1: it then, probably, I guess, but I think I get

680
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:09,920
Speaker 1: the impression that they have moved on to the devil's number. So,

681
00:39:10,040 --> 00:39:12,040
Speaker 1: as you would imagine, with the toy of this caliber,

682
00:39:12,320 --> 00:39:15,279
Speaker 1: they were bound to be other people saying they invented it,

683
00:39:15,520 --> 00:39:18,680
Speaker 1: and patent battles would ensue, and of course this was

684
00:39:18,719 --> 00:39:22,080
Speaker 1: the case with the Rubik's Cube. Uh in ninety seven,

685
00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:26,200
Speaker 1: when Rubict got his Hungarian patent for the magic Cube,

686
00:39:26,440 --> 00:39:29,960
Speaker 1: there was another inventor named Larry Nichols who had already

687
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:33,960
Speaker 1: patented something very similar in the US. Isn't that amazing? Yeah,

688
00:39:34,000 --> 00:39:36,120
Speaker 1: this was in nineteen seventy two, but his was for

689
00:39:36,200 --> 00:39:39,160
Speaker 1: a two by two by two cube, a three by

690
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:43,880
Speaker 1: three by three, still same concept, And at first he

691
00:39:43,960 --> 00:39:46,040
Speaker 1: was like, this is this is hilarious. You know, I

692
00:39:46,080 --> 00:39:48,320
Speaker 1: had the same idea, and now it's become a national craze.

693
00:39:48,320 --> 00:39:50,680
Speaker 1: It's kind of satisfying. And somebody said, do you have

694
00:39:50,719 --> 00:39:53,200
Speaker 1: any idea. How much money you are losing out on

695
00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:55,760
Speaker 1: right now? You should sue? He said, Oh my gosh,

696
00:39:55,760 --> 00:39:58,120
Speaker 1: you're right, I should sue. And I get the impression

697
00:39:58,160 --> 00:40:00,680
Speaker 1: that either the company he worked for or the company

698
00:40:00,719 --> 00:40:03,520
Speaker 1: he sold the patent to really lead the charge in

699
00:40:03,600 --> 00:40:07,520
Speaker 1: suing for this patent infringement. Um. But he had a

700
00:40:07,520 --> 00:40:09,560
Speaker 1: pretty good case. I mean, he had invented it and

701
00:40:09,600 --> 00:40:13,000
Speaker 1: patented it years before. It was just the number of

702
00:40:13,040 --> 00:40:16,279
Speaker 1: cubes involved was smaller. Yeah, I mean there was another

703
00:40:16,320 --> 00:40:18,840
Speaker 1: guy too, a guy named Frank Frank Fox, I thinking

704
00:40:18,920 --> 00:40:21,880
Speaker 1: seventy four. He actually did the three by three by three,

705
00:40:22,920 --> 00:40:26,719
Speaker 1: but he let his patent laps, whereas Nichols did not.

706
00:40:26,920 --> 00:40:29,400
Speaker 1: And those people like you were talking about that he

707
00:40:29,560 --> 00:40:34,120
Speaker 1: that actually owned nichols patent were called uh Molecular Research Corporation.

708
00:40:34,600 --> 00:40:38,239
Speaker 1: That sounds scary yeah and ligitious. Yeah, yeah they do.

709
00:40:38,880 --> 00:40:41,600
Speaker 1: So I want to point out, though, it's definitely worth

710
00:40:41,600 --> 00:40:44,160
Speaker 1: saying out right, there is no evidence, and I don't

711
00:40:44,160 --> 00:40:48,000
Speaker 1: think anyone's ever leveled in accusation that Erno Rubic stole

712
00:40:48,160 --> 00:40:53,359
Speaker 1: this idea. It was just arrived at independently, and he

713
00:40:53,440 --> 00:40:55,879
Speaker 1: was working behind the iron curtain at the time too,

714
00:40:56,080 --> 00:40:59,400
Speaker 1: So the chances of any exposure are pretty low. It

715
00:40:59,520 --> 00:41:01,360
Speaker 1: was just some people kind of came up with the

716
00:41:01,440 --> 00:41:04,400
Speaker 1: same idea at the same time. And erno Rubik's is

717
00:41:04,440 --> 00:41:08,680
Speaker 1: the one that hit trite. A federal district court ruled

718
00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:11,960
Speaker 1: in favor of Moleculon, but then in eighty six and

719
00:41:12,040 --> 00:41:15,719
Speaker 1: appeals court overturned that, saying only that two by two

720
00:41:15,719 --> 00:41:20,879
Speaker 1: by two uh Rubik's cube because they started making different variations. Um,

721
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:22,760
Speaker 1: they made a smaller one that they said in French.

