RUBIK

noun (Lifestyle and Leisure) Part of the name of a number of mathematical puzzles devised by Hungarian teacher E. Rubik; originally Rubik's cube, the trade mark of a puzzle consisting of a cube built round a double fulcrum from 26 smaller cubes of which each visible face shows one of six colours, each layer of nine cubes being capable of rotation in its own plane, the task being to restore each face of the larger cube to a single colour after the uniformity has been destroyed by rotating any of the layers. Etymology: The surname of the inventor. History and Usage: Rubik's cube was first marketed under this name in 1980 (it had originally been called the Magic Cube), and immediately enjoyed great commercial success, sparking off a craze of similar proportions to the ones later caused by Transformers and Turtles. Rubik's puzzles (the cube was later followed by Rubik's triangle and other puzzles on the same principle) attracted adults as well as children. Buvæs Kocka--the Magic Cube, also known as Rubik's Cube--has simultaneously taken the puzzle world, the mathematics world and the computing world by storm. Scientific American Mar. 1981, p. 14 The life of the modern toy designer is an unending search for the next...Rubik's Cube, the next teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. Smithsonian Dec. 1989, p. 73