Meeting Ernő Rubik - Numberphile
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- Ernő Rubik is the inventor of the Rubik's Cube. More links & stuff in full description below ↓↓↓
See more Rubik's Cube videos on Numberphile: • Rubik's Cube on Number...
80-year-old Hungarian Ernő Rubik created his legendary cube in 1974. The rest is history.
Brady met him at international celebration of 50 years of the Rubik’s Cube which took place at Christ’s College, at the University of Cambridge - www.christs.ca...
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Video by Brady Haran
Cube stop motions by Pete McPartlan
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He deserves all the glory he gets. The cube is a legendary invention.
but somehow, he hates all variations of it
@@opensocietyenjoyer "None of the derivative puzzles matter and only my original invention is important." - Paraphrased
@ yeah, kind of an asshole thing to say. and it's also incredibly closed-minded
He said he was OK with the cheap illegal remakes, as those made it available to people who could not afford an original.
He invented other puzzle toys, too.
This must be the least clickbait title ever. Love it!
vezeggele dips his spoon in the video and presses it to his lips. "Hmmmm...." *smacks lips* ... "...needs more clickbait."
How many numberphile videos have you seen that ARE clickbait?
@@shreym03maybe the one that claimed 1+2+3+4+5+6+7+8+9+... = -1/12
not completely insane technically, but still kind of clickbaity to me
Tbh numberphile get's very low views for having 4.59M subscribers because he doesn't do clickbait.
Least? Just because the title is accurate, doesn’t mean it isn’t clickbait! Well, for the Numberphile crowd, at least!
Oh, I love this: "One of the greatest achievements of the Cube is that it reminds people they have hands."
Truly, my speedcube is practically a fidget toy
@@adityakhanna113relateable, my family is already sick of the sound it makes
I would never have guessed that the inventor of the legendary cube is still alive and kicking, it feels like it's always been a part of society. What a great video!
That surprised me too! I saw the title and immediately said out loud “wait, he’s still alive?!”
@@ferretyluv same, I actually had to check the preview long enough for it to show the man himself before I believed that it wasn't clickbait
In fact, I recall the first time it appeared and momentarily became crazy popular back in 1980s.
He lives in Budapest. If you want you can do a pilgrimage (I do not suggest to find his house as he deserves better than thousands of paparazzi killing his private life).
The Rubik's Cube is one of those things that seem way older than they are.
The man, the myth, the legend! Glad you were able to get this interview 😊
I've been a speedcuber for almost half of my life. It's a lifelong fascination of mine and a way for me to make sure I'm just a bit better each day. Learning a new algorithm, breaking a personal record by a few decmial places... Incredible feeling.
This hobby of mine has since become my beloved sport, I made so many friends and learned so many things... Now it is also my job. I teach young cubers how to solve these puzzles fast and efficiently. I would have never guessed that it would end up like this.
And it's all thanks to this man. Incredible. Thank you Erno Rubik, for creating something that changed my life and made me the person I am today.
Do you go to competitions?😊
This year was the 50th year since the Rubik's Cube was Invented, thank you for posting this before this year Ended.
Here's something AWESOME that I've never seen discussed in a video yet. I have a Rubik's Cube Calendar, with months across the centres and two edges (as JAN, FEB etc.), day of the week on a corner (Mon, Tue etc.) and an edge ("day"), and the date on an edge and a corner. I've been using it as a calendar and solving the single face almost every day since about 1989. Soon after I was given it as a present, I noticed how well the English language calendar is suited to this application, so I sat down and tried to figure out if there was any redundancy at all. It turns out, there is NONE. A Rubik's cube showing a calendar that way is PERFECTLY OPTIMAL. It is simply one of those glorious coincidences, like pi seconds being a nanocentury. I love this discovery!
What is a nanocentury
@@samueljehanno 100 years divided by one billion. It's about 3.156 seconds, so really close to pi. There's no deeper reason for it, it's just a coincidence, but it's rather pleasing.
Would you mind sharing a picture of the arrangement? I couldn't understand 100% how it works, but it got me really interested! :)
So when you setup the date correctly, are there two blank corners? And are these corners diagonally opposite, or directly above/below each other?
