Rubic’s Cube in 4-D

It’s the big one, ‘Lizzy!

Years and years and decades ago I knew one of the solutions to the Rubic’s Cube puzzle. Used that powerful knowledge to intimidate my brother once, then promptly forgot it in order to free up memory for more pressing things (like “Where the heck did I leave those car keys???”).

Being unsatisfied with having only a mere 3 spacial dimensions to play around with, the creators of this little game bring the 4-D version to your computer. Clearly, they were worried that you might have a few free years of precious life left without this to suck it up into oblivion.

From their FAQ:

Q: So what does it mean to make a 4D magic cube? A: Every feature of the original puzzle has an analogy in four dimensions. For the rest of this document, those features will be in double quotes when we are talking about higher dimensional analogies. The little 2D colored stickers of the original puzzle are replaced by 3D little 3D colored boxes. The original 2D stickers on the face of a solved cube were arranged in a 3×3 square array. In the 4D version, the 3D “stickers” are arranged in 3×3x3 cubic “faces”. Both puzzles are solved when all stickers on the same face are the same color. Both puzzles start in their solved states.

Oh - so you’re not satisfied with a mere 4 dimensional universe to play in??? Here’s a 5-D version that Rubic himself could not find his way out of.

Heh! In my day, sonny, we only had a 2-D universe to live in. And it only came in black! And we were glad to have it!!

H/T to Slashdot for the links.