When Erno Rubik, an absolute genius in the realms of invention and architecture, invented his cube in 1974, he must not even have imagined in his wildest dreams that someone would be able to solve the 3x3 variant of his puzzle in under five seconds 41 years later.
The young mastermind, 14-year old Lucas Etter, took an unbelievable 4.904 seconds to solve it, breaking the world record. His fingers flick the edges of the cube faster than a professional guitarist shredding along` a fret-board, and before you can say ‘Mississippi' twice, the kid’s solved it with perfection.
The young high school student achieved this feat during the semifinals of the River Hill Fall 2015 event held in Maryland, USA, in late November this year. In this manner, he managed to beat the previous world record of 5.25 that had been clocked by Collin Burns, also an American.
Young Etter is also a world record holder in the 2x2 Rubik’s Cube category, which he achieved by averaging 1.51 seconds in the final round of an event held in Tennessee in the US.
Surprisingly, in the same competition itself, the world record was also broken by Keaton Ellis, and that too before Etter. The former clocked a time of 5.09 seconds, but the latter managed to overshadow it with his splendid time.
Check out the video, where the action finishes almost immediately after it begins. You can imagine the algorithms and calculations nicely visualised and memorised in his head, as he manages to display immense speed, precision, and concentration. The reaction of the audience, who is almost dumbfounded and overwhelmed by his victory, is only testament to the brilliance of this child.