Rubik's Cube Blog http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog Just another WordPress weblog Mon, 14 Dec 2009 05:39:18 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 en hourly 1 Rubik’s Cube Championships http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-championships/ http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-championships/#comments Sat, 14 Nov 2009 10:38:48 +0000 admin http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/?p=23 Ever wonder what the rubik’s cube competitions look like?  Here is a look at a Rubik’s Cube championship held in Germany:

]]> http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-championships/feed/ 1 Rubik’s Cube Trends http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-trends/ http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-trends/#comments Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:23:49 +0000 admin http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/?p=13 By studying the amount of Google searches for “rubiks cube” on Google Trends, Rubik’s Cubes have become increasingly popular over the past 5 years.  In fact, the average search volume has roughly doubled from 2002 to 2007.  During Christmas, the amount of searches almost triples the normal searches during the rest of the year.  It also shows a slight decrease in search volume beginning in 2008 until present.  This trend is likely due to the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, which came out in December of 2006, the exact time the large increase in searches occurred.    In the movie Will Smith, the lead actor, solves the cube with ease while with his boss, proving his intellect.  It’s a significant scene in the movie.

Another interesting statistic from this Google Trends search is that the largest amount of search are from the Philippines, by a significant margin.  In fact the Philippines out-searches the U.S. by roughly 3 times for the term “rubiks cube”.  The top 5 countries, in order, are: Philippines, Singapore, New Zealand, United States, and Australia.  Even more specific here are the top 5 cities for this search term: Makati (Philippines), Salt Lake City (UT, USA), Pleasanton (CA, USA), Richardson (TX, USA), and Irvine (CA, USA).

What can we conclude from the statistics?  Well, first, that the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness had a huge impact on the popularity of Rubik’s Cubes .  Second, the Rubik’s cube is world-wide item and extremely popular is south-east Asia.  And third, the decline is likely to decrease to the old search volume before the movie, The Pursuit of Happyness, unless the Rubik’s Cube can get publicity from another source.

]]> http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-trends/feed/ 0 Rubik’s Cube Book http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-book/ http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-book/#comments Tue, 10 Nov 2009 04:32:18 +0000 admin http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/?p=20 We have launched a rubik’s cube book for our users to buy in book format.  We created this after an overwhelming amount of requests for a physical version that people could buy for their kids or grandkids as gifts.  We also created an e-book version as well in case you feel like saving a few bucks.  We appreciate any feedback!

RubiksSolver.com Team

]]> http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-book/feed/ 0 Youngest and Oldest 3×3 Solvers http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/youngest-and-oldest-3x3-solvers/ http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/youngest-and-oldest-3x3-solvers/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 19:20:48 +0000 admin http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/?p=9 It’s on thing to be able to solve a rubik’s cube, but it’s another when you are 4 years old!  Here are the youngest and oldest to ever solve a rubik’s cube and their times.

YOUNGEST:

  1. Enxi Xie – 4 years, 6 months, and 10 days  [1:28.06]
  2. Yui Tomita - 4 years, 8 months, and 14 days  [1:48.28]
  3. Shufan Wang - 4 years, 9 months, and 19 days  [6:19.50]
  4. Valentine Chung - 5 years, and 22 days  [3:04.04]
  5. Emilien Combaret - 5 years, 1 months, and 23 days  [2:01.05]
  6. Daniël Hop – 5 years, 1 month, and 30 days  [2:06.65]
  7. Ashvin Ganesan – 5 years, 4 months, and 6 days  [1:31.86]
  8. Yiwen Zhang – 5 years, 6 months, and 28 days  [1:47.68]
  9. John Ismael Ugelstad – 5 years, 7 months, and 21 days [1:43.63]
  10. Xu Guo 2 – 5 years, 8 months, and 12 days [42.68]

OLDEST:

  1. Xinxian Li – 88 years, 6 months, and 16 days  [4:43.52]
  2. Martin Berger – 79 years, 11 months, and 30 days  [2:14.56]
  3. Rune Wesström – 79 years, 4 months, and 18 days  [44.19]
  4. Hideaki Tomoyori – 79 years, 10 months, and 2 days  [43.65]
  5. Zhiwei Jin – 75 years, 7 months, and 14 days  [1:43.80]
  6. Xiansheng Chen – 75 years, 2 months, and 28 days  [2:17.61]
  7. Haruo Aoki – 73 years, 4 months, and 15 days  [45.05]
  8. Huimin Zhu – 71 years, 11 months, and 21 days  [1:30.63]
  9. Mohammad Azhari – 65 years, 7 months, and 7 days  [2:38.00]
  10. Grada Ooms – 64 years, 10 months, and 12 days  [1:32.22]

Resource: World Cube Association

]]> http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/youngest-and-oldest-3x3-solvers/feed/ 0 Rubik’s Cube Solution in Six Different Languages! http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-solution-in-six-different-languages/ http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/rubiks-cube-solution-in-six-different-languages/#comments Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:55:55 +0000 admin http://www.rubikssolver.com/blog/?p=6 We have extended our solution guide to six different languages: English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.  Here are the links to each guide:

While we are very excited about this expansion we do realize there are most likely errors on each page as we are not from a country that speaks any of these as their native language (except English).  So, if you speak any of these languages and find a mistake in the translation, we ask you to help us out and notify us so we can correct it.  Thanks, and enjoy!

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