Skepticblog

This weekend my son Andrew and I happened to catch a post on Facebook that there was to be a Rubik’s Cube world record attempt at the Discovery Science Center in Santa Ana, California, about 45 minutes north of us. The record was to be for the most people solving the cube simultaneously. Both of us are journeyman cubers, and we had a hole in our schedule, so you bet we were there. We greased up the cube and jumped in the Jeep.

Discovery Science Center

Arrived at the Science Center, which in a remarkable example of universal convergence is shaped like a cube, we found that the world record attempt was not the only event. There was also a speed solving contest, and top competitors from all over were there to race the clock. We took our seats in the theater to watch, and the very first run we witnessed was a girl who couldn’t have been more than 12 or 13 solve the cube in 16 seconds. Holy crap! I knew I’d been out of circulation for a couple decades, and the old-school one-layer-at-a-time method I taught Andrew was certainly not state of the art, but I wasn’t prepared for 16 seconds. Glad we hadn’t come to compete. (We learned later that young girl was actually 23, so we felt much better.)

Next, it transpired that Andrew wanted to enter the contest! Being a good dad, I tried to discourage what I thought could only be a humiliation. Here he was, with no experience, younger than anyone else there, five times slower than the best times we were seeing, and he would be competing against world champions. But he could not be dissuaded. I was impressed; there was no way I would have made a move like that when I was 11. They allowed the late entry, and we took some seats and waited to be called.

If you haven’t seen a Rubik’s Cube competition, they have very specific rules. There’s a timing pad where you have to keep your hands. You’re allowed 15 seconds to examine the cube before starting. Timing starts and stops when your hands leave and return to the pad. Well, Andrew didn’t know any of these things, and so of his five attempts, one was disqualified and two were penalized. Was he embarrassed? Angry? Not in the slightest. He nodded as the judge explained what his errors were, signed the card, and sat down behind the stage to wait his next turn. A gentleman and a sportsman.

Andrew makes a statement with a personal best of 1:07

During that wait, two top competitors posted 13 second times. There were some teenagers, but mostly college and long haired 20 somethings looming a foot and a half taller than Andrew. Tyson Mao, astrophysicist and world champion, was even there.

The best moment of the day was Andrew’s fourth run. By now he had the rules down, and posted his all-time personal best of 1:07. This was the moment he talked about for days. This was the part he’ll remember. Not that he was slower, or that he didn’t advance, or that he didn’t know the rules or that he was too young: That day, he only knew he was the best he’d ever been.

The World Record attempt

Later came the main event, although how it could seem other than anticlimactic I couldn’t fathom. It was the world record attempt. Most of the competitors from the contest and a lot of their parents and other random people gathered under the Science Center’s giant cube, where their Rubik’s Cubes were scrambled and numbered and set aside. The Guinness Book rules required a one-hour period during which no one other than each cube’s owner could touch it. It was like the grand opening of a new Wal-Mart when they blew the whistle and everyone rushed to the table to find their numbered cube. Within ten seconds the first hands began shooting into the air holding solved cubes. Andrew solved his three or four times, walking around and learning from some of the pros, before finally turning his in to be counted. The world record was established at 96, among them Andrew Dunning. But did he talk about holding a world record? Nope. He only knew he posted his personal best, in front of everyone.

You can guess how Andrew spent the rest of the day and into the wee hours of the night: Unlearn, unlearn, relearn, relearn. Internet. Internet. Internet. He’s working now on something called the Petrus method. I told him I’d get him an iPhone if he does a 20 second solution, but it was superfluous. He’s not doing it for me.