Rubik’s Cube Marketing as Educational Tool

1. Rubik’s Cube Marketing as Educational Tool Sándor Kiss Rubik Exhibition Co., Ltd.

2. “Gaming can be used as a form of teaching.” “It was wonderful, to see how, after only a few turns, the colors became mixed … After a while I decided … 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?” – Ernő Rubik, 1974

3. 1974 2x2x2 • As a young teacher, ErnőRubik(29) was looking for novel, more exciting ways to explain spatial relationships • He used eight interconnected wooden cubes first.

4. 1974

5. Cutting a cube with various planes is a fairly standard exercise and leads to the well-known 23 and 33 arrays. Let the pieces stay together! Let the pieces move only in groups! Target and Construction

6. Result Hungarian Patent No.: HU170062Applied: 30 January, 1975Granted: 28 October, 1976

7. Model and Product 3x3x3

8. See at Jaaps Puzzle Page Magic Cube – Bűvös Kocka • It is not a toy – it is a puzzle for everyone. • Coloration makes the complexity. • Excellent tool for self teaching. A challenge for one’s logic and patience. Cube has even many sub goals – e.g. one can get pleasure out of simply doing one or two sides or just the corners. • Magic Cube gave birth to a new class of twisty puzzles.

9. Complexity • Twisty puzzles typically made up of regular corner/edge/center pieces and can be solved using basic tools of abstract algebra. • However, if a sufficient number of pieces are fused together, a "bandaged puzzle" emerges, and the mathematics behind this is more complicated. • Few variations of classic Rubik’s Cube are bandaged puzzles!

10. Solution Ernő Rubik’s notes

11. Rubik wasn’t a marketing savant in 1974, but a shy 29-year-old teacher who did knew he has had created a unique cube

12. Hungarian Marketing • 1976-78 almost without concept,„just put on exhibitory shelf…! Do not twist!” Konsumex • December 1978 mathematician Dr. Tibor Laczi, „Let me try!” • Dr. Laczi showed it toTom Kremer • 1979Contract Production started in Hungaryin 1976

13. Partner is Ideal Toy Co. • Tom Kremer was key figure who helped to bring the first Cube to American International Toy Fair in New York in 1980. • "I knew when I first saw Ernő's Cube creation that it was going to have universal appeal, but it was hard to imagine just how popular it would become,"

14. Marketing in USA • 1980 Toy Fair New York – Ideal Toy Co. • Hungarian connection was important Prof. Solomon W. Golomb Zsazsa Gabor Source: KPCC

15. Claude Shannon, the father of IT set about to build a device to solve the cube. Rymes and Robotics A Rubric on Rubik Cubics (1981) Strange imports come from Hungary: Count Dracula, and ZsaZsa G., Now Erno Rubik’s Magic Cube For PhD or country rube. This fiendish clever engineer Entrapped the music of the sphere. It’s sphere on sphere in all 3D— A kinematic symphony! Ta! Ra! Ra! Boom De Ay! Source: Scientific American Blog

16. Cube Big Bang

17. Cube Impact on Society • Media, TV, films… • Very popular among young ones, but also many ordinary customers were frustrated • Mathematicians, scientists, engineers love it • Marketing community jumped for it • Fashion • … many more

18. Recreational Mathematics • Prof. David Singmaster is most famous for his cube notation to the Rubik's Cube (i.e., what letters denote what face to turn on the Rubik's Cube) and his huge personal collection of mechanical puzzles and books of brain teasers. He met the Cube in 1978. • Prof. Solomon Golomb has devised an analogy between Cube corners and quarks, which he has extended into a complete Cubic cosmology. • The mating habits of quarks mirror the twisting properties of the `corner cubies'

19. Two Puzzle Crazes Samuel Loyd’s 15 puzzle Rubik’s Cube 3x3x3 Rubik, the Amazing Cube Source: CTK Insights Source: X Entertaiment 1980 1880

20. Puzzle Craze in 1880 • U.S. in February • Canada in March • Europe in April • Craze had dissipated by July, same year • Puzzle was not introduced to Japan until 1889 • The craze was fuelled by numerous cash prizes up to $1000 were offered for anyone who could provide a solution for the swapped 15-14 situation. See more Fifteen Puzzle

21. Puzzle Craze in 1980 • 1977 Magic Cube production 12,000 pcs for domestic market • 1978 for export 2,100 pcs • 1979 contract was signed between Ideal Toys Co., Ltd. and KONSUMEX Foreign Trading Co. to deliver 1 million pcs within a year. • 1980 February, New York Toy Fair.New name: Rubik’s Cube • Craze had dissipated by 1983

23. Collected from several sources 180~400 million pcs cubes were sold STEAM Video games World Wide Web 2005 You Tube…. Production stopped Production started More Competitions You CAN do the Rubik’s Cube New York Toy Fair Intn’l Mathematicians Conference in Helsinki Strengthening the Brand World Competition

24. Outreach 2010

25. Outreach 2014: STEAM Project • Science, Technlogy, Engineering, Art, Mathematics • Exhibition at Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, USA

26. Ernő Rubik said • „When you are studying from a book, lots of people go straight to the end to look for the answers. But that's not my style. For me, the most enjoyable part is the puzzle, the process of solving, not the solution itself.” • But remember: THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY… 26

27. Invent, play and inspire! Thank you! Photo: Landon Nordeman Smithsonian.com