Dubai: A nine-year-old Jordanian boy solved 700 Rubik's cubes in a matter of three hours and arranged them into a design that reflects the image of late Abu Dhabi ruler and UAE's Father of the Nation- Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Zaid Al Mahrooq, a grade 5 student at GEMS Cambridge International school Abu Dhabi, cracked his first Rubik's cube puzzle just months ago. He expressed his interest to his father Mohammad Ayyoub, a senior contract specialist in Abu Dhabi, to solve a Rubik's puzzle.
Surprisingly, Zaid’s parents found in a few days’ time he was able to solve the cubes really quickly. Soon he was teaching his parents and younger sibling his algorithm to solve the puzzle.
How to solve the puzzle
For the uninitiated: There are different ways how you can solve the Rubik's cube puzzle. Some theories suggest the easiest solution involves a few steps. First analyse the 3x3 cube puzzle and learn the notation. Then solve the white face of the Rubik cube. Third use a trick to fix the second layer. Fix the yellow edges. Then position and orient the remaining corners.
“Zaid is addicted to the cube, he carries it with him everywhere – to the malls, school and while visiting friends. It is his best friend,” the father told Gulf News.
“Besides solving the cubes, Zaid started creating patterns on all sides of the cubes. One day he came to me and said if I have hundreds of cubes, I can create an image.”
Zaid told Gulf News: “Basically if there is a picture, I can create an image with the cubes I have. This is a way of mixing art with solving a puzzle.”
On hearing this, Zaid's father placed an order for 1000 Rubik's cubes and they were delivered on December 1. Zaid took the opportunity of the National Day holidays to solve 700 Rubik cubes in three hours. Setting out to create an image of Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the family took a picture of the late Abu Dhabi ruler and transferred it on to the computer form the design for the cubes.
“It took us hours to create a drawing of late ruler on the computer."
“Once this was ready, Zaid started setting up the first two layers of the drawing and within three hours, he solved the puzzle and placed them on the image of the late ruler. The size of the image is 1.5 meter by 1.6 meter.”
What next
On the Shaikh Zayed image, Zaid focused on two colours – blue and white. Going forward, he wants to challenge himself more and try a pattern that involves more colours.
“I love the Rubik's cubes. It is my passion. I want to challenge myself more and more. I want to be famous for solving my Rubik's cube puzzles,” he said.