722
00:41:22,880 --> 00:41:25,120
Speaker 1: In fact, I remember now I had a little guy

723
00:41:25,120 --> 00:41:27,480
Speaker 1: on a car key for a short time. Oh yeah,

724
00:41:27,520 --> 00:41:30,680
Speaker 1: I remember that. I'm not mistaken. But then in nineteen

725
00:41:30,680 --> 00:41:34,760
Speaker 1: eighty nine, another appeals court upheld the previous appeals court decision.

726
00:41:35,160 --> 00:41:37,000
Speaker 1: I should I should say. I read an article by

727
00:41:37,040 --> 00:41:41,319
Speaker 1: that guy uh Nichols who had the original patent, and

728
00:41:41,480 --> 00:41:43,160
Speaker 1: they were like, you know you, I think they were

729
00:41:43,160 --> 00:41:45,520
Speaker 1: suing for like fifty million or something, and there were

730
00:41:45,560 --> 00:41:48,640
Speaker 1: you satisfied with the outcome? He said, yeah, I was satisfied.

731
00:41:48,680 --> 00:41:50,680
Speaker 1: He's like, I got enough to put both of my

732
00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:54,440
Speaker 1: kids through Harvard, so I'm pretty happy with that. And um,

733
00:41:54,480 --> 00:41:56,640
Speaker 1: you know, like he invented this thing that he was

734
00:41:56,680 --> 00:42:00,640
Speaker 1: able to send his kid through Harvard with you know, yeah,

735
00:42:00,640 --> 00:42:05,600
Speaker 1: that's always interesting when someone wins something like that. But

736
00:42:05,840 --> 00:42:09,520
Speaker 1: it wasn't like stolen from him, right, It was just

737
00:42:09,719 --> 00:42:12,440
Speaker 1: he had the patent first and they agreed. You know

738
00:42:12,520 --> 00:42:16,000
Speaker 1: What's what's even crazier that makes that story just absolutely insane.

739
00:42:16,600 --> 00:42:19,560
Speaker 1: He had approached Ideal toys with and they had not

740
00:42:19,640 --> 00:42:22,000
Speaker 1: bought it, And then they went on years later to

741
00:42:22,120 --> 00:42:27,400
Speaker 1: buy um the the Erno Rubic version. Yeah, they put

742
00:42:27,440 --> 00:42:30,400
Speaker 1: out a bunch of difference. They made big ones, like

743
00:42:30,440 --> 00:42:32,319
Speaker 1: the tiny ones I just talked about. I remember I

744
00:42:32,320 --> 00:42:35,000
Speaker 1: had a snake. I did too, and I had no

745
00:42:35,080 --> 00:42:36,560
Speaker 1: idea what to do with that. I just played with

746
00:42:36,560 --> 00:42:38,960
Speaker 1: it like it was a snake. I did the same thing. Yeah,

747
00:42:39,360 --> 00:42:41,560
Speaker 1: I just twisted around stuff. I still don't know what

748
00:42:41,600 --> 00:42:43,200
Speaker 1: you were supposed to do with that thing. I think

749
00:42:43,239 --> 00:42:46,080
Speaker 1: eventually the snake would be put together in some sort

750
00:42:46,120 --> 00:42:48,880
Speaker 1: of a three dimensional octagon or something, if I remember

751
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:52,520
Speaker 1: for hexagon. Yeah, I was way off, but yeah, I

752
00:42:52,520 --> 00:42:54,080
Speaker 1: didn't know how to I didn't even try to learn.

753
00:42:54,120 --> 00:42:55,839
Speaker 1: I just kind of played with it. I taught mine

754
00:42:55,840 --> 00:43:02,239
Speaker 1: did drink water. Mine drinks from a ups right, that's

755
00:43:02,360 --> 00:43:05,839
Speaker 1: very rough. Wickham Uh, Erno Rubik is still alive and well.

756
00:43:06,000 --> 00:43:10,600
Speaker 1: He lives in Hungary, still teaches architecture. Uh I imagine,

757
00:43:10,640 --> 00:43:13,800
Speaker 1: has a boatload of money, so he's founded some multiple

758
00:43:13,880 --> 00:43:18,160
Speaker 1: foundations with the conventers. It's very cool. Yeah, he has

759
00:43:18,200 --> 00:43:20,800
Speaker 1: a boatload of money, so much so that his success

760
00:43:20,880 --> 00:43:24,200
Speaker 1: story is considered by some to have been the thing

761
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:29,319
Speaker 1: that opened the gates to capitalism in Hungary. Amazing um.

