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Solving a Rubik’s Cube is an undeniably tricky endeavour – but at least you can use the privacy of your own home to shield your struggles.

No such luxury with the giant illuminated Rubik’s Cube that’s recently been lit up in Austria.

In the city of Linz, an entire building has been turned into a version of the classic puzzle, with lights taking the place of stickered cubes – so the whole city can see if you’re labouring to complete it

The building that’s been transformed is the Ars Electronica exhibition centre – and the puzzle works thanks to some ingenious electronics wizardry and a replica of a normal-sized Rubik’s Cube.

Mr Lloret said: ‘The player interacts with a specially designed interface-cube. The interface-cube holds electronic components inside that allow for it keep track of its orientation and the rotations of each side of the cube

'This data is sent over Bluetooth to a computer that runs the Puzzle Facade designed software.’

What makes the puzzle even trickier than normal is the fact that players can only see two sides of it at a time.

Mr Lloret added: ‘This factor increases the difficulty of solving the puzzle, but as the player is able to rotate and flip the interface-cube, it is not a blocking factor.’

Invented in 1974 and originally called the Magic Cube, by January 2009, 350 million cubes had been sold worldwide making it the world's top-selling puzzle game.

It is widely considered to be the world's best-selling toy.

Since 2003, The World Cube Association, the Rubik's Cube's international governing body, has organized competitions and kept the official world records.

The largest order magic cube is 17x17x17 cubes large and consists of 1,539 parts.

It was created by Oskar van Deventer, from the Netherlands, and was presented at the New York Puzzle Party Symposium in New York in February 2011.

A classic Rubik's Cube is 3x3x3 cubes large.

Matt Valk, also from the Netherlands, holds the current world record for completing a normal Rubik's Cube in 5.55 seconds




..I was always in awe that the very first time my brother saw a Rubik's Cube, he solved it in around 10 seconds..or it seemed like 10 seconds to an adoring sister..the stuff of hero worship ...