@@3Ppaatt Yes, two blank corners, diagonally opposite each other. The day of the week has a variable prefix in the TL corner, "day" on the Top Centre, and the Bottom Centre is blank/1/2/3 for the tens digit of the date.
I didn't even know one of the most famous people of my country is still alive, but I'm glad he is.
He seems like a wise man. I love these interviews, it's a shame the ones on Numberphile2 don't get so many views.
The podcasts on Numberphile2 get more of their traffic in the podcast world (Apple, Spotify, etc) rather than on TH-cam.
Makes sense :) Glad they're getting seen/heard too!
I'm portuguese and here, right in 1981/82 when it came out, The cube was known as 'Cubo Mágico' (Magic Cube) not Rubik's Cube. At the time it was an insane mania!! All the kids had one, me included (I was 10). I never managed to solve it (I'm not that smart and lacked the motivation) but my dad would not give up easylly! He went bananas about it, bought three books on the cube and spent hours studying the dammed thing. And then... he got it!! He was able to solve the puzzle. OMG he was SO happy and proud about himself...I miss my dad so much...I wish I could have been a little more like him, more persistent and patient!! Ok...now I'm in tears...
Magic Cube was its original name, in the original Hungarian Bűvös kocka.
Magic cube was the name in Brazil. Amazing way to test your diligence yo follow algorithms and get to wonderful results.
R.I.P. to your dad. He is in a great place now
@@mlonguin Was and still is.
Your father must have been a very interesting guy. Let's hope that someday, somehow, you can be able to see him again.
4:51 As someone who has been doing different sizes and shapes of Rubik’s cubes for about 15 years now. When he said you ask someone who knows how to do it and they can’t tell you because their hands remember, he is 100% correct.
For me to slow down the steps and try to teach someone, if I forget which turn I’m on in the middle of a 6 or 8 turn algorithm, I just have to start the cube over, my head doesn’t know each turn individually anymore
Muscle memory is amazing
It’s procedural memory. It’s how I learned that knowing how to do something is very different from teaching someone how to do something.
@@ferretyluv yeah but thats linked to the movements, in other world muscle memory. I sometimes don't remember my debit card code but if i do the movement like on a numpad I remember it
@@ajz2k yeah it also tells you how your brain is so many parts
I was captivated by the cube in 1980, and 44 years later I'm still a fan. I agree with what he says, my hands know how to do it, I just have to use my eyes to see where the colours are! Greatest toy of all time!!
I gave up trying to solve it way back in the dark ages. Tried it again a few years back in my 60s after buying one for a young relative. Success! and now do it every couple of days to see if alzheimers is getting any closer, so far so good.
Keeping ones brain engaged, is actually great in preventing Alzheimer and dementia. I've seen elderly people whose brains deteriorated quickly, once they retired and only watched TV all day, not getting mentally engaged in anything. It's just like muscles. If we stop using them, they will start to become weaker. So kudos to you to keep being engaged. I wish you all the best :)
@@LS-Moto Thanks...
What an absolute legend. One of the people that not only invented the perfect way to explain group theory, but also one of the first people to employ the concept of gamification. Making learning an enjoyable process.
I recall "The Rubik's Cube Model of Quark Confinement" that came out soon after the Cube. The ways the corner cubes could be rotated in "solvable" positions mimicked the rotation(s) of quark combinations in particles.
@@rtpoe Yeah it seems the way the cube permutes has a lot of real world application. Seems oddly fitting, complexity emerging from simple rulesets..
Jr. He is the junior, senior being his father, also Ernő Rubik, who was an aerospace engineer as we would call it today. He designed airplanes, hobby and sports planes, trainers, gliders, glider trainers and planes to tow said gliders. His most known design is the Góbé, a glider trainer that started many generations on the path to become professional pilots. A very talented family.
So he’s from a line of engineers.
I had no idea they were related. Thanks!
Amazing. Great interview. His English is very good. It is very hard to answer in a second language. This is an important video that gives another angle about the man behind the invention.