762
00:43:29,719 --> 00:43:33,960
Speaker 1: They also made him the president of the Hungarian Engineering

763
00:43:34,040 --> 00:43:37,239
Speaker 1: Academy and he's still I think shows up once in

764
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:40,399
Speaker 1: a while to the World Championships and maybe the World Cup.

765
00:43:40,520 --> 00:43:43,319
Speaker 1: I don't know. He didn't seem like a very controversial type.

766
00:43:43,840 --> 00:43:45,640
Speaker 1: It seems like a good guy. And if you really

767
00:43:45,680 --> 00:43:47,480
Speaker 1: want to go crazy, if you've solved a ton of

768
00:43:47,560 --> 00:43:49,680
Speaker 1: Rubik's cubes, but this has kind of made your nostalgic

769
00:43:49,800 --> 00:43:52,719
Speaker 1: to try something harder. They make a thirteen by thirteen

770
00:43:52,800 --> 00:43:56,600
Speaker 1: by thirteen Rubik's Cube, and there's something else called the

771
00:43:56,719 --> 00:44:00,160
Speaker 1: S Cube as K E W B and it is

772
00:44:00,920 --> 00:44:02,800
Speaker 1: I don't even know what you're supposed to do with it.

773
00:44:03,080 --> 00:44:05,960
Speaker 1: It's like the Snake times a trillion to me. And

774
00:44:06,000 --> 00:44:10,399
Speaker 1: there's also a movie called Cube which is like Saw

775
00:44:10,680 --> 00:44:13,520
Speaker 1: with math. Oh I saw that? Yeah, yeah, it has

776
00:44:13,600 --> 00:44:16,880
Speaker 1: nothing to do with Rubik's cubes. And there's uh, The

777
00:44:17,360 --> 00:44:21,000
Speaker 1: Pursuit of Happiness where Will Smith gets a job as

778
00:44:21,040 --> 00:44:24,560
Speaker 1: a stockbroker because somebody sees him solve a Rubik's cuban

779
00:44:24,719 --> 00:44:27,840
Speaker 1: something like two minutes or less. And apparently while he

780
00:44:27,920 --> 00:44:31,520
Speaker 1: was promoting that movie he solved one in less than

781
00:44:31,600 --> 00:44:34,919
Speaker 1: a minute himself in real life. You mean the movie

782
00:44:35,080 --> 00:44:39,920
Speaker 1: The Pursuit of Halpwayness. Did they explain that in the movie.

783
00:44:40,120 --> 00:44:42,000
Speaker 1: I'm sure I never saw it. I just always called

784
00:44:42,040 --> 00:44:44,719
Speaker 1: it Hapwayness. Did you ever see that one where he

785
00:44:44,880 --> 00:44:47,799
Speaker 1: was like super depressed in his his colleagues at work,

786
00:44:47,920 --> 00:44:52,840
Speaker 1: like just gaslight him into thinking he's being visited by angels? No?

787
00:44:53,320 --> 00:44:55,799
Speaker 1: I didn't. Did you see the one where he went

788
00:44:57,320 --> 00:44:59,120
Speaker 1: he was from West Philadelphia and he went to live

789
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:04,040
Speaker 1: with his rich relative. Yeah, I did, as he dressed

790
00:45:04,120 --> 00:45:08,680
Speaker 1: very colorfully. He was I think in bel Air. Uh

791
00:45:08,920 --> 00:45:11,040
Speaker 1: what was it kill there? I think I was Santa Barbara.

792
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:13,719
Speaker 1: You're right, okay? Uh, Well, if you want to know

793
00:45:13,840 --> 00:45:16,439
Speaker 1: more about Will Smith, you can type his name into

794
00:45:16,480 --> 00:45:18,840
Speaker 1: the search bar at how stuff works dot com. And

795
00:45:18,960 --> 00:45:22,520
Speaker 1: since I said Will Smith it's time for listener mail.

796
00:45:25,880 --> 00:45:30,400
Speaker 1: I've got a coconut tree correction. Hey, guys, correction on

797
00:45:30,920 --> 00:45:34,080
Speaker 1: something said during the episode The Cult of the Coconut

798
00:45:34,920 --> 00:45:40,000
Speaker 1: when you guys talked about the culpa rishka. First of all,

799
00:45:40,480 --> 00:45:45,000
Speaker 1: it's not pronounced that way. Uh, it is pronounced culpa rushka.

800
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:50,200
Speaker 1: But we were way off, all right, She says, Uh,

801
00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:56,360
Speaker 1: rushka or rushka depending on transliteration, simply means tree in Sanskrit. Okay.

