Every now and again I'm really impressed by the simple, browser-based Doodle games Google puts up on its homepage. These are typically meant to commemorate something special—someone's birthday, or the advent of some technology.
Where the Rubik's Cube fits into the bigger scheme of things is difficult to say. But today Google allows you to try your skill (luck?) at the Rubik's Cube from the comfort of your browser with a new Doodle game to commemorate the puzzle's 40th anniversary.
The Rubik's Cube is an oddity. It's a puzzle, but it was never intended to be a toy. For many people, it's a puzzle that's never solved—making it a frustrating sort of toy.
Its creator, Erno Rubik, came up with the design to explain 3D geometry. Once he'd built it, he was at first unable to solve his own puzzle.
"It was wonderful," he wrote of his invention, "to see how, after only a few turns, the colors became mixed, apparently in random fashion. It was tremendously satisfying to watch this color parade. Like after a nice walk when you have seen many lovely sights you decide to go home, after a while I decided it was time to go home, let us put the cubes back in order. And it was at that moment that I came face to face with the Big Challenge: What is the way home?"
It was like "staring at a piece of writing written in a secret code. But for me, it was a code I myself had invented! Yet I could not read it. This was such an extraordinary situation that I simply could not accept it."
That was in 1974, in Soviet-controlled Hungary. The architect eventually managed to license the cube to Ideal Toy Corp in 1980. It was originally called the Magic Cube, but was rebranded with the more memorable name we have now.
Since then it's sold over 350 million units, making it the best-selling toy ever, though it's not as popular as it once was. The world record for solving the Rubik's Cube is held by Mats Valk, a Dutch teenager who managed to complete the cube in just 5.55 seconds.
The LEGO Mindstorms-built Cubestormer III robot—powered by a Galaxy S4 smartphone—solved the cube in just 3.25 seconds.
The Rubik's Cube can be arranged 43 quintillion ways, or 43,000,000,000,000,000,000.
According to Wired, Google was finally able to create their most sophisticated Doodle yet thanks to the widespread adoption of CSS 3-D Transforms on most web browsers.
"CSS 3-D Transforms lets us display the cube in a 3-D space, as opposed to having a sort of rasterized 2-D experience," lead engineer Kristopher Hom told the publication. "It makes it feel alive, because as you're moving your mouse, you can see the cube rotating in 3-D space."
For my part, I've never had the patience—or perhaps the mental fortitude—to solve one. I doubt that will change anytime soon.
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Source : http://www.forbes.com/sites/erikkain/2014/05/19/google-celebrates-40th-anniversary-of-the-rubiks-cube-with-doodle-game/?ss%3Dtech