Not just that. In contemporary Hungary English was not widely spoken (Russian was mandatory to learn but no one spoke it either), probably he learned it in his adoulthood when started travelling around with his invention.
THank you for this interview - what a wonderful man. he had so many insights to give
A wonderful interview, guys. Bravo. Was so nice to just hear him talk.
It’s always amazing to me how impressed people were when I would solve these in middle school. All I did was watch like a 10 minute video and anyone can solve it
I tried to fake that i solved it myself, but no one was buying it
@@achillesmichael5705 remembering doing that w the 4x4..
@@NITROUSOXIDE921 had you learned the 3x3 first? If so I think it would have been easier to learn it than to fake it, you only had to learn 2 more algs for edge and corner parities 😂
@ShayWestrip
Anyone can solve it? I couldn't solve it following step-by-step instructions!
Fantastic. A Rubik's cube signed by Rubik. Also, looking at the picture of Matt Parker shows what happens to your hair when you try to solve it.
I was lucky enough to see him in person at the World Championship 2017 in Paris! Great interview and very interesting questions Brady.
If there is one product that's appropriately named, it's Rubik's cube. The man is a legend.
Incredible how humble he is
As a hungarian, i’m honoured for this video.
As a European, it's spelled honoured.
As an Australian I would be proud 😊
As an American, I didn’t know there was a person behind that invention.
@@analogueavenue- That's an insult to many Hungarian voters. Why would you say that? I don't think this is the right place for political debate, but your opinion is duly noted.
@@j.vonhogen9650orban can take the L
I was able to scramble, solve, and then rescramble the cube 15 different times in the time this video took to play. I've been a fan for over half my 27 year old life at this point. Thank you for this one!
What an interview!!!
I wish I could meet this man and personally thank him for all that the Rubik's Cube has done for my life
I own 5 cubes... And I love them all, even the old and defunct ones. Thank you very much Ernő for creating my favourite fidget toy.
So true about the memory being in the hands! I can solve the cube, but if I'm interrupted midway through a move, I often have to start again from an earlier phase. Also, there's no way I could ever give someone else dictated instructions to solve it, because I don't know what it is I'm doing. Only my hands know that, and they're instructed by my eyes. My brain is involved, but its role is a mystery to me. Those strings of U's, F's and R's are long forgotten.
This is the man who changed my life. Legend.
Sitting here watching this on my break, solving my cube and talking to my coworkers who I just got to take up cubing. I cannot express how much all of us owe to this man
Wow he's a real genious and entrepreur born into a comunist land.
But Mr Rubik never gave up!
My son loves Rubic Cube!
Cheers guys from lake Titicaca Peru
Thank very much for bringing this to us
The rubik’s cube has been operated by all our familly members from my father to my childten and their cousins
Thank you for the quality of the videos
Never clicked so fast on a video
Same my finger clicked before I completely processed what I read 😂
I learned how to solve a Rubik's cube after seeing the video of Numberphile viewers solving cubes. I've solved it thousands of times since, and once more just now. Thanks, Brady.
In 6th grade I learned to do the cube, and my family moved to a new town. It was all the rage, and made me so many friends. I think I got down to 1 minutes 15 seconds or so with my whole class gathered around cheering me on. Thanks so much
4:44 that's exactly the talk I had with my 10 years old daughter this morning, as she's also reached the point where the algorithms are in her hands more than in her head
The Hungarian accent reminds me so much of my grandfather
I love Brady's interview style.
I love the rubiks cube so really enjoyed this video! Keep up the amazing work Brady ❤
If I remember well a brochure from the late 80s or early 90s, there was a machine (for packaging or something on that line) that the manufacturer claimed was designed by Rubik. Glad to meet Mr. Rubik through this interview and the magic of the internet.
Legend. His cube was a very fun part of my childhood.
Daily did you know: The father of ifj. Rubik Ernő (Ernő Rubik Jr.) was a very successful engineer himself on the field of aviation. He single-handedly created the scene of mid-European glider community with his 30+ plane types, built in quantity of hundreds. Some of them is still in use locally.
