Celebrate 40 Years of the Rubik's Cube By Playing Google's Doodle

Everyone's favorite retro puzzle, the Rubik's Cube, is 40 years old today. To celebrate, this morning's Google Doodle lets you solve the puzzle right there in your browser—which means you just lost your lunch break. Sorry.

The Cube was invented back in 1974 by Hungarian architect Erno Rubik, designed as a model to help explain three-dimensional geometry. Later licensed to the Ideal Toy Corp in 1980, it's gone on to sell 350 million units—making it the world's top-selling puzzle game.

While it's possible to solve it in as little as six seconds—and every legally muddled cube is solvable in just 20 moves—for most of us, it's at least good for amusement until thrown across the room in frustration. (There are, after all, 43 quintillion permutations of the cube.) Anyway, go play the Google Doodle version. It's fun. And if you need more of a challenge, how about trying this 11x11 version instead? [Google]