Isabel Krull

Izzy Bonecutter
3/13/15
POW 4 : ALMOST A RUBIKS CUBE
Problem statement: For this POW, our goal was to find five different equations that can
be used to find elements of a three dimensional cube using n as the cube dimension.
These equations will be constructed in order to find: how many cubes have one face
painted, how many cubes have two faces painted, how many cubes had three faces
painted, how many cubes had four, five, or six faces painted, and how many cubes had
zero faces painted.
Process: When looking at the 5X5 cube, we needed to become familiar with it. We
started by finding the area of the cube. We calculated the area by doing 25*6. The first
question was, How many of the smaller cubes have one face painted? We went about
this question by finding the inside cubes with one side painted. We recognized the
outside cubes had more than one side visibly painted. We found in the 5X5 that nine
cubes had on side painted on one face of the whole cube. We multiplied 9*6 because
there are six sides to the cube. This gave us the answer of 54 cubes with one side
painted. The next question was, How many of the smaller cubes have two faces
painted? We knew that the corners had three faces painted and the insides had one
face painted so it had to be the 3 cubes lining the side. We found that there were 6
cubes on each face with two visible painted sides. We multiplied 6*6 to get a answer of
36 cubes with two painted sides. The next question asked, How many of the smaller
cubes have three faces painted? The only cubes that met this requirement were the
ones that were corners. There are 8 corners. Question D asked, How about four faces,
five faces, 6 faces painted. We knew there was the largest amount of visible faces
painted. The answer was 0. Question E asked, How many of the smaller cubes have
zero faces painted? We solved this by finding the total number of painted cubes and
subtracting it from the total amount of all cubes. This gave us a answer of 27 cubes with
no painted faces for the 5X5 cube. We then had to answer the same question for a cube
with unknown dimensions but the same size cubes. We drew out a 6X6 cube, a 7X7
cube, and a 8X8 cube. We answered questions A-D for these cubes. Based on these
cubes and the 5X5 that was given, we noticed the similarity between edges, faces, and
sides. After noticing the number of edges, corners, and faces, we started to piece
together our equations with the components we knew had to be taken into
consideration, such as the corners. We found the different painted cubes in the N*N*N
case by writing the equations out using N as the dimension of the cube. For example:
Question A asked, How many of the smaller cubes have one face painted? We used
the equation, (N-2)squared * 6. In this equation N is the unknown dimensions. We are
decreasing the dimensions when we are finding the cubes with one face painted

because they are in the center and we are taking of the bottom and the top squares. To
find how many are on one side we must find the area of the side of single side painted
cubes, this is where the squared comes in place. We then multiply this by 6 because
thats how many sides there are on the cube.
Solution:
In the 5X5 square there the cubes on the outside corners have 3 painted faces that are
visible. There are eight of these. The three cubes on the edges that share a side have
two visible painted sides. There are 36 of these. The nine cubes on the inside of the
sides of the cubes that are surrounded by the edges have 1 visible painted side. In total
there are 54 cubes with one visible side. There are no small cubes with four, five, or six
painted faces.
New Problem: You are provided with a three dimensional triangular prism. This prims
has five faces, six vertices, and nine edges. The height of this triangle is five
centimeters, and the base is 4 centimeters. Using this information, find how many 1
centimeter cubes create the volume of the prism. Create two more examples of the
prism, changing the dimensions of the prism and create the equations to find questions
A-E accordingly.
Evaluation:
Izzy Bonecutter: This POW made me think differently by being able to make
connections between different sizes of the same shape. This POW stretched my
thinking because it was a 3D shape. I had to remember to multiply by 6 for almost all my
calculations because the shape was three dimensional. This problem made me grow
mathematically because I was able to apply my knowledge of three dimensional shapes
with given dimensions to the same shape with unknown dimensions using equations.

Isabel Krull: This POW did help me make connections about the dimensions of a three
dimensional cube. It made me more familiar with the terms of corners, edges, and
faces, and with making algebraic equations. I liked this POW because I was able to
understand it well enough to apply critical thinking to create the equations. I feel like this
POW was very worthwhile, because I have a clearer overall understanding of this unit.