The Rubik's Cube

In the spring of 1974, Hungarian architecture professor Ernő Rubik wanted to teach his students about 3D movement. Working in his mother’s apartment in Budapest, the 29-year-old built a prototype. He hand-carved 27 wooden blocks, connecting them first with elastic bands and paper clips. His goal was to create a structure whose individual parts could move without the whole thing falling apart. He marked the faces with different colors to track their movement. After twisting it a few times, he scrambled the colors, creating a vibrant, chaotic pattern. He then tried to return it to its original state, with each face a single, solid color. He quickly realized he had created something far more complex than a teaching tool.