Anthony Brooks, an expert Rubik's Cube solver, takes on a Rubik's Cube-solving robot featured in "Beyond Rubik's Cube," a new exhibition at Liberty Science Center in Jersey City. Photo: Jennifer Weiss for The Wall Street Journal

When Ernő Rubik was introducing his colorful, three-dimensional cube at exhibitions and toy fairs in the 1970s, he had trouble convincing people that the puzzle was solvable.

Forty years later, the Rubik's Cube has been played (and sometimes solved) by millions of people, and it is featured in artwork, robotics and highly competitive speed cubing competitions.

"I made something I found interesting and my idea was, 'It's good, and I wanted to share it with other people,' " said Mr. Rubik, speaking at the Liberty Science Center in Jersey City, N.J., before the launch of an exhibition devoted to the puzzle on Saturday. "I was not thinking about the size of the popularity and that kind of thing. It's happened because of the cube, not because of me."

Photos: Celebrating a Classic Cube

Ernő Rubik plays with one of his Rubik's Cubes. The Hungarian created the Rubik's Cube in 1974 and worked with the Liberty Science Center and Google to develop an exhibit for its 40th anniversary. Steve Remich

The inventor, a professor of architecture and design in Hungary, started thinking about ways to celebrate the Rubik's Cube's 40th anniversary a few years ago. The result is a multimedia exhibition done in collaboration with Google that will go on an international tour in November after its run here.

Titled "Beyond Rubik's Cube," the exhibition features simple wooden blocks for young children to turn as well as more complex interactive exhibits. In one, robot bees navigate a maze in an effort to explain the algorithms that are useful in solving the cube; in another, a 2,300-pound Rubik's Cube shows the cube's inner mechanics.

And for cultural types, there is a "Haikube" where visitors can manipulate words on each of a cube's "cubelets" to create a haiku and a 26-foot tall "Groovik's Cube"—made for the annual Nevada arts and self-expression festival called Burning Man—which people can solve remotely on the Internet.

"You can call it a toy. It's a puzzle [but] at the same time it has inspired people in so many areas," said Paul Hoffman, the museum's president and chief executive, and a creative director of the exhibit. Mr. Hoffman cited the example of a mural depicting Martin Luther King Jr. in Grand Rapids, Mich., made up of more than 4,000 Rubik's Cubes.

"It's fascinating how different folks have run with this," Mr. Hoffman said.

The exhibit also has a historical element, with examples of the wood blocks, paper clips and rubber bands that Mr. Rubik used when he first tried to build the cube in the 1970s, in an effort to teach his students how to conceptualize three-dimensional design.

While sales of the cube have been up and down since its launch, Mr. Rubik said he started to notice its reach and possible longevity when the Rubik's Cube World Championship was revived in 2003, 21 years after it first took place. The competition now takes place every two years and was last held in Las Vegas in 2013, drawing 580 competitors from 35 countries, according to organizers.

In one corner of the Liberty Science Center exhibit, a robotic arm completes a Rubik's Cube puzzle in under a minute by scanning its scrambled colors and working out an algorithm. Speed cubist Anthony Brooks, 20, can solve several cubes in the time it takes the robot, but he avoids showing off the way the robot has been programmed to: with a fist pump that elicits laughs from those watching.

Mr. Brooks is an official "speed cuber-in-residence" for the exhibition and will stay in Jersey City through the summer to talk to news media and engage with exhibition visitors. A student in international business and the star of a Volkswagen ad in which he solves a cube one-handed, Mr. Brooks said he started playing with the cube when he was 14. Since then, he has broken a number of North American speed cubing records and has held a U.S. National title.

"I love what the cube represents," said Mr. Brooks, for whom solving the cube and talking at the same time seems second nature. "It represents ingenuity, creativity and the concepts behind the cube are applicable to all sorts of fields," he said. "It's a really, really fantastic puzzle, which is why it's stood the test of time."

Mr. Brooks's fastest time solving the cube in competition is 6.93 seconds. He describes breaking the world record of 5.55 seconds as a "cubing dream."

Mr. Rubik said the move toward speed cubing was an "interesting side effect," but he was more pleased to see a new generation enjoy the cube.

While the fact that some people have trouble solving the toy made it a hard sell four decades ago, Mr. Rubik said that being able to persevere through this initial frustration is at the heart of the cube's popularity.

"If you're able to do something [that] at first sight seems unsolvable or very difficult for you especially, and if you succeed, that is very emotional," said Mr. Rubik. "The player thinks, 'I am somebody; I am able to do something.' That's very important," he said.

Write to Jackie Bischof at