Rubik's Cube

Twist it, turn it and try to get all six sides back to one color. It's harder than it looks.

It looks easy enough, only six colors. Just twist the rows and columns around until every side is back to a single color again. Go ahead, give it a try.

Hungarian architecture professor Ernő Rubik created the puzzle in 1974. It was originally called the “Magic Cube” and was sold in Hungary before Ideal brought it to the international market as the Rubik's Cube in 1980. Then things got crazy - within two years, about 100 million had been sold.

Solving one isn't a matter of luck - there are patterns and sequences of moves that let you move the pieces where they need to go without messing up everything you've already fixed. Of course, you have to know those algorithms. Otherwise you can spend a lot of time getting five sides almost right.

Some people are unbelievably fast. Competitive “speedcubers” can solve Rubik's Cubes in seconds, and there are competitions for solving them one-handed and even blindfolded. Of course, if you’re not a speedcuber, you can do what I did - get one side back to a single color and consider that a pretty good accomplishment (or peel the stickers off and put them back on in the right position - just be aware that those stickers won't actually stick like new and your cheating will be obvious!)