His father was a well known engineer too. Ernő Rubik Sr. developed a two-seater glider plane that was used for basic pilot training here in Hungary. First introduced in 1961, some clubs still use them to this day. Around 200 were produced
There's so much more I wanted to know! Like did he ever learn to solve it, or his opinion of speed cubing, or what his favorite puzzle is. Brady this is your specialty!
Brady out there collecting interviews with nerd legends like they're Pokemon
Rubik, Graham, Terry Tao, Conway, Knuth, Sloane
Gotta meet them all!
Kinda would've liked to hear more on how he reacted when people took it further than he would ever have imagined. Both in mathematics but also with speed cubing and stuff.
Does he know about GAN and stuff?
Fantastic interview! He has positively changed the lives of many through the cube
hi
hi ari
Yeah
It was maybe 10 or so years ago on a car ride back home from a family gathering when I was browsing Wikipedia pages on my phone and came across the article for the Rubik's cube. I know it makes sense in retrospect, but the idea that this iconic and essentially universal toy was devised by a single man is still hard for me to wrap my brain around today. It just seems so quintessential, like if you told me artifacts of 10th century BC Rubik's cubes existed I'd believe you in a moment. It's so crazy to really understand the scope of it, how recently it was devised, and all the more reason to marvel at how famous it is today.
Thank you for lending your name to the greatest puzzle ever!
Nearly screamed when I saw this pop up. Holy moly!! The goat himeself, the one who has inspired my childhood... Great video, very informative and entertaining :)
Rubik's Magic was one of my favourites, linking and unlinking the 5 rings.
My three year old son asked me to buy him a Rubik's cube a few months back. He loves it and hes always asking me to solve it for him 😂
6:32 someone waiting for the interview to finish (back left) ;)
As always, Brady is the best interviewer!
My favorite desk toy. Cheers, Mr. Rubik!
Such an honour to meet Ernö Rubik in real life. Still have a copy made by my dad of a Dutch newspaper article from the eighties explaining how to solve the cube. Still do it like that to this day, with a few adjustments.
Had a good laugh at 'over 3 billion combinations'. Yes, true but I was immediately like: "It's a bit more than that." 😂
Rubik’s cubes are very popular among American kids right now, especially speed solving them. He’s personally influenced generations of kids.
My father solved it when released. I taught myself how to do it in 2002 (Knight’s Cross approach - which is slow but easy to learn).
My 12 year old son is now learning it…
3 generations so far!
Fascinating about the logic of the TM being more valuable than the patent. So true.
I hope Mr Rubik knows the amount of joy his simple invention has bought to the world.
I came third in a junior (children's under 10s) state Rubik's cube competition in 1984 with a time of 74 seconds. I saw one minute as almost impossible. Contests are now won with times under four seconds.
I urge everyone to dig out an old cube or buy a newer "speed cube" and learn how to solve it. There are thousands of YT tutorials showing different methods. Anyone should be able to become proficient pretty quickly by learning the basic method and memorizing a few key sequences.
Contests nowadays are not won with times under 4. The world record average is 4.09, but still at most competitions you have to do sub7 or even sub6 to win
@samueljehanno The most common competitions as you seem to know are an average of best times. At the top level it is extremely rare that one of the times that go towards that average is not under four seconds. That should be pretty obvious to you since you quote an average of 4.09
WR average just reached 4.05. Sub4 are still extremely rare and the majority of them are hold bu the same person.
@@samueljehanno Do you know what an average is? You keep mentioning the word without seeming to realize the implications.
If the average of three attempts was 4.05, what do you think the three times would be? Do you think they would be likely to all be over 4 seconds with a total of 12.15?
The official world record for a single attempt is just over 3.1 seconds. There have been unofficial times lower than that.
@spindoctor6385 You’re absolutely right! Just to add some context, only 20 people have officially achieved a time under 4 seconds, and there are 60s individual solves under 4 seconds, with more than half belonging to one incredible solver. This person is truly in a league of their own, even compared to the 2nd fastest in the world-it’s amazing! I’m not criticizing your point at all, just trying to share some additional details about the current state of things. Also, huge respect for the achievements in the 1984 competition!
