This is the puzzle that started it all. It was invented by Ernö Rubik in Hungary around 1974 the patent was filed 30 January 1975 HU 170062 and eventually produced and marketed by Ideal Toys in the early 1980s. It was hugely successful and many copycat cubes were made such as the one pictured above. It is estimated that more than 100 million cubes were made and it is still being manufactured today.

The Rubik's Cube is a cube which is built from smaller cubes 3 to an edge i.e. a 3x3x3 cube. The 9 pieces on each face can rotate which rearranges the small cubes at that face. The six sides of the puzzle are coloured so every corner piece shows three colours every edge piece shows 2 colours and every face centre only one.

Turning a face does not change the face centres (their twist is not a visible change of pattern) so these can be considered solved already the other pieces have to be placed correctly around them.