Erno Rubik's Cube: Curious and humorous stories about the puzzle that drove the world crazy More than forty years ago, a modest Hungarian architecture teacher, Erno Rubik, created a puzzle that was supposed to help students understand mathematical group theory. He had no idea that his \"magic cube\" would become one of the best-selling toys in human history and spawn a whole subculture of speedcubers. But behind this success are many amusing, bizarre, and even absurd stories about both the inventor himself and the millions of people who have tried (and are still trying) to conquer the colorful cube. The Month That Changed Everything: How the Creator Could Not Assemble His Own Invention Perhaps the most ironic story is related to Erno Rubik himself. In 1974, when he created his \"Magic Cube\" (the original name of the puzzle), he shuffled the colors and... couldn't assemble it. The creator spent more than a month trying to restore order to the faces and only found the solution after many weeks. \"I created a code that I couldn't read,\" he admitted later. In a way, everyone who has ever held the cube has shared its fate. It's funny that the man who gave the world this puzzle became its first \"hostage\" himself. The Story of the Lost Centers: When a Friend Is an Enemy One of the most typical curiosities happened to a 12-year-old Indian boy named Shashank Naik. He received the Rubik's Cube as a birthday gift and, not knowing the algorithms, simply made four turns and then returned them back. But one day his friend scrambled the cube completely, and the central stickers fell off the cube. Shashank tried to learn from video lessons but failed. In despair, he kicked the cube, threw it against the walls, and even thought about blowing it up. When his patience ran out, he simply disassembled the puzzle into parts and assembled it again—and then it occurred to him: \"I could have done this much earlier!\" He told his sister that he had solved the problem and called himse ... Read more