Wonder Wednesday: The Anatomy of a Rubik’s Cube
Lots of people see and play with Rubik’s cube everyday, but how does a Rubik’s cube actually work?A Rubik’s cube is a series of cubes that connect to a rotating center, a thin pole runs along each axis (x, y, and z) that connects to the center of the cube, rotating a series of six cubes, one for each face.
A Rubik’s cube has twenty six cubes, and six are attached to the poles, which leaves the remaining twenty cubes to connect to each other as they rotate.
When I first was curious about the Rubik’s cube I wondered how twenty six cubes connected to one center in a rotatable fashion, but I now understand that that would be difficult to do, causing several virtually impossible connections. It is much simpler to connect to each other instead. I was also wondering how an algorithm could solve it. Of course there are algebra explanations for why it works, but it get’s a little complicated when you get to that part.. A rubik’s cube is still partially a mystery to me, and I still have a little ways to go before understanding it fully, but it is not quite the threatening lack of explanation that it was before.
Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rubik’s_Cube
I am in seventh grade and love to invent cool new things nobody has ever heard about. I am a budding 3D designer, and have created several useful things and... geek things, such as a T.A.R.D.I.S and a companion cube. I school at home and enjoy connecting with other inventors, like myself, to create even better and crazier things than ever before.
It’s fascinating to know that the cube was designed to be an instructional tool for the very purpose you write about in this post. I’ve borrowed Stephen Carrick-Davies’ metaphor of the Rubrik’s cube to explain digital citizenship http://www.slideshare.net/StephenCarrickDavies/digital-citizenship-presentation-oct-2012. Clearly, the cube is more than a toy! Thanks for sharing your thinking around it.