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The People Who Are Still Addicted To the Rubik's Cube
An anonymous reader writes "If you were a kid in the late 70's or 80's chances are you owned a Rubik's cube. BBC News takes a look at the people who never lost the passion for the puzzle toy and those just learning. 'The speed world record for a single attempt is 5.55 seconds, set by Dutchman Mats Valk last year. The world championship is determined by averaging three attempts. The current champion is 18-year-old Australian Feliks Zemdeg who averaged 8.18 seconds last year. To ensure fairness, a computer generates a randomised cube which all the competitors are given. The record for most Rubik's cubes solved in 24 hours is 4,786, set by Milán Baticz of Hungary.'"
My old man gave me a cube when I was a kid, and told me that the easiest colour to solve is black ;-)
That said, you don't want to peel the stickers off (you'll just ruin the stickers). Most cubes can be disassembled easily by turning a face 45 degrees, and popping an edge out. The rest of the cube will just fall out. Reassemble in the correct order, and voila -- solved cube.
BTW, if you were to take a cube apart and reassemble it at randon, there's only a 1-in-12 chance of reassembling it into a solved state. With an unsolvable cube, it becomes obvious once you go to orient the final face edges.