Talk:Ernő Rubik

Logic and fantasy in space
What is the actual relation of Rubik to Rubik's logic and fantasy in space, also a game and puzzle journal of the early 80s? Was this simply the English language edition of És játék? -- Smjg 12:07, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

List of Puzzles - in or out?
Is this really the right page for the list of puzzles? Should we list every Ford motor car under Henry Ford's entry? I would prefer to see this as a pure Biographical entry, with the list maintained separately, but I can see that has been done before, and was swiftly undone. Can anyone offer an explanation for this?


 * Well, I merged it back in - I just don't think there's enough material to justify a separate page. If

it's just a simple bullet point list of puzzles, it makes sense to list it with the person who created them; the difference with Ford is that the list is rather large, and the company's progressed wuite a way without him. It's not a show-stopper either way, although I think it's a good thing to try and resist unnecessarily splitting articles. "Won't somebody think of the readers?" sjorford// 23:58, 5 Feb 2005 (UTC)


 * I think there should be a seperate page for "Rubik's Puzzles and Games" or something like that, along with the history and evolution of the games. It doesn't quite belong at Erno Rubik or Rubik's Cube. Coffee 16:46, 2 August 2005 (UTC)


 * I totally agree with Coffee (Anan?) in this matter. Let's have a Rubik's Puzzles games and link to it from both the Rubik's Cube and the Erno Rubik page. Blonkm 00:29, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

Snake / Twist
I have reverted the name from Rubik's Twist to Rubik's Snake. Snake is the name used on rubiks.com, the official site. Also, googling for "rubik's twist" gives approx 400 results, "rubik's snake" returns about 800. I have put "also known as Twist", so people who know it as that can still find it. 82.13.223.11 13:01, 25 October 2005 (UTC)


 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the . Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section. 

don't move. &mdash; Nightst a  llion  (?) 13:02, 10 February 2006 (UTC)

Requested move
From WP:RM:
 * Talk:Ernő Rubik – Ernő Rubik → Ernö Rubik – His name is spelled with a "ö", not a "ő". — Ravi12346 21:58, 5 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Oppose. All the interwikis, including Rubik Ernő, spell his name like that. Are they all wrong? Kusma (討論) 01:47, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Oppose. Ernő is correct. (cf. Ernő Dohnányi, Ernő Gerő, Ernő László, and of course Ernő Goldfinger) LuiKhuntek 08:59, 6 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Note that not having it at Erno Laszlo is really an abuse of naming conventions; he spent his last 35 years or so in the United States as Erno Laszlo, and there ain't no squiggles in the trademark name of his cosmetics company. Gene Nygaard 01:36, 7 February 2006 (UTC)


 * Comment - Source? What makes you think that it's spelt with "ö", not "ő"?
 * Neither. It should be Erno Rubik, by far the most common usage in English, where Ernö or Ernő are about on par.
 * AltaVista English/Spanish
 * {| border="1" cellspacing = "0" cellpadding = "2"

! bgcolor="#FFDEAD" | AltaVista ! bgcolor="#FFDEAD" | hits
 * "Erno Rubik"
 * align="right"|8,860
 * "Erno Rubik" -Ernő -Ernö
 * align="right"|7,780
 * "Ernő Rubik"
 * align="right"| 406
 * "Ernö Rubik"
 * align="right"| 442
 * }
 * Comment This is an encyclopaedia, not an exercise in repeating common mistakes. With redirects all common variants will point to the article anyway, so we don't need to worry about the user not finding the information. The title of the article should be whatever is correct, not what is popular. (FWIW, I'm not from Hungary, so I don't know what is the correct spelling, except as per the above note which points out the Hungarian wiki spells it "Ernő") Jamse 11:17, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Oppose. If the Hungarian wiki spells it Ernő, then that's probably right. Ernö is simply wrong. Erno is an understandable mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. And bollocks to web search results; Jamse is right: we should not propagate mistakes. --Stemonitis 11:32, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
 * There is absolutely no "mistake". It's simply a matter of working with different tools—a different alphabet in this case.  Gene Nygaard 00:40, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
 * }
 * Comment This is an encyclopaedia, not an exercise in repeating common mistakes. With redirects all common variants will point to the article anyway, so we don't need to worry about the user not finding the information. The title of the article should be whatever is correct, not what is popular. (FWIW, I'm not from Hungary, so I don't know what is the correct spelling, except as per the above note which points out the Hungarian wiki spells it "Ernő") Jamse 11:17, 7 February 2006 (UTC)
 * Oppose. If the Hungarian wiki spells it Ernő, then that's probably right. Ernö is simply wrong. Erno is an understandable mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. And bollocks to web search results; Jamse is right: we should not propagate mistakes. --Stemonitis 11:32, 8 February 2006 (UTC)
 * There is absolutely no "mistake". It's simply a matter of working with different tools—a different alphabet in this case.  Gene Nygaard 00:40, 9 February 2006 (UTC)
 * There is absolutely no "mistake". It's simply a matter of working with different tools—a different alphabet in this case.  Gene Nygaard 00:40, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

