Comments on: Juxtapositions: The Rubik’s Hypercube

By: Lovely Exponent

Lovely Exponent — Fri, 23 May 2008 06:02:56 +0000

the eight cubes of a hypercube are ‘interconnected’ It hurts my brain to try and comprehend such an object!

By: Carnival of Mathematics #21: Bar-hopping at last « Secret Blogging Seminar

Carnival of Mathematics #21: Bar-hopping at last « Secret Blogging Seminar — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 05:39:49 +0000

[...] to a friendly round of Prisoner’s Dilemma, you may have missed your chance), and one on The Rubik’s Hypercube. As if the original wasn’t hard [...]

By: Golden Ratio

Golden Ratio — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 04:26:11 +0000

I’ve tried working with the 4D Applet and it is remarkably difficult. Another one of the properties of a four-dimensional hypercube is that it consists of eight three-dimensional cubes that are all interconnected. So the way the applet looks when its solves is that there are eight cubes divided into twenty seven cubes each and all twenty seven cubes in each larger cube are all the same color. There’s just one catch; you can’t see the eighth cube!
What people see when they first open up the applet is one cube in the middle with a six additional cubes set next to it, one to a face. However, once they start turning it, they’ll notice that some of the cubes that have been rotated now have a new, eighth color that was not originally present when they started. This presents a new challenge that can make the thought of solving the puzzle quite daunting because you would have to learn how to manipulate the puzzle when you aren’t even able to see everything at once.
The fun doesn’t end there, however. It’s rather mind-bending at first when you start to work on the hypercube. The way the applet operates is that you click on one of the one hundred and eighty nine visible cubes and the applet will perform a rotation of the hypercube that is the equivalent of one quarter turn of a three dimensional Rubik’s cube (and consequently, if you click on the same cube four times you’ll be back where you started). However, instead of just the side of a cube turning, multiple cubes will change sides with each other. Furthermore, the number of cubes changing sides is different for cube you click on. For some it’s four, others two, and still others seven. All in all, it’s remarkably hard to solve a four-dimensional Rubik’s cube and I’ve no idea where to begin.
(And don’t get me started on the five-dimensional Rubik’s cube. I love math as much as the next math major, but it’s turned into a sickness at that point. I mean, honestly, the only thing worse is that some people have actually solved it.)

By: Batman

Batman — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 15:44:52 +0000

The current world record for solving the cube is 9.86 seconds, set in Spain in 2007. Many more records here, including blindfolded, one-handed, and foot-ed.

By: infinity

infinity — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:58:50 +0000

The Rubiks Cube originated in Hungary! The national championship was in Budapest in October! One of the guys here competed in it. There were people that could do it with their feet! INSANE!

By: Ξ

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:57:46 +0000

I never knew such a thing existed! Early 80s, I might not have been watching Saturday cartoons as often...although I do remember the boy band Menudo, who sang the theme song according to Wikipedia.

By: Batman

Batman — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 01:09:43 +0000

Is it sad that I remember this cartoon (without nightmares)?

Of course, that begs the question: Did you remember this cartoon, or just stumble across it in your research?

By: TwoPi

TwoPi — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 16:46:50 +0000

Back in the day, I had enough nightmares about attempting to solve an actual Rubik’s Cube in my hands. I can’t image what horrors my subconscious would have conjured up had it gotten the idea that a RC could dance and sing and talk to me as I fumbled to unscramble it.

I sense a Clive Barker movie.