Pupils at Brampton Village Primary School took part in an unusual mathmatical lesson this week when they were asked to solve the Rubik’s Cube.

The school won a visit from champion cuber, Laurence Livsey, after Year 3 pupil, Libby Freeman, entered a competition in the National Geographic magazine. The prize also included Rubik’s Cubes for all her classmates.

Laurence, who is able to complete the 3D puzzle in seconds, gave a demonstration and talked to pupils about all the possible combinations of which there are 43 quintillion and seven possible algorithms.

Teacher Rachel Wood said the pupils had a lot of fun and learnt a lot about numbers.

“When Laurence explained the process they were very quiet and then when he started showing them how to solve the puzzle they were mesmerised. He was so quick. It was difficult to get our heads around the numbers and I don’t think any of us really know what 43 quintillion would look like.

“It was certainly an exciting lesson and made a bit of a change for a Monday morning.”

The puzzle was invented in 1974 by a Hungarian professor called Emo Rubik and the current world record for completing it is 4.74 seconds.

Laurence, who is a business analyst at John Adam Leisure Ltd, takes part in cubing competitions all over the country.

He said: ‘With so many combinations, the Rubik’s Cube is the ultimate perplexing puzzle and its popularity has continued since its international launch in 1980 with an estimated 400 million Rubik’s Cubes sold to date. We love introducing the Rubik’s Cube to young people and inspiring a new generation of cubers. Trying to solve the Rubik’s Cube is a lot of fun and can also aid children’s understanding of mathematics.”

Pictured are, from left to right: William Shepperson, Molly Willmore, Libby Freeman, Kian Lee and Esme Norton with Laurence at the Rubik’s Cube lesson at Brampton Village Primary School on Monday.