3 Year Old Solves Rubik’s Cube in 114 seconds
by Carmen Van Kerckhove
Supposedly this is a 3-year-old girl. I know we Asians are smart and all (yes that is sarcasm), but come on. Do you think this is real?
One of the comments says: ” i think that little gril has a groowth disorder and is really a 45 year old who is good with rubix cubes.” I kinda wonder…?
Hat tip to Mr. Carmen for this one.
Carmen Van Kerckhove is co-founder and president of
HighJive wrote:
She’s probably so good because she works in an Asian sweatshop assembling Rubik’s Cubes 24/7.
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 11:41 am ¶
Yori Kim wrote:
hm………interesting, I don’t know what to say about this though.
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 12:09 pm ¶
Ken wrote:
If anyone has ever learned to solved a rubix cube, you know that it’s not hard at all. It takes a few hours of practice to learn the patterns needed to solve it. After that, it’s done all by repeating about 4 patterns over and over and can be solved in a matter of minutes. It doesn’t take much brain power. In fact, the cubes come with instructions on how to solve it.
My cube is sitting on my desk. I haven’t touched it in a while, but I can probably solve it in the same amount of time as the girl. And I definitely know that I’m no genius.
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 12:54 pm ¶
Bianca Reagan wrote:
“Mr. Carmen.” How cute!
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 1:12 pm ¶
Undercover Black Man wrote:
HighJive, you funny. Funny!
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 1:13 pm ¶
Vox wrote:
I’m with Ken. My cousin can solve them in under three minutes without breaking a sweat. There’s a trick to them. It’s kind of cool that a three-year-old has the focus and memory to do it, though.
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 2:21 pm ¶
deb wrote:
Oh-kaaaay. But can she read two pages of a book simultaneously–one page with each eye–like Kim Peek?
j/k How cute is that! Even if there’s a “pattern” to solving the puzzle, I think it’s pretty awesome that the mind of a 3-year old has figured it out. She must kick ass in sudoku!
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 2:25 pm ¶
Keke wrote:
Wow. That makes me feel bad. Really bad. When I was her age, I was making mud pies and eating paste.
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 2:45 pm ¶
Guerita wrote:
I feel bad for her siblings!!!! (both older and younger) otherwise aaaaaaaaawwwwwwwww Cute baby!!!!!!
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 4:31 pm ¶
Church of shishkaBOB wrote:
It’s all a fraud. She’s really four! Just kidding.
As to the mental skills required to solve a Rubik’s Cube, everything is relative. A ten-year old who can do Calculus is a bona fide prodigy; whereas, a seventeen-year old who can do the same is not worth mentioning. A three-year old who is capable of memorizing these
basic Rubik’s Cube rules, let alone processing them has a IQ that is stratospheric. What amazes me as much as her intelligence is her physical dexterity to manipulate a complex object so easily.
Drop a Rubik’s Cube in front of your average, or even bright three-year old and see what happens.
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 5:10 pm ¶
WomunOfColour wrote:
Anyway, I think she’s at least 6, but they put her in a high chair to make her look younger.
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 6:33 pm ¶
deb wrote:
I was eating paint chips (caught a case of lead poison doing it too!)
Anyway, forget Rubik’s Cube how about Human Tetris!
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 9:15 pm ¶
Fabian Williams wrote:
Man, that’s just amazing. If the kid has a great memory or whatever, it’s still amazing. I’m yet to solve one of those things.
Maybe I can get my 2 year old to do that…hmmm?
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 10:15 pm ¶
doviende wrote:
ya, it’s obviously awesome that a kid can solve it, but it’s not really a fast time. If you practice a bit, you can quite easily get your time below 2 minutes. With moderate practice, it’s easy to get down to 1 minute. It starts to get hard beyond that, but there are plenty of people out there who can do it in less than 30 seconds and others who go to competitions and do it in 15 seconds…114 seconds places her at the bottom of competent solvers, but give her time
Kids can do amazing things…you should see the level of skill of the 6-year-olds at the weiqi school that i visited (aka “Go”, a chinese/japanese strategy board game). I’ve played off and on for years, but these 6-year-olds could beat me because they had intensive training by an expert every day for a year. So i totally believe that a smart 3-year old could spend some time practicing and learn the couple of tricks necessary to solve a rubik’s cube. Looking at the way she holds the cube and uses her fingers to flick the sides, i’d say she’s definitely had a lot of training from someone. She’ll probably have an awesome time soon! 加油！
Posted 10 Jul 2007 at 11:31 pm ¶
Karen wrote:
awwww shes sooo cute!
:o)
Posted 11 Jul 2007 at 12:44 pm ¶
jessica wrote:
I never could do the Rubix cube or that Missing Link game either. At this age, I was sneaking around the back door trying to eat Asa’s (German Shepard) crunchy food as well as the Tetra Fish Food flakes. What a cutie!
Posted 11 Jul 2007 at 1:56 pm ¶
jane wrote:
what about the whole idea of pressuring these kids to learn how to do these pretty ridiculous, and ultimately not-very-useful tricks so that they can appear on television in front of millions and make their parents proud? there’s plenty of it in the states, but there seems to be a TON of stuff on baby geniuses and how to make your kid a genius here in china–and maybe other parts of asia, too (judging by some of the books i saw in bookstores in bangkok).
Posted 12 Jul 2007 at 12:00 am ¶
Spunkalunk wrote:
Damn, yet another child who will be Mensa material before me.
Have postponed the acceptance test due to losing one IQ-pt a year (was considered gifted when a youth).
Current IQ = 131; if you can help explain what’s happening to me, please let me know noticed the trend 4 years ago, lord knows how many points I’ve lost in total. Maybe I should give up the drugs & booze. Just kidding – how do I sustain/rebuild it while maintaining my harmful habits?!
Posted 12 Jul 2007 at 7:20 pm ¶