When you have the opportunity to solve the world’s biggest Rubik’s Cube, like YouTuber RedKB did, you take it. Even if that means committing to 7.5 hours (over the course of several days) of straight-up Rubik-ing of the most intense order. Thankfully, the mind-boggling task was not left undocumented — we’ve got video of the whole thing right here!
Designated as such by Guinness Book of World Records, the Over the Top 17x17x17 has been officially recognized as the world’s largest order Rubik’s Cube for a few years now. Designed by Oskar Van Deventer, our intrepid puzzle-solver Kenneth borrowed the cube (which can be purchased here in a few — very expensive! — parts) and managed to do the whole thing in a, relatively speaking, incredibly short amount of time.
There are two videos of the whole affair — one a time-lapse and then another of the full 7.5 hour haul — on the Internet depending on your personal level of Rubik’s obsession, allowing you to see the intricacies (and math!) that goes into solving one of these always-moving mega puzzles of our collective 1980s fever dream. Make sure you blast some Wham! or Devo while you’re watching (because hey what else would be more appropriate, am I right?) — it really just sets the whole scene.
We tip our hats off to young Kenneth here, tackling an impressive feat of commitment. We’re not sure we’d ever have the patience for something like this.
Do you think you could solve it faster than 7.5 hours? Let’s all place bets on our finishing time in the comments. (We’re pretty sure it would take us at least 27 hours.)
Watching this to Pink Floyd’s Dark Side Of The Moon reveals the true solve.
Did anyone saw that guy going to the toilet??
I can solve the 3×3 in as little as 15 seconds, the 4×4 in under 2 minutes, and the 5×5 in under 15 minutes!! I am anxious to challenge this 17×17 beast of a cube!! 🙂 Does anyone know how I can get my hands on one?!?! The one for sale at shapeways.com has all black edges and corners!! Solving the corners and edges is half the fun, therefore I would like to find one that has edges and corners that aren’t all black and solved already!! 🙂
per the link:
Please contact Oskar directly if you are interested in obtaining a fully colored, stickered and assembled sample of this puzzle.
That’s why you put stickers on the edges genius, it the same reason that a DIY cube comes in all black, it’s not because it’s already solved, it’s so you can put on stickers
wow that cube has some serious de’stijl
That’s a lot of stickers to peel off and put back in order
I was thinking the exact same thing!!! 🙂
I understand astrophysics, can understand, and solve the mathematics to it. Yet rubix cubes are beyond me.
I wouldn’t be able to solve it in 7.5 DAYS, months or years, maybe…
As he says, it’s not particularly harder than a smaller cube, it is simply far, FAR more tedious.
What I want to know is can the Rubik’s Cube champion Chris Hardwick (aka the other Chris hardwick, not Nerdist’s Nerd and Savior) solve this?
Considering that “the Other Chris Hardwick” was one of the world record holders in the 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 events, including blindfold solves, I would have to give him a 100% chance of solving the 17x17x17.