Calgary's giant Rubik's cube could set Guinness World Record
Cube at Telus Spark measures 1.68 metres (66 inches) on each side
Calgary may have just become home to the world's largest working Rubik's cube by a margin of about 11 centimetres on each side.
The fully functioning cube, which is 1.68 metres (66 inches) tall, was unveiled Wednesday morning at Telus Spark. The current Guinness World Record holder is 1.57 metres tall.
Calgary's cube was designed and built by Wes Nelson, an exhibit tech at Telus Spark, on a budget of $2,500. It took five weeks.
Nelson says he was initially asked to create a small, plywood Rubik's cube with stickers painted on. The small-scale project would then be displayed at Telus Spark to mark Erno Rubik's birthday in July.
"Of course, I said, 'There's no way we're doing that. If we're doing it, we're gonna make an actual, functioning Rubik's cube,'" Nelson said.
Out of curiosity, Nelson then began digging around online to see how tall the world's largest one stood.
"Because I'm always thinking how big and awesome can we make it," he explained.
"I thought maybe is it 20 feet tall? Is it 50 feet tall? It turned out, it's just a little over five feet tall, and I thought, 'Yeah, we can definitely do that,'" Nelson said.
The cube is made mainly of Styrofoam, with nothing more than a thin sheet of cardboard on some of the bearing surfaces to prevent the fragile material from grinding itself up.
"Every time people walk up to give it a spin, I just kinda clench up a little bit. Is it gonna stick? Is something gonna come off? I don't know," joked Nelson.
The interactive structure will be on display in the atrium until the end of the summer. Telus Spark says it hopes to hang the cube in the atrium after that.
The record-breaking attempt still has to be verified by Guinness World Records before the official title can be conferred upon Telus Spark.
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With files from Mike Symington.