To all those who were in favour of "Erno" &mdash; diacritics should not be disregarded for convencience's sake. &mdash; Nightst a  llion  (?) 13:02, 10 February 2006 (UTC)


 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Oh, I forgot to cite my sources. These are a few: link 1, link 2, and virtually every other site in the world of speedcubing. I guess this means that everything I've seen in the last year and a half is wrong. (sigh) --Ravi12346 22:54, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

What struck me as odd was that, in 19 months of studying and solving Rubik's Cubes (often for several hours a day), I had never even seen the character "ő", much less seen it in Rubik's name. Another of my sources, this page, has a quote by Rubik himself, which, at the bottom, is signed, "Ernö RUBIK", but this may have been mistranslated and/or changed due to a visual error. His name may be spelled with a "ö" so often because "ő", as far as I can see, isn't in the ASCII table here, and "ö" is the closest character (visually) to it. --Ravi12346 23:33, 28 February 2006 (UTC)

Understandeble mistake :) The letter ő is not common and missing from the most encoding systems. Ö is easier to find, so those who used it just tried to find something similar to the original. Nevertheless the name Ernő should be written with ő. - Zita

Alleged behaviour of E. Rubik
As is said he does not attend speedcubing events. I remember from WC2003 which I attended that it was promised (or implied) by the organizers that the rewards and trophees would be handed to the winners by Mr. Rubik himself. He never showed up. Why I don't know, I don't think it was ever mentioned. He also did not attend any other speedcubing events I know of (and I've been to WC2005). Blonkm 00:38, 19 August 2006 (UTC)

I was at a speedcubing event in Brussels, Belgium in April 1982 and Mr. Rubik was there. I was 13 at the time and gave him, on stage, a copy of the booklet I wrote on solving the Cube. In return he took a contest cube, signed it with a magic marker and gave it to me. Maybe he was having a good day, but I remember him fondly as a nice guy. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.194.115.252 (talk) 19:00, 18 May 2011 (UTC)


 * I think it unfair to characterize Erno Rubik as either introverted or as an autograph avoider without more evidence. I have never met Erno Rubik personally, but have researched his life extensively and have met several people that know him personally. He is by all accounts a gentle, friendly, "grandfatherly" type of man. He is involved with several STEM-based and "science in education" initiatives and my sources tell me that he spends much of his personal time in his workshop working on new inventions or with his children and grandchildren. I have been told that he has little interest in promotional or marketing efforts, which may explain his absence from speedcubing events and the like. I do know that he is currently in the United States promoting the Beyond Rubik's Cube exhibition (a STEM-based exhibition which will travel across the world over the next six years). I've seen recent pictures showing him meeting VIPs, giving tours, and rubbing shoulders with the masses, speedcubers included; there are several recent pictures of him with speedcuber Anthony Brooks, e.g. This can be easily verified: the New York Time, WSJ, NBC News, etc. all recently ran articles on the exhibition and Erno Rubik's participation. He may very well be a difficult man to contact, but this may be due as much to a busy schedule as "introversion". As such, I would recommend that the references to Erno Rubik's "introversion" and auto-graph avoidance be deleted unless further evidence is provided.Jasonmgannon (talk) 03:43, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

According to...
According to the Rubik's Clock article he did not invent the Rubik's Clock, but this article says that he did.

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one article was rated and this bot brought all the other ratings up to at least that level. BetacommandBot 11:31, 27 August 2007 (UTC)

Non-Rubik puzzles
I've removed the following puzzles from the list because I can't see that they're actually Rubik's puzzles:


 * Rubik's Dogic
 * Alexander's Star
 * Megaminx
 * Pyraminx

None of these mention Rubik on their pages, except to say things like "it's a bit like a Rubik's Cube". In the list the Dogic claims to be Rubik's, but the article for it talks about it being patented by Zoltan and Robert Vecsei, originally sold by VECSO and later sold by Uwe Mèffert... none of which are Rubik.

If Rubik has produced versions of any of these at any time, perhaps they could be reincluded, but making sure there are sufficient notes to indicate that Rubik made a version. Jamse (talk) 21:57, 18 April 2008 (UTC)

I saw that the Pyraminx was made by Rubik —Preceding unsigned comment added by 211.28.150.70 (talk) 07:57, 23 October 2008 (UTC)

Mirror block
I'm wondering if the mirrors block really has been created by mr. rubik. It's not for sale outside japan and i can't really get good info on it aside from blogs that only say there's a new rubiks style puzzle. Anyone who can clear this up? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 84.27.34.171 (talk) 23:36, 27 February 2009 (UTC)

Edits to Erno Rubik's page and CoI
I am trying to make edits to Erno Rubik's Wikipedia page.

In one of my edit comments, I erroneously stated that I was a representative of Erno Rubik. I should have been more precise as to my association with Mr. Rubik. I am not in the employ of Erno Rubik, I have never met the man, nor have I ever corresponded directly with him.

