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Iconic
1974 – Rubik’s Cube
THIS YEAR • Each month, Goodmoods travels to a particular year to tell the story of the creation of a popular object. An emblematic piece to be found on leboncoin.
It was in 1974 that Ernő Rubik, a Hungarian architect and design professor, invented the Rubik’s Cube – « Magic Cube » to his real name. His goal? To make his students understand three-dimensional geometry with a simple question (or not): what is the internal mechanism that allows a 360° rotation, vertically and horizontally, of its 26 small cubes? Later, he decides to colour the six sides of the magic cube and finds that there is a one in 43,252,003,274,489,860,000 chance of returning to the original order when mixed. A real Hungarian puzzle.
From this observation, he commercialised it as a geometric and mathematical « puzzle ». It was exported under the name Rubik’s Cube by Ideal Toys and quickly became a worldwide success, selling 100 million copies between 1980 and 1982.
