The History of Rubiks Cube and Inventor Erno Rubik

The History of Rubiks Cube and Inventor Erno Rubik There is only one correct answer- and 43 quintillion wrong ones- for the Rubiks Cube. Gods algorithm is the answer that solves the puzzle in the least number of moves. One-eighth of the worlds population has laid hands on The Cube, the most popular puzzle in history and the colorful brainchild of Erno Rubik. Erno Rubiks Early Life Erno Rubik was born in Budapest, Hungary during World War II. His mother was a poet, his father an aircraft engineer who started a company to build gliders. Rubik studied sculpture in college, but after graduating, he went back to learn architecture at a small college called the Academy of Applied Arts and Design. He remained there after his studies to teach interior design. The Cube Rubiks initial attraction to inventing the Cube was not in producing the best selling toy puzzle in history. The structural design problem interested Rubik; he asked, How could the blocks move independently without falling apart? In Rubiks Cube, twenty-six individual little cubes or cubies make up the big Cube. Each layer of nine cubies can twist and the layers can overlap. Any three squares in a row, except diagonally, can join a new layer. Rubiks initial attempt to use elastic bands failed, his solution was to have the blocks hold themselves together by their shape. Rubiks hand carved and assembled the little cubies together. He marked each side of the big Cube with adhesive paper of a different color and started twisting. An Inventor Dreams The Cube became a puzzle  in the spring of 1974 when the twenty-nine-year-old Rubik discovered it was not so easy to realign the colors to match on all six sides. Of this experience, he said: It was wonderful, to see how, after only a few turns, the colors became mixed, apparently in random fashion. It was tremendously satisfying to watch this color parade. Like after a nice walk when you have seen many lovely sights you decide to go home, after a while I decided it was time to go home, 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? He was not sure he would ever be able to return his invention to its original position. He theorized that by randomly twisting the Cube he would never be able to fix it in a lifetime, which later turns out to be more than correct. He began working out a solution, starting with aligning the eight corner cubies. He discovered certain sequences of moves for rearranging just a few cubies at a time. Within a month, he had the puzzle solved and an amazing journey lay ahead. First Patent Rubik applied for his Hungarian patent in January 1975 and left his invention with a small toy making cooperative in Budapest. The patent approval finally came in early 1977 and the first Cubes appeared at the end of 1977. By this time, Erno Rubik was married. Two other people applied for similar patents at about the same time as Rubik. Terutoshi Ishige applied a year after Rubik, for a Japanese patent on a very similar cube. An American, Larry Nichols, patented a cube before Rubik, held together with magnets. Nichols toy was rejected by all toy companies, including the Ideal Toy Corporation, which later bought the rights to Rubiks Cube. Sales of the Rubiks Cube were sluggish until Hungarian businessman Tibor Laczi discovered the Cube. While having a coffee, he spied a waiter playing with the toy. Laczi an amateur mathematician was impressed. The next day he went to the state trading company, Konsumex, and asked permission to sell the Cube in the West. Tibor Laczi had this to say on first meeting Erno Rubik: When Rubik first walked into the room I felt like giving him some money, he says. He looked like a beggar. He was terribly dressed, and he had a cheap Hungarian cigarette hanging out of his mouth. But I knew I had a genius on my hands. I told him we could sell millions. Nuremberg Toy Fair Laczi proceeded to demonstrate the Cube at the Nuremberg toy fair, but not as an official exhibitor. Laczi walked around the fair playing with a Cube and managed to meet British toy expert Tom Kremer. Kremer thought Rubiks Cube was the wonder of the world. He later arranged an order for a million Cubes with Ideal Toy. Whats in a Name? Rubiks Cube was first called the Magic Cube (Buvuos Kocka) in Hungary. The puzzle had not been patented internationally within a year of the original patent.  Patent law  then prevented the possibility of an international patent. Ideal Toy wanted at least a recognizable name to copyright; of course, that arrangement put Rubik in the spotlight because the Magic Cube was renamed after its inventor. The First Red Millionaire Erno Rubik became the first self-made millionaire from the communist block. The eighties and Rubiks Cube went well together. Cubic Rubes (the name of cube fans) formed clubs to play and study solutions. A sixteen-year-old Vietnamese high school student from Los Angeles, Minh Thai won the world championship in Budapest (June 1982) by unscrambling a Cube in 22.95 seconds. The unofficial speed records may be ten seconds or less. Human experts now solve the puzzle in 24-28 moves on a regular basis. Erno Rubik  established a foundation to help promising inventors in Hungary. He also runs the Rubik Studio, which employs a dozen people to design furniture and toys. Rubik has produced several other toys, including Rubiks Snake. He has plans to start designing computer games and continues to develop his theories on geometric structures. Seven Towns Ltd. currently holds the rights to Rubiks Cube.