I am a freelance writer and researcher and I am currently involved in a research project for the Hungarian Government and the European Union regarding Erno Rubik, and specifically the Rubik's Cube. During the course of this research project, we have compiled extensive information on Erno Rubik, including a detailed CV containing his occupation history, research projects, inventions, awards, etc. The point that I wanted to drive home in my comments is that the information I was adding to the Wiki page comes directly from our research. Some of the information (e.g. education history, employment record, patented inventions) was provided directly from Erno Rubik, but has been independently verified by independent researchers.

I have read the Wikipedia Conflict of Interest Guidelines and will adhere to them strictly. I am a big fan of Wikipedia and respect your concerns about CoI. I will not make edits or additions that serve the interests of Erno Rubik or any other subject above the interests of Wikipedia. I am a researcher, not a marketer. I have no intention of providing any information of a promotional or marketing nature, and I vow that all information I provide is a factual nature (e.g. education history). That is, I will restrict myself only to "hard data". Any favorable words or opinions regarding Erno Rubik that I add will only be shown as quotations from third parties and will be properly cited.

As Mr. Rubik's Wikipedia page is quite sparse at the moment, I wish to flesh it out with some of the research into Erno Rubik's life and works. I hope to have this opportunity.

Thank you for your time. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jasonmgannon (talk • contribs) 00:50, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

Edits to infobox
. There are two reasons that I have reverted you. First of all, the infobox is meant for basic facts only but you have expanded it to nearly the length of the article. Secondly, enyclopaedia articles are not written in the form of a person's resume. Dumping a CV into an article is not really appropriate. Incorporating relevant facts into the prose is fine though.

We also need to consider the source of this information. You have stated that it comes from your own research. We can only use this if your research has been published. See our reliable sources guideline for more details.  Spinning Spark  01:04, 5 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the clarification regarding info box. I understand your point. Erno Rubik's employment history is immense and my instinct is always to provide a comprehensive list. I'll keep things shorter in the future.


 * Question: Regarding page content, is it okay to have a section (e.g. Awards) with a bullet point listing of various awards and dates. This seems difficult to put into prose without becoming tedious (e.g. "and then in 1982 he won the XYZ award, and in 1983 he won the ABC award..."_). BTW: his page currently has a bullet list of awards, I simply with to add to this.


 * Otherwise, I will try to keep any new content in readable prose as much as is reasonable.


 * Thanks!Jasonmgannon (talk) 01:18, 5 May 2014 (UTC)


 * That sounds fine, but don't include any really trivial awards. Preferably, you should include an inline citation to the source of your information.  I realise that the awards already in the list are not so cited, but be aware that any editor can challenge or remove information that is not cited.
 * By the way, just a note on our talk page conventions; we don't start a new section for every reply. Instead, we indent our replies using the required number of colons. I have amended your post to conform to this.  Spinning  Spark  01:30, 5 May 2014 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the tip! I'm new to wiki editing. I appreciate you patience!Jasonmgannon (talk) 01:49, 5 May 2014 (UTC)

About the patents
The article mentions his patents, implying they were granted in Hungary (?) I thought Communist countries didn't recognize capitalist institutions like royalties and patents (isn't that private property?) Did I miss something? __209.179.37.8 (talk) 22:25, 23 January 2015 (UTC)

Re-naming Year
I have removed inaccurate information from the article which states that the Magic Cube was renamed Rubik's Cube in 1979. In point of fact, the Cube made its international debut at toy trade fairs as Magic Cube in January/February 1980, and then underwent a process of re-manufacturing and renaming. The first batches of Rubik's Cube were released in May 1980, the new name having been decided upon by Ideal Toys shortly before. Scroll down in the "Cube Story" section on this rubiks.com history page - "1980: The Magic Cube renamed as the Rubik's Cube" - https://uk.rubiks.com/about/the-history-of-the-rubiks-cube
 * Actually, our article didn't say that. It said it was licensed to Ideal in 1979 and launched under the new name in 1980.  That's pretty much consistent with the ref you provided, but some clarification may be in order. SpinningSpark 13:41, 6 February 2017 (UTC)

Yes, I think it did not clarifying. I love the history of the Cube and have studied it for years. The deal with Ideal Toys for the Magic Cube was signed in September 1979, the debut at toy trade fairs was in January and February 1980, and then it was decided that the Cube had to be remanufactured due to western world safety and packaging norms. It was then that Ideal expressed its desire to change the name, going through various options, including the Gordian Knot and Inca Gold, before deciding on Rubik's Cube. And the first batches of the new Cube were exported from Hungary in May 1980. I have an old Magic Cube. It's heavier than the '80s onwards cubes, and it seems in danger of falling apart, so I keep it as a treaured ornament rather than for use. Thanks so much for your help.

(Solidsandie (talk) 14:08, 6 February 2017 (UTC))

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