Bob Burton, Jr.

Infobox Monarch | name=Robert Russell Burton, Jr.
title=American Speedcuber


date of birth= birth date and age|1985|2|21
place of birth= Newark, New Jersey

Bob Burton (born Robert Russell Burton, Jr. on February 21, 1985) is an American speedcuber, most famous for competing in competitions all over the world and his world records on the Rubik's Magic and Rubik's Master Magic.

Biography

Bob grew up in Kearny, New Jersey. He played baseball on teams until the age of twelve. Bob went to Kearny High School from 1999-2003, where he graduated 6th in his class. At Kearny High School, he was president of the Physics Club in his junior year and president of the Student Government Association in his senior year. He also played middle linebacker for the football team for three years and rowed on the crew team for all four years. Bob also studied mathematics at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey and graduated in May 2007. He rowed for the Rutgers Lightweight Crew team and was the president and founder of the Rutgers University Rubik's Cube Club. He's currently dating Jaclyn Sawler.

Bob Burton Jr. adheres to the Burtonist religion. The belief that Bob is God.

Rubik's Cube

Rubik's 3x3x3 Speedsolving

Bob began speedsolving with the 3x3x3 Rubik's Cube in May 2001. He was first challenged by some of his friends in an informal competition to see who could solve one side the fastest and was consistently the last to finish, so he bought a Rubik's Cube and began to practice with it. He was able to solve the cube in under a minute within a few months using a simple layer by layer method. He competed in the 2003 Rubik's World Games Championships, held in Toronto, Canada. In 2005, Burton learned the Fridrich method, the method he still uses to solve the puzzle.

Rubik's Magic

Bob was one of the pioneers of solving the Rubik's Magic in the United States. After learning how to solve the puzzle, he insisted on it being an official event in competitions. Ian Winokur allowed a Rubik's Magic competition at the Horace Mann Spring 2005 tournament, in which Bob broke the American record for single solve (1.56 seconds) and average of five (1.85 seconds). In his next competition, Bob also insisted on allowing the Rubik's Master Magic to be an event. Tyson Mao agreed, so in the Caltech Summer 2005 tournament, Bob set the single solve world record for the Rubik's Magic (1.28 seconds) and the single solve (3.05 seconds) and average of five (3.54 seconds) world records for the Rubik's Master Magic. At the Trumbull Spring 2006 tournament, Bob also broke the world record for Rubik's Magic average (1.40 seconds). Bob was also the national champion in 2006 for the Rubik's Magic and the Rubik's Master Magic.

Rubik's Clock

At the 2005 Dutch Open Championship, Bob set the American record for the Rubik's Clock for single solve (24.12 seconds) and mean (32.68 seconds). The Clock is not a very popular puzzle in the United States, so almost all competitions for it are held in Europe.

Other Puzzles

Bob has also competed in the larger cubes (4x4x4 and 5x5x5), the Mini cube (2x2x2), the Megaminx, and the Square-1. Though he competes in all of these events, he is not very competitive in those categories and concentrates mostly on the standard Rubik's Cube and the Magic puzzles. However, Bob was the national champion at the 2006 US National Championships in San Francisco for the Square-1.

One-handed Cubing

Bob also practices the art of one-handed cubing, in which the competitor can use only one hand to solve the cube. He is among the best in the world, placing 5th overall (of 61) in the first round of the 2005 Rubik's Cube World Championship. Since then, he has dropped in the rankings, but competes in the one-handed contest nonetheless.

Blindfolded Cubing

In May 2006, Bob successfully solved the Rubik's Cube blindfolded in an official competition at the Trumbull Spring 2006 tournament in a time of 6 minutes 21.87 seconds. He had failed his first ten attempts before that, dating back to May of the previous year. Bob uses the Pochmann system to solve a cube blindfolded, which solves one piece at a time.

Official Competition Times

*Rubik's 3x3x3 Single Solve: 13.15 seconds
*Rubik's 3x3x3 Average: 17.86 seconds
*Rubik's 3x3x3 Blindfolded Single Solve: 3 minutes, 20.75 seconds
*Rubik's 3x3x3 One-handed Single Solve: 27.08 seconds
*Rubik's 3x3x3 One-handed Average of 5: 36.27 seconds
*Rubik's Cube Fewest Moves: 34 moves
*Rubik's 4x4x4 Single Solve: 1 minute, 28.40 seconds
*Rubik's 4x4x4 Average of 5: 1 minute, 45.06 seconds
*Rubik's 5x5x5 Single Solve: 3 minutes, 18.35 seconds
*Rubik's 5x5x5 Average of 5: 4 minutes, 0.65 seconds
*Rubik's 2x2x2 Single Solve: 4.47 seconds
*Rubik's 2x2x2 Average of 5: 8.35 seconds
*Rubik's Clock Single Solve: 13.50 seconds
*Rubik's Clock Average of 5: 15.22 seconds
*Rubik's Magic Single Solve: 1.17 seconds
*Rubik's Magic Average of 5: 1.29 seconds
*Rubik's Master Magic Single 2.90 seconds
*Rubik's Master Magic Average 3.15 seconds
*Megaminx Single Solve: 5 minutes, 8.22 seconds
*Megaminx Mean of 3: 6 minutes, 21.75 seconds
*Pyraminx Single Solve: 9.81 seconds
*Pyraminx Average of 5: 20.98 seconds
*Square-1 Single Solve: 1 minute, 29.21 seconds
*Square-1 Mean of 3: 1 minute, 38.44 seconds

References

* [http://media.www.dailytargum.com/media/storage/paper168/news/2005/01/21/PageOne/Rutgers.Rubiks.Cube.Whiz.Competes-837443.shtml Rutgers Rubik's Cube whiz competes]
* [http://www.torontosun.com/News/2007/05/19/4194116.html Cube Crazy]

External links

* [http://www.cubewhiz.com Bob's Speedcubing Website]
* [http://www.myspace.com/cubewhiz Bob's Profile] on MySpace
* [http://www.worldcubeassociation.org/results/p.php?i=2003BURT01 Bob's official results]