So I was in Barnes and Noble last week (A spoiler of a sort)

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and noticed that Rubiks Cubes are back, and I remembered my own Cube some years ago--was it really the 70s? Anyway, I remember getting a solution, even if it wasn't the even-handed "right" answer. But then I figured out that if you can get all the same colored tiles on its own side, how you did it is irrelevant.

My solution required ingenuity and some mechanical ability.

What's that you say? Mechanical ability? WTF?

Yes--mechanical ability, and the brains to find the screw hidden under one of the tiles, and take the Cube apart. No math required, just a working brain.

I wasn't a rocket scientist, but I guess I could consider myself a Captain Kirk sort--willing to think a little differently than everyone else. :)

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. My 7 yo wants one, but given his frustration problems we decided that

Santa won't be bringing one this year. LOL

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2. That's part of my problem

with a lot of puzzles and such. I'm a word-aholic, but I despise crossword puzzles because I get impatient: the same reason I don't do jigsaw puzzles either. But put a Scrabble board in front of me, and I can beat the crap out of just about anyone. I tried doing Sudoku, but I hate numbers--if they substituted letters, I wouldn't have that problem!

There should be a 3D Rubiks Cube somewhere online--find a game site and let your son try it out!

[DarkTirade]

3. That's also the option of taking off the stickers and putting them where you want them to be. :)

[Crabby Appleton]

4. The cubes pop apart without the use of tools

by rotating a side 1/8th of a turn, then an edge cube in the rotated face can be pulled out, the rest of the cube comes apart easily after that. There are small flanges on the back of the cubes that hold the thing together. I'll look for a video.

ok, here's a video on edit

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0U3PCJ_5PVc

[Robb]

5. We called that solution

"Occam's Hammer." :D

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6. Is that a newer cube?

The old ones didn't have that easy a time at assembly or disassembly, hence the screw in the middle of the cube. The one she used in the video looked downright simple in comparison!