802
00:45:56,840 --> 00:45:59,239
Speaker 1: Also always mispronounced by people in the West. By the way,

803
00:45:59,719 --> 00:46:01,880
Speaker 1: Oh well, I don't feel that bad. Yeah, exactly correct

804
00:46:01,880 --> 00:46:07,359
Speaker 1: pronunciation is uh sounds screwed. Now she's saying sanscrit as

805
00:46:07,360 --> 00:46:11,120
Speaker 1: always mispronounced. Oh oh, I see, so it's sand screwed.

806
00:46:11,760 --> 00:46:17,200
Speaker 1: Sounds cruteus like as best I can convey. That's what

807
00:46:17,320 --> 00:46:20,800
Speaker 1: she says. Wow, okay, yeah, I've always said sanscrit. This

808
00:46:20,920 --> 00:46:25,400
Speaker 1: person is a real really into words though, and very smart. Second,

809
00:46:25,440 --> 00:46:27,760
Speaker 1: the coconut tree is just one of the trees considered

810
00:46:28,400 --> 00:46:32,960
Speaker 1: a how do you pronounce it again, college called cold

811
00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:35,719
Speaker 1: cold cook screw cock. Uh huh. There you getting you

812
00:46:35,840 --> 00:46:39,879
Speaker 1: nailed it. Not because it is all you need to survive, though,

813
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:42,440
Speaker 1: but because every single part of the coconut tree is

814
00:46:42,520 --> 00:46:45,480
Speaker 1: useful to humans, the bark that leaves, the fibers, and

815
00:46:45,560 --> 00:46:48,640
Speaker 1: of course the coconuts and their entirety. This concept is

816
00:46:48,640 --> 00:46:54,600
Speaker 1: tied closely with why Indians culturally revere certain animals e g.

817
00:46:54,840 --> 00:47:00,360
Speaker 1: Cow and plants and trees e g. Banyan and coconut. Okay,

818
00:47:01,120 --> 00:47:02,800
Speaker 1: I've noticed on the podcast how you too often go

819
00:47:02,840 --> 00:47:05,680
Speaker 1: out of your way to correctly pronounce words or names

820
00:47:05,719 --> 00:47:09,000
Speaker 1: in foreign languages like we were, which is something I

821
00:47:09,040 --> 00:47:14,320
Speaker 1: appreciate as a bicultural uh penta lingual individual. Perhaps you

822
00:47:14,320 --> 00:47:16,760
Speaker 1: could explain your efforts to include not just Western languages,

823
00:47:17,120 --> 00:47:22,080
Speaker 1: but Eastern languages too. After all, sal Screwed belongs to

824
00:47:22,200 --> 00:47:24,520
Speaker 1: the same language group as German. If you think about it,

825
00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:26,560
Speaker 1: I think it would be true to the spirit of

826
00:47:26,600 --> 00:47:29,320
Speaker 1: your show. Guys, keep up the good work. And that

827
00:47:29,560 --> 00:47:33,160
Speaker 1: is from Ruta our duty A Did Ruta say, did

828
00:47:33,239 --> 00:47:38,239
Speaker 1: she sign off with later lamos? No, thanks a lot, Ruta. Yeah.

829
00:47:38,320 --> 00:47:40,400
Speaker 1: It's not like we're like, oh, we'll only go to

830
00:47:40,440 --> 00:47:43,359
Speaker 1: the trouble of pronouncing something in German or French, which

831
00:47:43,440 --> 00:47:45,959
Speaker 1: by the way, we don't very often, and we thought

832
00:47:46,040 --> 00:47:50,560
Speaker 1: we were pronouncing it correctly in the Eastern languages. So sorry, Ruda,

833
00:47:50,719 --> 00:47:53,440
Speaker 1: I didn't know what sand screwed. I had no idea,

834
00:47:53,840 --> 00:47:58,799
Speaker 1: not just us chuck. Like a million people just learned that. Yeah,

835
00:47:59,280 --> 00:48:02,239
Speaker 1: close to a mill. I agree. Uh well, thanks a

836
00:48:02,280 --> 00:48:04,360
Speaker 1: lot again, Bruta. And if you want to get in

837
00:48:04,440 --> 00:48:06,239
Speaker 1: touch with us, like Ruda did, you can go to

838
00:48:06,320 --> 00:48:08,359
Speaker 1: stuff you Should Know dot com and check out our

839
00:48:08,440 --> 00:48:10,440
Speaker 1: social links, or you can send us a good old

840
00:48:10,480 --> 00:48:14,560
Speaker 1: fashioned email to stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com.

841
00:48:18,440 --> 00:48:20,600
Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radios

842
00:48:20,600 --> 00:48:23,160
Speaker 1: How Stuff Works. For more podcasts for my heart Radio,

843
00:48:23,239 --> 00:48:25,880
Speaker 1: visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you

844
00:48:25,960 --> 00:48:27,080
Speaker 1: listen to your favorite shows