The Gan Rubik's Cube

The gan rubik's cube is the most popular and widely sold puzzle in the world. It is a 3x3x3 cube with six center pieces.

Each of these centre pieces pivots on a screw (fastener). A spring between each screw head and its corresponding piece tensions the individual piece inward so that the assembly remains compact.

The history of the cube

The gan rubik's cube is one of the most popular puzzles in the world. It was invented by Erno Rubik in 1972. It is a 3x3x3 cube with coloured pieces that can be rotated around a central axis.

It is a popular STEM toy and has inspired an entire category of twisty puzzles (or cuboids). These include 2x2x4, 3x3x5, and 4x4x4 puzzles.

These puzzles are designed to be solved by combining a series of moves known as algorithms, with each algorithm having its own specific effects. Many cubers use a notation developed by David Singmaster, called Singmaster notation, to denote these algorithms.

In the Singmaster notation, letters that appear on horizontal planes are noted as table moves (T), book moves (B) or window moves (W). Letters that appear on vertical front to back planes are noted as windows. The direction for each table or book move is clockwise or anticlockwise, while the direction for window moves is anticlockwise or clockwise, depending on which side is designated the top.

The design

The cube's design is an important factor for its performance. A well-designed puzzle will have smooth turning characteristics and provide good control. A poorly designed cube will be fast but offer poor control or make it hard to turn the layers.

The number of possible combinations depends on how the cube's colour scheme is organised. For example, a cube with the yellow opposing the white and blue opposing the green could have up to six different permutations.

Speedcubers use a method called CFOP (cross, F2L, OLL, PLL) to solve the cube. It requires learning about 120 algorithms but it allows the cube to be solved in only 55 moves on average.

GAN is a brand known for their innovations, especially in 3x3 twisty puzzles like the Megaminx and Skewb. They also produce non-NxN puzzles that feature their Gan Elasticity System or GES, which is an adjustable all-in-one system where the spring strength and distance are interchangable.

The materials

The Rubik's cube is made from a mix of plastics. The core is made from Nylon while the side pieces are mainly ABS.

During manufacturing, the cube is assembled with six centre pieces that each pivot on a screw (fastener). A spring between each of these screws and its corresponding piece tensions the whole assembly inward. This allows the cube to remain compact but allow for movement.

These springs are a critical component of the cube as they control how easily it can be turned and whether the individual pieces are pulled apart or not. GAN speed cubes use a unique system called the Gan Elasticity System (GES) to control this tension.

In addition to the GES, GAN puzzles also feature other mechanisms that improve speed and ease of play. For example, they can be customised to have different elasticity in terms of the springs.

The mechanism

The gan rubik's cube is constructed using six central pieces, twelve edge pieces, and eight corner pieces. Each of these pieces consists of a single colour, and they are arranged in anti-clockwise order around a central square.

The colours of these elements are preferably contrasting. They may also be coloured with a decorative pattern.

In a preferred embodiment, the exposed faces of each cubic element are coloured, wherein a first colour is selected from a group comprising at least two contrasting colours. Thus, as shown in FIGS. 3, face 51 a of mid-face cubic element 21 is of a first colour, face 52 a, 52 b and 52 c of corner cubic element 22 are of a second contrasting colour, and face 53 a and 53 b of mid-face cubic element 23 are of the first colour.

The number of possible permutations of the six centre faces of a solved Rubik's Cube is 88,580,102,706,155,225,088,000, if all orientations are counted. However, when the orientations of centres are considered in addition to the orientations of the centre faces, the total increases to 2,125,922,464,947,725,402,112,000.