Solve the Rubik's Cube on Google Doodle

Google is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Rubik's Cube on Monday with an interactive doodle that allows users to solve the puzzle online. The corners of the cube can be twisted and turned using the mouse so that all the faces match.

Google is celebrating the 40th anniversary of the Rubik's Cube on Monday with an interactive doodle that allows users to solve the puzzle online.

The corners of the cube can be twisted and turned using the mouse so that all the faces match.

The Rubik's Cube was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik - a Hungarian professor of architecture at the University of Budapest - who wanted to explain three-dimensional geometry to his students.

Rubik took one month to solve the Cube for himself.

It was first sold as Magic Cube in a Budapest toyshop in 1977. Rubik licensed it to Ideal Toy Corp in 1980.

In the 40 years of its existence, the 3D puzzle has sold over 350 million cubes worldwide.

The puzzle has to be solved by returning the cube to its original configuration, matching each face with one colour: red, blue, white, green, yellow and orange.

The first Rubik's world championship was held in Budapest in 1982, where the winner solved the cube in 22.95 seconds.

Dutchman Mats Valk solved the cube is 5.55 seconds in March 2013 - fastest it has ever taken for a human to match the colours. A robot can do it in 3.253 seconds.

The original Rubik's Cube - which won 'toy of the year' in Britain in 1980 - was made of plastic and had nine coloured squares on each face.

From its first simple wooden prototype to bejewelled ones worth $2.5 million, there are many forms of the cube on show.

People around the world have spent countless hours solving this brain-teasing toy.