A closer look
Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by Hungarian architecture professor Ernő Rubik as a teaching tool to help his students understand 3D geometry, but once he scrambled it for the first time, it took him a full month to figure out how to solve his own invention. He was genuinely terrified that he had created a puzzle that was mathematically impossible to revert to its original state, which is exactly how most normal people feel when they mess with one for five minutes before violently throwing it into a drawer. It became the best-selling toy in the world, torturing the intellect of millions while simultaneously creating a terrifying subculture of teenagers who can solve the thing in three seconds using nothing but muscle memory and a deeply concerning lack of a social life
