Speed cubing is essentially solving Rubik's cubes and similar types of puzzles very fast. The world record for the 3x3x3 cube is 3.47 seconds. The WR for the 2x2x2 is less than one second (0.49 seconds!).
Competiors do get 10 seconds to pick up & examine the cube. Then they place it down & put their hands on a pressure sensor and have up to 30 seconds to mentally plan their solve strategy. The moment their hands leave the sensor, the clock starts counting until they press the sensor again. It's also desirable to use puzzles which move really easily (the original Rubik's cubes which were first sold in the 80's are too slow to achieve sub 10 second solves).
Felix Zemdegs, a young Australian, held multiple cubing world records for a long time & kept breaking his own records - quite amazing to watch, from just a couple of metres away, a teen casually break a world record as if it's just an every day event.
I feel a bit sheepish posting this reply because this thread has gotten into a serious discussion about whether/how Unis are able to provide pracs for students, but speedcubing might be a 'random' activity worth trying by anyone who is 8+ in age & bored (ETA: or even much younger - China apparently has 3-4 yr old speedcubers which IMHO is extraordinary).
Last edited by Eagle Mum; 05/10/20 05:38 PM.
