[quote]By Drew Danko
Online Editor
Photo courtesy of Cían Mattern[/quote]

What is speed cubing?

Speed cubing is a competition and puzzle-based sport, where people compete for the fastest times using advanced algorithms that help them solve it faster. It’s all memory and math-based, but it’s really fun.

When did you become involved with speed cubing?

I started doing it in 2010, and I got my first speed cube. It was fun, but I was frustrated with it, I was thinking about peeling the stickers off or disassembling it. They gave me a sheet in this club I was in that taught me everything I needed to know. Now, it normally takes me 40 seconds to solve.

Why do you like to speed cube?

I like to improve my times and race my friends. There’s different patterns you can make with cubes also – it’s not just solving. I have a checkerboard pattern here, one of my favorite patterns is cube-in-cube. If you have a bigger, layered puzzle, you can solve a cube in a cube, in a cube, and so forth for how many layers it is. I made a mosaic of Abraham Lincoln in a club I was in once using three-by-three cubes.

Have you ever been in a competition for speed cubing before?

I was in a national competition once in a relay race and each group got 25 cubes, so we were competing for the best time. We spent about 40 seconds per cube and came in fifth place out of eight different teams.