The Role of Class in British Cinema Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Role of Class in British Cinema - Essay Example George VI was the king and he never wanted to become one. After the death of his father, his brother Edward was to take the throne but he refused to take it in order to marry the woman he loved, and thus, the duty was given to Prince Albert who since early ages, he had struggled with his speech. Albert has been the favourite of his father, but he mourns the introduction of the newspapers and radio, which necessitate a monarch to be heard and seen on public occasions. To avoid public humiliation, his wife Elizabeth seeks help from several speech therapists but nothing works. At last, a speech therapist from Australia Lionel Miguelbecomes of great assistance to Prince Albert in delivering the King’s speech(Ebert 2011, p320; Conradi and Logue 2011, p201). The paper will discuss the role of class in British cinema with special emphasis on the film The King’s Speech. Royal Politics and Its Aesthetic Value in British Cinema Film theory as it is known today came into existence in the late 1960s and since then, they have been controlled by psychoanalytic ideas. After the First World War, it was easier to identify two specific groups in film criticism. The first group was composed of the Sergei Eisenstein figure, whose theoretical essays and filmmaking in the 1920s established the beginning of the role of cinema as an aesthetic one. Based on the idea of Eisenstein, the aesthetic value of the film depended on its capability to change reality and this took the form of montage in his films. The second group was composed of the surrealists and impressionists. They were of the notion that the main role of the cinema was aesthetic; however, they were of the idea that the camera was sufficient to render general objects sublime. They emphasized on cinema as the visual medium which indicated that they considered narrative in most cases as a hindrance that had to be overcome (Murphy 2005). From 1934, British cinemas witnessed an increase in attendance among the peop le. Apart from being a source of entertainment, they assumed the crucial role in communication and social contact. British films of those times expressed the image of Britain as a very stable hierarchy at home, a just colonial government overseas and it represented the patriotic images of the armed forces and the monarchy. In general, the entire population of Britain looked happy with the films that were offered in the 1930s and those films assisted in the maintenance of the status quo and consensus. An important demographic feature of Britain in the 1930 was the steady ascendancy of the middle class. A number of films were based on this status quo (Redner 2010, p138). The Kings Speech setting is in the 1930s and represents what films at those times attempted to represent, that is, the role of class in the British Cinema. Universal agreement on a clear concept of class in cinema is elusive due to the various socioeconomic and political interactions that cinema, as an important media channel makes with the society. However, the transposition of the various usages of class in other disciplines onto cinema studies enables the generation of ideas with respect to cinema class. Using the Eisenstein theoretical postulates, cinema presents the audience with a chance to view of reality artistically coined to achieve the intended aesthetic value (Murphy 2005). Thematic

Research Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Research Paper - Essay Example The cycle of the livestock forms the key determinant of pastoralists’ daily and seasonal lives (Nowak & Laird, 2010). Among the Zulu and some other pastoral cultures, agriculture forms a supplement to developing animal products (Nowak & Laird, 2010). However, Gluckman (1963, p.81), argues that although â€Å"the Zulu, Tswana, Ankoke, Kavirondo, and Nuer are grouped as pastoral-agriculturalists†, complex patterns emerge from an interweaving of their ecological setting, the distribution of their settlements, division of labor, and other factors that form their culture. The Zulu utilise their animals not only for their own subsistence, but also in social and ritual occasions. Similar to the Masai of Kenya, although there is emphasis on music, dancing, elaborate beadwork, and oral narratives, there is little significance for the visual arts in the Zulu culture (Hatcher, 1999). Livestock represent wealth and prestige; they are exchanged as a part of marital gift-giving, and are used for settling disputes, as well as for ceremonial sacrifices. The community develops close emotional attachments to their livestock, and rarely slaughter their animals for food. Due to a lack of storage facilities and preservation techniques, pastoralists such as the Zulu have a reciporcal system of distributing the animals they butcher to other members of the group for immediate consumption (Nowak & Laird, 2010). Pastoralism as the primary mode of subsistence impacts several dimensions of cultural behavior among the Zulus. Thesis Statement: The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the pastoral mode of subsistence impacts different aspects of the cultural behavior of the Zulu tribe of Africa. In this context, their beliefs and values, gender relations, and political organization will be examined. Beliefs and Values of the Zulu Tribe The ancestor cult of the Zulus is based on the lineage and kinship system distinguishing Zulu life. Ritual sacrifices form an inherent pa rt of ceremonial rites among the tribe. Lambert (1993) attributes sacrifice to its origins in the ritualisation of the palaeolithic hunt. The contradictory features regarding people deeply attached to their animals is that there is no trace of guilt or anxiety at ritual killings among the Zulus. The author states that in both Zulu as well as ancient Greek sacrifices, misleading emotional factors are imbued, which may actually be absent from individual sacrifices. Hence, â€Å"explanations offered in terms of origins or formative antecedents are fraught with speculative problems and throw no light on the motivation for sacrifice† (Lambert, 1993, p.293) of livestock. The African cosmological understanding of life, death, and creation include the relationship of humankind with nature and the natural phenomena as their core issues (Monteiro-Ferreira, 2005). According to Asante (1998, p.89), â€Å"the organizing principle of human society, the creative spirit of phenomena, and th e eternal order of the universe† is Ma’at, which depicted the basic principle of creation as the equilibrium of opposites, the universe being regulated by the force of the perfectly established energy. Through the tradition of the oral narrative passed on from one generation to the next, these cosmological and ethical concepts were recreated to symbolize the spirit of the ancestors, which were considered very significant by the Zulus. Thus, Unkulunkulu is the ancient concept of a

