Fringineering: The Rubik’s Cube Trap

photo: exploratorium.edu

Fact: People who can solve a Rubik’s Cube are pompous, smug asses. I know this. I was one.

It was December of 2006 and I had just seen “The Pursuit of Happyness”. As the end of college approached, I had been unsuccessfully looking for a job. So in preparation, I immediately purchased a Rubik’s Cube and, á la Will Smith, learned to solve it within a 10-block cab ride. Proud, I expected some sort of reward for this amazing logical feat. I received no such reward.

Determined to receive the notoriety I assumed was advertised on the box, I demonstrated my Rubixal powers to anyone who would lend me 45 to 210 seconds. Still, nothing.

It was then I realized the insignificance of my accomplishment. Like sword-swallowing or landing on the moon, the world had become desensitized to the Rubik’s Cube.

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I learned a shocking truth: that there is a cult of Rubists amongst us, ready to pounce on any unsolved cube and flex their problem-solving prowess. Now I don’t necessarily condemn their actions — they’ve certainly honed their skills to a fine point. However, like the guy who rides a unicycle to campus, there is a definite line between impressive and irritating. And I can’t help but have fun at these peoples’ expense.

That is why I keep an unsolvable Rubik’s Cube on my desk at work. Scrambled, it calls out to any nearby bathroom-trekking Rubists like the One Ring. Any attempts to solve my trap will result in a copious amount of delicious embarrassment.

To build such a trap yourself is easy. Simply swap two adjacent edge stickers and scramble.
Why does this work? Rubik’s Cubes start their lives with each side containing the a solid color. It is universally accepted that this is a “solved” state. Every cube can be “solved” for the fact that any scramble sequence could simply be back-tracked to the cube’s starting condition. By swapping stickers, you redefine was the starting state is. This creates what is known as a parity error. Furthermore, there is no move to rotate two adjacent edge pieces. Therefore in effect, the traditional “solved” state can never be reached.

I implore you to join me in my quest. Build an unsolvable Rubik’s Cube. Only then will these worshipers of aging eighties geometric logic puzzles be gone with for good.