The Rubik's Cube (also known as the 3x3x3 cube, and normally referred to in the cubing community as the 3x3x3, 3x3, or cube) is a twistable puzzle in the shape of a cube that is cut two times along each of three axes.
☀The Rubik's Cube remains the top-selling single toy/puzzle of all time with 450 million sold since its creation in 1974. The Rubik's Cube remains so popular, that in the decades since its creation, it has created speed-cubing organizations and competitions. The toy/puzzle still has a large fan base, among young and old. One developer created an iPhone application that helps users learn how to solve a Rubik's Cube in 20 moves. Unlike other best-selling toys such as Monopoly and Simon, the cube was not originally intended to be a toy or puzzle. Its inventor, Hungarian architecture professor Ernö Rubik, created it in 1974 as a way to teach his students three-dimensional geometry. The combined collections of both Mattel's Barbie dolls and Hot Wheels have both outsold the Rubik's Cube, but none of them have released a single toy that beat it. Yes, I do realize that neither of those have ever released a single puzzle.
There are 2 types of Rubik's Cubes, one being a normal Rubik's Cube and the other being a 'speedcube'. Speedcubes are Rubik's Cubes, but they have been made to be much faster than a normal Rubik's Cube. There are multiple companies (e.g. GAN or MoYu) that compete to create the best speedcube. It is being debated which company makes the best speedcubes, and also what speedcube is the best.
The puzzle has 6 fixed centers, 12 edges, and 8 corners. It also has a total of 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (or 4.3 x 10^19) positions. It has been verified that each position is able to be be solved in 20 or less turns.
The correct color scheme of a Rubik's Cube is green opposite blue, red opposite orange, and white opposite yellow. The correct orientation of this color scheme is red to the right of green, and white on top. See image also.
The current official world record solve is 3.13 seconds by Max Park, and the world record average of 5 solves is 4.48 seconds by Yiheng Wang as of 07/16/2023 (MM/DD/YYYY).