Rubik’s Cube Marketing as Educational Tool
Sándor Kiss Rubik Exhibition Co., Ltd.
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 1 “Gaming can be used as a form of teaching.” “It was wonderful, to see how, after only a few turns, the colors became mixed … After a while I decided … 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?” – Ernő Rubik, 1974
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 2 1974 2x2x2 • As a young teacher, Ernő Rubik(29) was looking for novel, more exciting ways to explain spatial relationships • He used eight interconnected wooden cubes first.
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 3 1974
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 4 Target and Construction
1. Let the pieces stay Cutting a cube with together! various planes is a fairly standard exercise and leads to the well-known 23 2. Let the pieces move and 33 arrays. only in groups!
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 5 Result
Hungarian Patent No.: HU170062 Applied: 30 January, 1975 Granted: 28 October, 1976 WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 6 Model and Product
3x3x3
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 7 See at Jaaps Puzzle Page Magic Cube – Bűvös Kocka • It is not a toy – it is a puzzle for everyone. • Coloration makes the complexity. • Excellent tool for self teaching. A challenge for one’s logic and patience. Cube has even many sub goals – e.g. one can get pleasure out of simply doing one or two sides or just the corners. • Magic Cube gave birth to a new class of twisty puzzles.
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 8 Complexity
• Twisty puzzles typically made up of regular corner/edge/center pieces and can be solved using basic tools of abstract algebra. • However, if a sufficient number of pieces are fused together, a "bandaged puzzle" emerges, and the mathematics behind this is more complicated. • Few variations of classic Rubik’s Cube are bandaged puzzles!
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 9 Solution
Ernő Rubik’s notes
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 10 Rubik wasn’t a marketing savant in 1974, but a shy 29-year-old teacher who did knew he has had created a unique cube
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 11 Hungarian Marketing • 1976-78 almost without concept, „just put on exhibitory shelf…! Do not twist!” Konsumex • December 1978 mathematician Dr. Tibor Laczi, „Let me try!” • Dr. Laczi showed it to Tom Kremer • 1979 Contract
Production started in Hungary in 1976
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 12 Partner is Ideal Toy Co.
• Tom Kremer was key figure who helped to bring the first Cube to American International Toy Fair in New York in 1980. • "I knew when I first saw Ernő's Cube creation that it was going to have universal appeal, but it was hard to imagine just how popular it would become,"
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 13 Marketing in USA • 1980 Toy Fair New York – Ideal Toy Co. • Hungarian connection was important
Zsazsa Prof. Gabor Solomon W. Golomb
Source: KPCC WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 14 Rymes and Robotics
A Rubric on Rubik Cubics (1981) Strange imports come from Hungary: Count Dracula, and ZsaZsa G., Now Erno Rubik’s Magic Cube For PhD or country rube. This fiendish clever engineer Entrapped the music of the sphere. Claude Shannon, the father of IT set about to It’s sphere on sphere in all 3D— build a device to solve A kinematic symphony! the cube. Ta! Ra! Ra! Boom De Ay!
Source: Scientific American Blog WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 15 Cube Big Bang
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 16 Cube Impact on Society
• Media, TV, films… • Very popular among young ones, but also many ordinary customers were frustrated • Mathematicians, scientists, engineers love it • Marketing community jumped for it • Fashion • … many more
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 17 Recreational Mathematics • Prof. David Singmaster is most famous for his cube notation to the Rubik's Cube (i.e., what letters denote what face to turn on the Rubik's Cube) and his huge personal collection of mechanical puzzles and books of brain teasers. He met the Cube in 1978. • Prof. Solomon Golomb has devised an analogy between Cube corners and quarks, which he has extended into a complete Cubic cosmology. – The mating habits of quarks mirror the twisting properties of the `corner cubies'
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 18 Two Puzzle Crazes Samuel Loyd’s 15 puzzle Rubik’s Cube 3x3x3
Rubik, the Amazing Cube
Source: CTK Insights Source: X Entertaiment 1880 1980 WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 19 Puzzle Craze in 1880 • U.S. in February • Canada in March • Europe in April • Craze had dissipated by July, same year • Puzzle was not introduced to Japan until 1889 • The craze was fuelled by numerous cash prizes up to $1000 were offered for anyone who could provide a solution for the swapped 15-14 situation.
See more Fifteen Puzzle WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 20 Puzzle Craze in 1980 • 1977 Magic Cube production 12,000 pcs for domestic market • 1978 for export 2,100 pcs • 1979 contract was signed between Ideal Toys Co., Ltd. and KONSUMEX Foreign Trading Co. to deliver 1 million pcs within a year. • 1980 February, New York Toy Fair. New name: Rubik’s Cube • Craze had dissipated by 1983
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 21 WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 22 Collected from several sources 180~400 million pcs cubes were sold
STEAM Video games World Wide Web 2005 You Tube….
Production stopped
Production started New York Toy Fair More You CAN do the Competitions Rubik’s Cube Intn’l Mathematicians Strengthening the Brand Conference in Helsinki
World Competition
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 23 Outreach 2010
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 24 Outreach 2014: STEAM Project
• Science, Technlogy, Engineering, Art, Mathematics • Exhibition at Liberty Science Center, Jersey City, USA
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 25 Ernő Rubik said • „When you are studying from a book, lots of people go straight to the end to look for the answers. But that's not my style. For me, the most enjoyable part is the puzzle, the process of solving, not the solution itself.”
• But remember: THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY…
WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 26 Invent, play and inspire! Thank you!
Photo: Landon Nordeman Smithsonian.com WPCF 2014, Gyöngyös 27