Six-year-old smashes Rubik's Cube record twice

How quickly could you solve a Rubik's Cube? Four minutes? Four hours? Four days? One six-year-old can do it in just over four seconds!

Lian Yunzhi, from China, has broken the women's world record for solving the colourful puzzle, twice in three days.

First, Lian recorded an average time of 4.52 seconds at a competition in Wuhan, China. Then, at another event in Guangzhou, she beat her own record with an even quicker average of 4.27 seconds.

That is faster than it might've taken you to read that last sentence!

A Rubik's Cube is a puzzle made up of smaller coloured squares. Players twist and turn its sections, trying to make each of its six sides show just one colour.

It was invented in 1974 by Hungarian teacher and architect Ernő Rubik. Originally called the Magic Cube, it was renamed the Rubik's Cube and became hugely popular around the world after going on sale internationally in 1980.

At official competitions, speedcubers solve the puzzle five times. The quickest and slowest attempts are removed, then maths is used to calculate an average using the other three attempts.

Lian's five attempts in Guangzhou took between 4.02 and 4.54 seconds. Her 4.27-second average made her the first female speedcuber to achieve an official average below 4.5 seconds.

Her mother says Lian practises for two to three hours each day and has learnt more than 1,300 ways to solve the puzzle, called algorithms.