Matthew’s Musings

I thought I should make a small report for the Rubik’s cube, since I have been having fun with it.  Here is a funny report I wrote, and thanks to Rubik’s.com for the microwaving solution!

The Rubik’s cube is a 3D mechanical puzzle invented in 1974 by a Hungarian idiot as a torture device for vengeful mathematicians.  The Rubik’s cube turned out to be so dangerous that the few who owned one kept them in safes, guarded rooms and microwave ovens; however this was not to last.  One of the sleepy scientists stupidly slipped his cube out on a high window ledge, and accidentally knocked it out with his elbow to the street below.  Instantly the cube began to reproduce itself straight across American territory.  Poor Americans just couldn’t help themselves.  They forgot all about communism, the Cold War, and heating blankets.

The Rubik’s Cube itself is manufactured in a handful of crazy ways; as if the 3×3 cube wasn’t enough.  As the possibilities of world chaos increase, more dimensions including the 2×2, the 4×4, the 5×5, the 6×6 and the 7×7 become common in stores across the world.  Although the types of possible cubes are endless, here are some of the crazy combinations in circulation:

1.  1×1 Rubik’s Cube - Only one possible combination, only one solution.

2.  Zen Cube – A normal cube, but all sides are the same color.

3.  Sudocube – A Rubik’s cube with Sudoku figures in place of the stickers.  This puzzle has the top record for insanity causes in the month April alone.

4.  Tic-Tac-Cube – A simple Sudocube.

5.  Rubik’s Pyramid – From a strange artifact that in legend is responsible for King Tut’s death.

6.  Government Cube – This cube is always watching you, always watching. 

To solve the cube you must either be devoid of life or possess a cube with all sides the same color.  The cube has been the leading cause of suicides, breakdowns, and government bailouts in both the hemispheres.  The greatest political lie is “You can do the Rubik’s cube.”

Some daring young nerds have tried to find solutions for it and succeeded.  Here are some of the best ways:

1.   Microwave it.

2.   Fire a pistol at point blank range.

3.   Tie it to a rocket.

4.   Be Asian.

5.   Peel the stickers off.

6.   Rearrange the sub-atomic particles that are larger than most people’s brains.

7.   Tear your hair out by the roots and scream like a three year old.

Unfortunately, none of these will work unless you have climbed Mount Everest, sailed through the Devil’s Triangle, survived an atomic explosion, and have gone out to dinner with Hillary Clinton.  The story has not stopped there. More complicated Rubik’s cube variations come out every year!  The safest thing you can do is to not touch, look or talk about them.  You just might come out alive.

I just purchased a Rubik’s 5×5x5, and I was given a Rubik’s 360. 

I found this puzzle hard.  It’s still unsolved!  (But I did manage to crack three layers.)

I solved this in five minutes.

Note:  We actually are very close to the Rubik’s cube 30th anniversary!

A mindstorms bopit!  Wow…  and it actualy works!

Wow, I guess I haven’t posted in a long time!   I suppose Karen always takes the pictures first!

Recently for my birthday I got a Mindstorms NXT 2.0 set.  It is Lego’s with some sensors and a computer brain.  Here are some of the things I built:

This is the shooterbot.  It comes with instructions in the kit.  It shoots balls at objects that it detects.

This is the walle*gator.  If you move in front of it, it attacks you with teeth and jaws!

This is a snap of the programming software it uses:

This is the brain.  The screen looks bubble-ish because it has a pda screen cover on it.

Stay in for the Bop-It project I’m making!

Recently I purchased a 3×3x5 Rubik’s cube.  This means that instead of it being a cube, it is the shape of a rectangular prism. 

If you turn one of the longer sections half way, the side will overhang the rest of the cube.  See the below picture to show the point:

If you mix it up more:

When a cube is not a cube, but instead a rectangular prism, they are commonly referred to as nxnxy cubes.  Here are some nxnxy cubes compared with the normal 3×3x3 cube.  The largest is the 3×3x5, the one to the right of that is the 3×3x3, the one below that is the 3×3x2 and the smallest is the 2×2x3. 

Paper Rubik’s cube? No way…

Yes way; two weeks of work to make a completely accurate model that really turns!

Here is the paper one and my real one side by side:

This is the inside of the cube:

Construction:

Recently I purchased a 3×3x3 rubik’s cube!  I have been learning a lot of neat information about it, so I would like to show what I’ve learned so far.

This is the 3×3x3.  The possible amount of moves for the 3×3x3 is this total: 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 moves, which is approximately forty-three quintillion!

The 3×3x3 was invented by Erno Rubik 1980.  The first prototype of the cube looked like this:

Any 3×3x3 cube can be solved in twenty moves (With a computer of course!) , but the average really good rubik’s player can get it done in around forty five moves.  (And some can do it without looking at the cube!)

This is the 4×4x4: (7,401,196,841,564,901,869,874,

093,974,498,574,336,000,000,000 Possible Moves!)

This is the 5×5x5: (282,870,942,277,741,856,536,180,333,107,150,328,

293,127,731,985,672,134,721,536,000,000,000,000,000 Possible moves!)

There are also 2×2x2, 6×6x6, 7×7x7, 2×2x3, 5×5x2, 3×3x5, and lots more.

It was Kimberly’s birthday yesterday. Notice the appropriate birthday smile!

Kathy owned a tent for one of her birds but the bird was afraid of it.   So she gave it to Percy and he loves it!  This means he gets to go camping every day. 

Check the Paper Airplane page for the first airplane.