How to make a record...

Ok..
So, in my previous post, you had seen how Bernett used 1521 cubes to make a portrait of Marilyn monroe.. I just came to know that this was a record. But it is not a guinness record because they hadn't been informed about it beforehand.

Anyways, after seeing this, my crazy mind took over in wondering how it can be done. And what you can do to get yourself in the record book.

Let's take an example. You want to make a portrait with 10,000 cubes.

1) How can you make the portrait...?

Bernett used 1521 cubes, i.e with 39 rows x 39 columns.
Each rubik's cube has 6 faces. and each face will have 9 tiles (i.e 3 x 3) of 6 possible colours. So, thats 54 tiles. But for us we need only one face. so that means only 9 tiles are used from one rubik's cube..
Here he's used 39x39 cubes, and each face has 3x3 tiles, which means there are
39x39x3x3 = 117x117 = 13689 tiles.
Its the same as saying that the picture is made up of 13689 pixels. Or to say, it has a resolution of 117x117 pixels.

So, what we have to do is get a picture of whatever resolution we want and then get the details of each pixel. Now, in any pixel there will be three basic colours RGB, with a varying intensity of each colour, so what we can do is get the closest possible colour of that pixel to one of the six colours of a rubik's cube (white, yellow, red, orange, blue, green) so that we'll have the whole pixel details of the huge portrait that you want to do.
Take every 3x3 grid of the huge portrait and then arrange the rubik's cube's face to that combination of the colours. Do this for every grid and voila, you'll end up with the huge portrait.

In our example, since we'll be using 10,000 cubes. The resolution will actually be 300x300.

2) Cost
The cost of the whole thing will depend on how big your portrait is because that many rubik's cubes you will need.
The original rubik's cube cost about Rs. 250.. so, its better not to get those.
Get low quality ones that u generally find in jaathres and melas... they are only some Rs. 15.
Spending Rs, 10,000 will get you only some 666 cubes, the more you spend the more cubes you'll have and the bigger the portrait will be.

For 10,000 cubes, you will need Rs. 1,50,000/-
A really huge amount... :)

3) Time
It takes a maximum of some 45 secs for me to get any set of colours on 1 face. Its given that bernett actually took 13 hours or so and he did it all by himself. But lets see how much time I might need to get the whole portrait done.
45 x 10000 = 450000 secs = 7500 minutes = 125 hours = nearly 5 days non-stop....

phew!!!

4) Space
Each cube is around 55mm x 55mm x 55mm. Considering only the length and breadth for all the 100x100 cubes, it'll take about
5500mm
or 5.5 m x 5.5 m..
or to say 30.25 square metres

That size is actually bigger than the rooms in our hostel...


Anyways, If anyone is up for it.. one can make a record..... :)

Marilyn monroe out of Rubik's cubes

I'm back after a long time..

Anyways, for people who don't know, I'm a little bit of Rubik's cube freak.. Here's an interesting thing that happened that I'd like to share..

But first let me give an intro..
Bernett Orlando is a 12 year old prodigy who's made his mark in the cubing world..
Some of the records that he's bagged are:
1)World record for solving 4 Rubik's(3x3x3) cubes blindfolded in the fastest time..
2)World record for solving a 5x5x5 blindfolded in the fastest time..
3)And so many other National records
a) fastest 2x2x2, 3x3x3, 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 solve..
b) fastest 3x3x3 solve with feet
c) fastest 4x4x4, 5x5x5 blindfold solve..
and a lot more... for more details check here

Anyhoo, two days ago on 21st feb.. he decided to arrange 1521 rubik's cubes to make a portrait of Marilyn Monroe..
Here are some pics of that event..
Here you can see him half done and

Here's the image completed


Another view..

This was done at Spencer Plaza in Chennai..
He used 1521 cubes, 39 rows * 39 columns. Each cube was scrambled to a predetermined position to get that appearance.
It took him nearly 13 hours or so to completely finish the portrait.
And also the whole process was filmed for the international best ad film for cannes film festival..
I'm hoping to see how that would come out...

I'll fill in more details soon...