Celebrate the Rubik's cube's 40th anniversary with a few fun facts

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the Rubik's cube, the world's best-selling toy, and Google has created an interactive, playable digital version in its honor. Here are a few things you might not know about the iconic toy.

1. The Rubik's cube was invented by a professor.

The Telegraph reports that Erno Rubik, a Hungarian professor of architecture and design, "wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry" to his students.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

2. The toy was originally named the Magic Cube.

In a recent interview with The New York Times, Rubik admitted that it was strange to refer to his creation as a "Rubik's cube" and says that he calls it "my cube." Rubik introduced the toy as the Magic Cube in Hungary, named for his theory of "magic cubology," but the Ideal Toy Corp. dubbed it the Rubik's cube in 1979.

3. All possible Rubik's cube combinations can be solved in 23 moves.

Our sister site Mental Floss found that no matter how the cube starts out, its colors can be perfectly rearranged in 23 or fewer steps. If you're addicted to the toy, whether in physical form or on Google's homepage, Mental Floss has the secrets to solving any Rubik's cube in 23 moves.