Thinking Critically Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Thinking Critically - Essay Example The delegates on the other hand failed to consider their state of the national issues and their importance to the public. Declaring the meeting confidential as a result implied a deviation from ethical values of transparency and respect for the rights of public to information access (Ruggiero, 2011). Critical thinking determines ethical issues through its control of human actions and beliefs depending on an individual’s understanding and hence belief. The press should inform the public. The delegates, on the other hand, want to secure their discussion. Need to inform and the need to ensure confidentiality of the meetings discussions are in conflict. There is also a conflict between personal ethics and profession. The society needs to equip itself with a mentality that appreciates critical thinking (Moore, 2010). Critical mentality helps curb any future appeal to the mass, in this case, the press. Critical approach to issues will enable the use of value-based ethical thinking to avoid conflict of obligations and the possible consequences of such counteracting needs (Ruggiero,

How were European captives treated by Americans Essay

How were European captives treated by Americans - Essay Example Long before the Europeans started the ritual of slavery, Native Americans showed some cases of slavery where captives were enslaved. However, the enslavement practices of Native Americans were quite different from the European practices. The Native Americans did not treat their slaves as inferior creatures. The Native American culture allowed the slaves to acquire freedom through various options. As already mentioned they could either get adopted in the family or else they could free themselves through marriage, in cases of death of their masters or by performing any particular service that provided them freedom from the captor. 2 Not all captives were taken into enslavement; they were also tortured under different conditions. There was also a culture of killing the captives or selling them to the enemies for personal benefits by the Native Americans. A sect of Native Americans had beliefs that captives should be treated according to their bravery and courage in the war. If the capti ve was brave then he earned the respect of the captors. Some captives were sold in exchange for new weapons, food, clothing and other needed items when the Native Americans were in dire need of new weapons and goods at that

Research design proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Design - Research Proposal Example It is important to denote that descriptive research is effective in providing information concerning the behavior or characteristics of a particular group. Furthermore, a descriptive study is always carried out for purposes of demonstrating an association between things surrounding the world. Looking at this research, the researcher it is descriptive in nature. This is because it requires a researcher to make observations on the factors that cause domestic violence amongst the Hispanic community, and thereafter come up with a more reliable and accurate conclusion concerning the issue. Furthermore this research is concerned with analyzing the relationship amongst individuals. Berk (2006) denotes that one of the major characteristic of a descriptive research design is that it used to analyze the association between two or more groups. On this research qualifies to be use the descriptive research design for purposes of achieving its mandate. In carrying out this research, the researcher will rely mostly on three very important tools of descriptive research design. These tools are, observational, survey, as well as case study approaches (Creswell and Clark, 2007). Under observational research, the researcher will have the responsibility of identifying a group of particular Hispanic households, and analyze their ways of life, this includes whether there is violence or not amongst the identified families. This would therefore force a researcher to choose a population, and on this basis, the best strategy of choosing the population would be the use of a simple random technique. That is, the researcher will identify a least ten households, and randomly choose five, for purposes of observing their ways of life. Under case study approaches, the researcher will mainly rely on secondary sources of data collection to achieve this objective (Creswell and Clark, 2007). The researcher will have to look at journals, books, and

How were European captives treated by Americans Essay

How were European captives treated by Americans - Essay Example Long before the Europeans started the ritual of slavery, Native Americans showed some cases of slavery where captives were enslaved. However, the enslavement practices of Native Americans were quite different from the European practices. The Native Americans did not treat their slaves as inferior creatures. The Native American culture allowed the slaves to acquire freedom through various options. As already mentioned they could either get adopted in the family or else they could free themselves through marriage, in cases of death of their masters or by performing any particular service that provided them freedom from the captor. 2 Not all captives were taken into enslavement; they were also tortured under different conditions. There was also a culture of killing the captives or selling them to the enemies for personal benefits by the Native Americans. A sect of Native Americans had beliefs that captives should be treated according to their bravery and courage in the war. If the capti ve was brave then he earned the respect of the captors. Some captives were sold in exchange for new weapons, food, clothing and other needed items when the Native Americans were in dire need of new weapons and goods at that