It's true.

So set up a lock with a rubik's cube as a key. Grab the cube, mess it up randomly, stick it in the reader to set the keycode and lock it, and remove the Rubik's Key.

Then, when you want to unlock it, simple place the Key back in the reader, and if the combo is correct, it will open.

*CAUTION* Don't play with the Rubik's Key. Or you will have a chance of 1 in 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 of getting the right combo again randomly.
-- DesertFox, Sep 16 2005

Someone on this page MIGHT be able to do it, I suppose. http://images.googl...en%26lr%3D%26sa%3DN
[Dub, Sep 16 2005]

Halfbakery: Rubiks Lock Rubiks_20Lock
Similar, but not quite the same. [jutta, Jan 29 2006, last modified Feb 19 2006]

Have a bun, for the mental image of all those tryhard intellectuals who will be milling around outside their house in resignation, cube crushed to pieeces in frustration on the ground beside them.
-- Detly, Sep 16 2005


I have a friend that can solve the RC in under 60 seconds(I think!)... and that's to an easily recognisable condition (all 6 faces the same colour). Are you suggesting one of the random combinations being "the one" that opens...whatever? if so, presumably the opener must be some kind of savant who can spot just THAT combination, and can re-create it at will! :( I'll revoke my fish, if you say no. And you can have your bun when you introduce me to a person that can do what you're suggesting.

Yours agnostic-ally,
-- Dub, Sep 16 2005


[Dub] you jerk, READ THE LAST BIT!

[DF], I'd give you a bun, but I've got my hands full at the mo.... I have been fiddling with the key, and I wont be able to get my car started unless I solve it.
-- Parmenides, Sep 16 2005


[Parmandies] :( Alright, but no bun till I meet the person who can re-create that 1 : 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 at will when their kids have been playing with it...
-- Dub, Sep 16 2005


Hmmmm thats a conundrum.

Keep a spare. (Duplicate your motions when you mess one up, that way you have multiple ones!)
-- DesertFox, Sep 16 2005


[DesertFox]Keep a spare? Stick the key under the flower-pot on the porch? Not really ideal?

Assuming some electronics are embedded in the thing, it shouldn't be too difficult to record what joints did what, and as you say, reverse it. However, then you'd require some software to tell you what to do...or embedded servos or something... Hmm, more awkwardness... That bun's still a bit far-off, I'm afraid.
-- Dub, Sep 17 2005


<smirk>I've never seen a dog eat a Rubik's cube. I have seen one eat a car-key though. :) </smirk>

Okay, dub, here goes.

Choose a simple, easy motion pattern, like,:

Left-hand twist, right hand twist, top twist; repeat X times.

That way, you can always easily remember your key.

And keep a fresh cube if you lose the first one.

And it doesnt need electronics in the Rubik's Key, just the reader, because the reader can read the colors.
-- DesertFox, Sep 17 2005


nods. OK.
-- Dub, Sep 17 2005


i think this is a lock that scans a rubics cube for the right combo. not a combo lock.

second, if it were a rubics cube lock perhaps it could be reopened be simply remembering a single face on the cube.
-- schmendrick, Sep 17 2005


I like it.
You could increase the number of combinations drastically by dismantling the cube and putting it back together at random. Also, you could lock the pattern in place by making the cube magnetic.
-- nineteenthly, Sep 17 2005


Hm, sorry to notice so late, but didn't someone post this back in 2003?
-- jutta, Jan 29 2006


I just looked into that idea, [jutta].

Is it a lock? Actually not. Having read that idea, I have noted that the other idea is actually a safe, and not a lock. Technically, that idea's name is wrong. It's about storing valuables inside a large rubik's cube.

Mine is actually a lock ;)
-- DesertFox, Jan 30 2006


Fair enough.
-- jutta, Feb 19 2006



random, halfbakery