I love when ppl tell me they solved a Rubik’s cube by doing the same move over and over…I just sit there shaking my head like John Candy, “oh sure, sure”.
I once saw him in Hamleys in London. What a legend!
Он создал головоломку, что останется в мировой культуре на века, вау ...
The surname Rubik made for an especially effective brand name. It's unique, unusual, and ties the cube to the serendipitous story of how the cube's inventor created the cube.
Definitely better than its original name "Magic Cube".
He’s a rock star. I’m old enough to remember a time when the Rubiks cube existed, but no one knew how to solve it.
I never had a Rubik's cube when I was a child, but 1 year ago I bought one for my kid so I had to learn how to solve it in order to make it "good" again 😅 . After a lot of fun in the process I still solve it everyday below the 1 minute mark. It's really addictive.
Awesome video, I clicked ASAP when I saw in my feed. Couldn't tell you anything more than the average guy could about the Rubik's Cube, but what an incredible video concept.
Spectacular Brady for landing an interview with the legend himself. Even though it was short.. This is amazing.. 🎉🎉🎉🎉
Rubik has made more puzzle objects, like the Magic and the Clock.
I LOVED the Magic. Could link the rings behind my back. ⭕️⭕️⭕️
The cube is one of the greatest invention of the 20th century.
Fascinating! I always wanted to see the legendary man!
I've never seen an interview with him. Very cool.
2:00 I’m a Pole and I know both of those mentioned people bearing the name “Rubik”, but I never even noticed their name is the same as the cube or its inventor… 😂
I sit here watching this while playing with a cube, it has become so popular and I think all the estimates I hear for the number sold are underestimates, I wonder if he has solved lots of the other variations of his puzzle that people have made.
An absolute legend!
I met Erno Rubik in Moscow university 5 years ago. Me and a few other students from our class even got autograph! I didn't have the original Rubik's cube so I got autograph on regular A4 paper. I'm very happy anyway. Btw I'm not fast at solving the cube. It's 40 seconds I think. I have pyramide, megaminx and some others too but I don't care about speed, I just solving them the easiest way
I could solve one when I was 30. Now, 44 years later, I don't know how I did it.
I solved Rubiks cube only once and I felt like a genius. Addictive feeling 😁👍
I met the guy back in the world cubing championship in 2017. Great guy
Next week on Numberphile: Seline Cube, inventor of the cube.
You misunderstand the video, probably. Ernő Rubik is a Hungary architect who created Rubik's Cube in 1974.
@ whoosh
4:22 l made that Rubik's Cube solver website 🎉
What a legendary video
Hungary is the land of genius for sure .Paul erdos,bela bollobas ,endre szemeredi,Ed teller,....
This is such a special interview! So great to see the man behind the cube (there's a title). But I was curious if he himself can solve the cube and if so, how fast?
Cool interview
Pre-notification squad
Legend
Nice job man!
What a nice little video.
well done Brady thank you
4:04 “over three billion combinations” is an understatement by a FACTOR of 14.3 BILLION. If you take the real value (43 quintillion) and subtract 3 billion, you are still basically left with 43 quintillion.
In fact, the 43 quintillion value is rounded DOWN to the nearest quintillion. The actual value overshoots that by 252 quadrillion 🤣
but there is much more than one solution, because the middle/center piece can be rotated in any way times six. thats for the full colored one. if you use a cube with pictures on the sides you'll get in trouble😊
What a legend!
I managed to find my own unique solution in 1986 when I was 12 and I've never seen anyone use the same technique.
A great man ❤
well done !!!
I read his book.. it's very inspiring
Amazing, I remember getting into rubiks cubes long ago and the process of learning to solve one, and now it serves as an excellent fidget toy on my desk. I sometimes time myself, I think my best time is like 58 seconds. I would love to know how long it took him to solve the cube the first time, and or how quickly he realized that he wouldn't be able to unscramble it.
"You don't know you are in the centre of a tragedy... or something good" Is a very slavic sentence to say