TITLE: Why should Rubik's cube get attention from mathematicians?
QUESTION [21 upvotes]: I've seen a lot of math debate, calculations and other stuff related to Rubik's cube lately, but I don't really understand why is it important, why should anyone spend time asking and answering questions about Rubik's cube, and what good brings Rubik's cube to mathematics?

I have also found something that might be interesting, after a bit of google search.
Numberphile have made a couple of videos about it, and they are quite nice:
Numberphile playlist on Rubik's cube

REPLY [16 votes]: The reason why Rubik's cube is important in mathematics is because set of all cube moves in a Rubik's cube form a group. So, it is an interesting example of finite group. You can find more information on this from this paper. Also, study of rubik's cube can lead to some interesting questions and whose solutions can in turn lead to some interesting mathematics.