Have you ever tried to solve a Rubik’s Cube? It’s a puzzle made up of different colored squares you spin around with your hands – usually. It turns out some people can solve the puzzle with their feet! 8-year-old Atharva Bhat solved three Rubik’s Cubes at once: one Rubik’s Cube with his feet, plus one in each hand. And he did it in just under 1 minute and 30 seconds. That’s 6 seconds faster than the old world record. You’ve got to hand it to him for putting his best foot forward – and right, left, up and down!
Wee ones: If you hold 1 cube in your right hand and 1 cube in your left hand, how many cubes are you holding?
Little kids: The face of a Rubik’s Cube has 9 little squares. If a face is all blue except for 1 yellow square, how many of those 9 squares are blue? Bonus: If the new record is 90 seconds and the old record was 6 seconds longer than that, how long was the old record?
Big kids: If a Rubik’s Cube has 6 faces with 9 squares on each face, how many squares does it have in total? Bonus: Atharva’s next goal is to set this record in 1 minute. Would that time be twice as fast as 1 minute 30 seconds? If not, what record time would be?
Answers:
Wee ones: 2 cubes.
Little kids: 8 squares are blue. Bonus: 96 seconds, or 1 minute 36 seconds.
Big kids: 54 squares. Bonus: It is not twice as fast. 45 seconds would be 1/2 of 90 seconds, and therefore twice as fast.
Laura Bilodeau Overdeck is founder and president of Bedtime Math Foundation. Her goal is to make math as playful for kids as it was for her when she was a child. Her mom had Laura baking before she could walk, and her dad had her using power tools at a very unsafe age, measuring lengths, widths and angles in the process. Armed with this early love of numbers, Laura went on to get a BA in astrophysics from Princeton University, and an MBA from the Wharton School of Business; she continues to star-gaze today. Laura’s other interests include her three lively children, chocolate, extreme vehicles, and Lego Mindstorms.