“It was amazing. I never had a doubt,” said sophomore Charlie Napach, remarking on junior Ethan Deng’s Rubik’s Cube-solving performance in Diller Hall.
The clock was ticking as the crowd roared, cheering on Ethan’s name as he worked to solve a complex puzzle: the Rubik’s Cube. In an astonishing 60 seconds, under immense pressure, Ethan solved five Rubik’s Cubes in front of the entire Upper School.
Ethan’s interest in Rubik’s Cubes sparked back in the fourth grade, six years ago, when he participated in a series of school math-related competitions. The minute he saw other kids solving the puzzle during this series of competitions, he knew he wanted to give it a shot.
“I saw a guy solve the Rubik’s Cube in 40 seconds, which, looking back, is kind of slow, but at the time, I thought it was super fast. Right after watching and being amazed by his skill, I decided to also learn how to solve it,” said Ethan.
Soon after, Ethan’s friend decided to show him the ropes and teach him to solve the Rubik’s Cube. In one sitting, Ethan’s friend taught him how to solve the Rubik’s Cube face-to-face using two cubes and the beginner’s method, which can be found on YouTube. From then on, Ethan’s goal has been to get faster and solve the puzzle more efficiently.
“Learning it wasn’t really hard. Thankfully, my friend was a good teacher, and it took two hours for him to teach the beginner’s method to me, and afterward, I had to relearn some of the algorithms since I couldn’t remember all of them. The hardest part was improving by learning a more advanced method,” said Ethan.
Over time, Ethan vastly improved his skills by watching YouTube tutorials and countlessly practicing solving the puzzle. Eventually, he reached a new level of understanding and was able to solve a Rubik’s Cube in a matter of seconds.
A couple of weeks ago, Ethan’s skills and talent were put to the test when he was tasked with solving five Rubik’s Cubes in one minute on stage at Diller Hall during an Upper School assembly.
“I was really nervous because when [Head of School Charles] Franklin initially asked me, I thought solving five in a minute would be easy because I usually average eight per minute. When I tried it on my own, though, I ended at 57 seconds, so I realized there was a big chance that I could fail,” said Ethan.
It turned out that the daunting challenge was actually a breeze because Ethan successfully solved the five Rubik’s Cubes in under a minute. The energy in Diller Hall as Ethan solved the puzzles was electric, as hundreds of Upper School students chanted his name, bringing exciting energy to the assembly while also fueling his success. Watching the entire school unite to cheer on their fellow classmate was a wonderful sight to see.
“I felt great after. It felt really surreal because I have solved hundreds of Rubik’s Cubes before, but I have never solved them in front of 400 people. It was kind of crazy,” said Ethan.
Now that Ethan has mastered the cube itself and solved it in front of a large audience, he is looking forward to the future to see what he can accomplish next using his special talent.
“I haven’t placed on the podium in a competition before. I have gotten really close, like one time last year when I choked at the last minute and placed fifth, but I have never actually gotten on the podium. Placing would be amazing, and that is definitely my next goal,” said Ethan.
