Math E-320 Spring 2021
Teaching Math with a Historical Perspective
Rubik and Cubic
After the lecture, I made a small animation of the 2 x 2 x 1 Rubik which is is the group S3 which is also the Galois group of the cubic. The 2x2x1 Rubik group can also be seen as the dihedral group D3 which are the symmetries of the triangle. It is generated by two reflections. The cubic is first depressed, then with a substitution rendered into a form u3 = k, where k satisfies a quadratic equation (Galois group S2). Mathematicians say, the group S3 is solvable.