Third-order Rubik's cube, the most common rubik's cube. It was invented by Erno Rubik, a professor at Budapest School of Architecture, Hungary, in 1974. He invented the rubik's cube only as a teaching tool to help students improve their spatial thinking ability. But it is not just a mechanical problem to make the little squares rotate without breaking apart. It involves wooden pivots, seats and tenons. It wasn't until he had the cube in hand and turned it around a few times that he realized how to put the messy color cube back together was an interesting and difficult problem. Rubik was determined to mass-produce the toy. Soon after rubik's cube was invented, it became popular all over the world.