What's Wrong With This Magazine Cover?

[Me Myself & Pi]

Why did this magazine use an unsolvable cube to illustrate government health care? Coincidence?

 

[qqwref]

I think it's no coincidence. The health care problem really is unsolvable, unless you take the stickers off!

 

[shoot1510]

It about the SWINE FLU!!

 

[Escher]

Sheesh, get over it and just pay for it with a higher taxes

[/purposefully provocative statement]

 

[Ethan Rosen]

I think it is a coincidence. The average person would have no clue that it is unsolvable. Obviously the fact that the cube isn't solved isn't a coincidence though. I think that to an average person, this cube would appear to be almost solved, so I think the ad is saying that it will be hard, but we're on the final stretch of the healthcare debate.

 

[brunson]

It's not that we'd even need higher taxes, we just need to get rid of insurance executives with $124,000,000 a year salaries and all the bureaucracy that does along with them.

 

[byu]

They just have no idea that it's unsolvable. Someone probably just decided to make it almost solved in photoshop. I'm sure that it would be surprising to them if we told them that it's unsolvable.

 

[Me Myself & Pi]

Ethan, I see what you are saying, but appearances can be deceiving. Just like this cube, it could appear that the problem of health care is on the verge of being solved. However, in reality it's an unsolvable problem, just like this cube.

 

[Ethan Rosen]

Yes, but considering the general public seems to believe that the cube is composed of 54 stickers that can be moved anywhere on the cube, I really doubt that's what this ad was going for (unless this ad was just going to be posted on cubing sites ) .

 

[shelley]

We only see four colors on this cube. How do we know that there are six?

 

[JTW2007]

We only see four colors on this cube. How do we know that there are six?

True. It would be possible then, no?

 

[miniGOINGS]

It looks pretty unsolvable to me.

 

[rahulkadukar]

Maybe the designer knew that it would be unsolvable but I believe that the non solver would never be able to figure that out

 

[miniGOINGS]

If I didn't know that the centers don't ever change colour (which I knew before I cubed) I would have no idea that it is unsolvable.

 

[Ton]

We only see four colors on this cube. How do we know that there are six?

Good point, if the cube was

White Front
Green Right , Left
yellow Bottom , back
Top orange

It would be solvable

 

[panyan]

I think it is a coincidence. The average person would have no clue that it is unsolvable.

+1 i agree, they wouldnt know it wasnt solvable

 

[Stefan]

Thanks Shelley for the brilliant discovery and Ton for the explanation (before that I didn't see the impact of Shelleys comment).

 

[AvGalen]

I get the feeling this cube will actually be solvableand actually does exist for real. The images seem to follow themes and when such attention it is likely that it actually exists

 

[Mike Hughey]

I think it's interesting that we don't really know whether its solvable or not. That makes it a really good analogy to the problem. We don't have enough information to know whether it can be solved or not.

 

[krnballerzzz]

The way to solve the world's problems is to solve a Rubik's Cube.

I KNEW IT ALL ALONG!