3x3x3 Rubik's Cube

The 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube was the first Rubik's Cube/toy ever made. It's used for entertainment and competitive purposes.

Invention and the Creator
Rubik's Cube is a combination puzzle invented in 1974 by Hungarian sculptor and professor of architecture Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, the puzzle was licensed by Rubik to be sold by Ideal Toy Corp. In 1980 via businessman Tibor Laczi and Seven Towns founder Tom Kremer, and won the German Game of the Year special award for Best Puzzle that year. It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy. On a classic Rubik's Cube, each of the six faces is covered by nine stickers, each of one of six solid colors: white, red, blue, orange, green, and yellow. In currently sold models, white is opposite yellow, blue is opposite green, and orange is opposite red, and the red, white and blue are arranged in that order in a clockwise arrangement. On early cubes, the position of the colors varied from cube to cube. An internal pivot mechanism enables each face to turn independently, thus mixing up the colors. For the puzzle to be solved, each face must be returned to have only one color. Similar puzzles have now been produced with various numbers of sides, dimensions, and stickers, not all of them by Rubik. Although the Rubik's Cube reached its height of mainstream popularity in the 1980s, it is still widely known and used. Many speedcubers continue to practice it and other twisty puzzles and compete for the fastest times in various categories. Since 2003, The World Cube Association, the Rubik's Cube's international governing body, has organized competitions worldwide and kept the official world records.

Facts
As of January 2009, 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide.

There are 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 or about 43 quintillion possible combinations in a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube. The 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube has eight corners and twelve edges.

The Rubik's Cube is 40 years old.

The World Record for solving a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube by a person is 4.69 seconds set by 15-year-old Patrick Ponce.

The World Record for solving a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube by a robot is 0.887 seconds.

Diamond Cutters International crafted the most expensive 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in 18-carat yellow gold, adding 25 precious stones as "stickers": diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds and is valued at $2,500,000.

Tony Fisher, a British puzzle designer, built the world's biggest 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in 2016. The fully functional Rubik's Cube is 5.12 feet wide and weighs 220.46 lbs.

The smallest 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube is 0.22 inches wide.

Thanks to the Google supercomputers, a team of researchers proved in 2010 that any scramble in a 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube can be solved in 20 steps or less. Finding this number (nicknamed God's number) has been a huge mathematical mystery for decades.

Notation

 * F (Front): the side currently facing the solver
 * B (Back): the side opposite the front
 * U (Up): the side above or on top of the front side
 * D (Down): the side opposite the top, underneath the Cube
 * L (Left): the side directly to the left of the front
 * R (Right): the side directly to the right of the front
 * ƒ (Front two layers): the side facing the solver and the corresponding middle layer
 * b (Back two layers): the side opposite the front and the corresponding middle layer
 * u (Up two layers): the top side and the corresponding middle layer
 * d (Down two layers): the bottom layer and the corresponding middle layer
 * l (Left two layers): the side to the left of the front and the corresponding middle layer
 * r (Right two layers): the side to the right of the front and the corresponding middle layer
 * x (rotate): rotate the entire Cube on R
 * y (rotate): rotate the entire Cube on U
 * z (rotate): rotate the entire Cube on F

Speed Solving and Beginner's Method
For speed solving, people use the CFOP method or also known a Fridrich Method. The acronym "CFOP" stands for "Cross, F2L, OLL, and PLL.  This method was created by Jessica Fridrich.  For additional information: Cross, F2L (First Two Layers), OLL (Orient Last Layer), and PLL (Permute Last Layer).

For people who want to begin Rubik's Cubing, they would want to use the Beginner's Method. The Beginner's Method has 6 steps: Green cross, then the green corners, then the second layer, then the blue cross, then blue corners, then orient blue corners. I recommend this video by TheSergsB which takes you step by step on how to solve the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube. The Beginner's Method notation can be found here.