April 24, 2009 | The Clarion
Arts & Life
University of Alabama student solves
Rubik's Cube during 47-second skydive
Page 7
by Kelsey Stein
The Crimson White
U-Wire Content
While most straggle to solve a Rubik’s
Cube with infinite time on their hands and
sohd ground underneath their feet, Uni
versity of Alabama student Adam Morgan
managed to solve one in 47 seconds while
free falling from a plane 14,000 feet in
the air
Morgan, a freshman majoring in com
puter science, accomphshed this feat when
he skydived for the first time on April 11.
The video of his stunt has been featured on
a few blogs already.
A member of the Army skydiving team
scrambled the Cube on the way up as Mor
gan prepared himself for the jump.
“I don’t remember much of the free fall,”
he said. “I wasn’t nervous about the jump
itself, but I had a lot of pressure to actually
do the Cube because if I didn’t, it would
just be a complete failure.”
During the jump, the strong winds proved
obtrasive as they constantly forced his
hands into his body, he said.
Solving the Cube while skydiving was
still much harder than he expected, al
though he practiced beforehand by hanging
out of the moon roof of a friend’s car as
they sped down the interstate.
But Morgan said he enjoyed the practice,
usually solving Rubik’s Cubes for three
hours on an average day to relieve stress
or boredom.
“It’s funny that I do something that
stresses other people out to relieve stress,”
he said.
Morgan’s father, who has solved Rubik’s
Cubes since the early 1980s, first taught
him how to solve them, and it quickly
developed into a hobby.
It now takes Morgan an average of 22 sec
onds to solve a Cube with a personal best of
15.09 seconds. Not only does he have the
well-known 3x3 dimension Cube, but also
everything ranging from 2x2 to 7x7.
He has participated in two competitions
and is considering organizing one on cam
pus if he can generate enough interest.
“Even if I just have a Rubik’s Cube in pub
lic with a friend or something, it definitely
starts conversations,” he said.
Morgan has taught an estimated 40 or 50
friends how to solve Rubik’s Cubes, and
though none are as serious about it has he
is, many do it casually.
Anyone is welcome to look him up on
Facebook if they are interested in learning
to solve Rubik’s Cubes, or even to speed
solve them, he said.
“If you’re really determined to solve it,
you’ll learn more quickly,” Morgan said.
“The fastest I ever taught someone was
in less than an hour, but it usually takes a
day or two.”
You can watch Morgan solve the Rubik’s
Cube during free fall at youtube.com.
Cartoon by Karam Boeshaar
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