LR – Cubes

Cubes:
As we know a cuboid has 3 dimensions: length, breadth and height
Cube is a cuboid in which all 3 dimensions are equal i.e. length = breadth = height
Most of the cube questions in Logical Reasoning are related to cutting of a large cube into small
equal cubes.

Cuts and Pieces

For example a large cube is to be cut into 125 small equal cubes.
The best way to look at this problem is to think of it in reverse i.e. 125 small equal cubes are to be
assembled and put together to form a large cube.
Think of it as a practical problem, how would you do it?
You have to put the cubes together so that the resulting structure ahs the same length, breadth and
height.
Let the length=breadth=height of the small cube be a. It will strike most of you that since 125 is a
cube number (125=53) therefore, length=breadth=height should be equal to 5a. How do we achieve
this?
Say if we put together 25 small cubes in a square bed. Then the length and breadth are 5a, but the
height is only a. This can be resolved by putting 5 such beds on top of each other.
Then you will have a cube with length=breadth=height=5a.
Now if we go to the original problem of cutting the cube in 125 small equal cubes. We realise that
each dimension of the cube (length, breadth and height) has to be cut in 5 equal parts. Say we put a
knife on the top centre of the cube, parallel to an edge and ram it straight down. It will cut the cube
in 2 equal parts whose height and breadth are equal to the original cube but length is ½ of the
original cube. Instead of this if we make 4 such parallel cuts from the top centre, parallel to an edge,
then we will have 5 pieces whose height and breadth are equal to the original cube but length is
1/5th of the original cube.
If we do the same in the other 2 directions also, corresponding to breadth and height, then we can
achieve our objective of getting 125 equal cubes.

What have we learned?

a) If we cut a cube by n cuts in any one direction, we will get (n+1) pieces. (As if we didn’t know
that)
b) If we cut a cube by x, y and z cuts in 3 directions, then we will get (x+1)(y+1)(z+1) pieces.
To explain the 2nd point further, imagine your birthday cake which is say a perfect cube. You being a
methodical person didn’t give in to mass hysteria by ravaging it with your knife. Instead you in a
measured way put the knife on the top centre and cut it right down the middle in a straight line
(parallel to a surface). Then you took upon yourself the task of cutting it in equal pieces to distribute
it amongst the guests. So now you placed your knife right at the side centre and cut it straight
through the middle. You have 4 pieces but 8 guests. Being an ingenious person you decide the
course of action. You place your knife again on the top but in a different direction such that the cut
this time will form a cross with the 1st cut, and you cut it straight through to the down. Now you
have 8 pieces. Actually your guests do and all you have is a smeared knife. But I hope you get the
picture.
Same logic can be extended to any number of cuts. So there we have solved the age old gripe of
birthday guests not getting their share of the pie.

Example: A cube is cut by 5 cuts in the length direction, 4 cuts in breadth direction and 6 cuts in the
height direction. How many pieces will we get?
Number of pieces = (5+1) (4+1) (7+1)= 6x5x7= 210 pieces

From this we can derive, that if a cube is to be cut by n cuts, then:

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LR – Cubes

a) Maximum pieces occur when n cuts are equally as equal as possible, distributed in the 3
directions. Fir example if we have to cut 9 times, then if we cut from lenth , breadth and
height direction, 3 times, each, we will get maximum pieces which will be 4x4x4=64 pieces .
If we have to cut 14 times, then the most equal distribution of 14 is 4,5,5. So the number of
pieces will be 5x6x6= 180 pieces
b) Minimum pieces occur when n cuts are allocated in one direction only. Say we have to cut
10 times. If all the cuts are in 1 direction, then the number of pieces will be 11.

Now if the information is given about the number of pieces which have been derived by cutting the
cube and questions are asked about the number of cuts, then we will just reverse the whole process.

Process till now:

Cut = N=a+b+c
Cuts in 3 directions are a,b and c
Number of pieces = (a+1)(b+1)(c+1)= M

Reverse process:
Divide M as the product of 3 numbers, say p,q and r, so that M = p x q x r
Now the number of cuts in each direction: p-1, q-1, r-1
Total cuts= (p+q+r)-3

So if we are given the number of pieces and have to find the minimum number of cuts, then we
divide M as product of 3 numbers which are as close to each other as possible.
For example a cube has been cut in 125 pieces. So the minimum number of cuts will be :
125= 5 x5 x5
So the number of cuts = 4+4+4= 12 cuts
For example a cube has been cut in 100 pieces. So the minimum number of cuts will be :
100= 5 x5 x4
So the number of cuts = 4+4+3= 11 cuts

To get the maximum number of cuts we allocate all the cuts in one direction. Or in simple language
we assume that the cube was cut from only one direction.
For example a cube has been cut in 200 pieces. What could be the minimum number of cuts?
If all the cuts are in one direction, then the number of pieces will be 1 more than the number of cust.
So say we cut the cube 199 times in 1 direction, then the number of pieces = 200
So maximum number of cuts = 199

Colours
Now the above idea of cuts and pieces is a precursor to the colour questions. So in a colour question
cube is cut in lot of pieces and then these are coloured or the cube is coloured and then cut or
something similar.
So what we have learnt earlier is almost a given assumption in these questions and are not dwelt
upon much because the colour part of the question is itself very tricky.
Say a cube is coloured red on all sides and then cut in 64 pieces.

How many small cubes will have colour on them?

Try to imagine the situation and count the number of cubes. Fun, eh? But a little taxing also and
after a point of time, frankly irritating.
Hmm..so better we have a formula for this. To answer the questions first, its 56.

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LR – Cubes

We got this by subtracting the cubes with no colour on them which are the ones inside the cube, the
ones which are not visible. So how many such cubes are there in the core.
Think of all the surfaces of the cube as walls. Say we remove the top wall, the bottom wall, the front
wall, the back wall, the right wall and the left wall, then what is left is the core.
Calculation goes like this, the length had 4 cubes. Since you removed the 2 corner walls, length now
is 2. Same holds true for breadth and height. So initial dimension of the cube was 4x4x4. Now the
inner core is 2x2x2= 8 cubes.
So the general for finding the cubes which are never coloured is (length -2) (breadth-2)(height-2). In
this case length=breadth=height=4, but it may not be always.

How many small cubes will have 3 sides coloured?

You must have been able to guess that this is possible only for the corner cubes. All cubes have 8
corner cubes. So answer to this question is always 8.

How many small cubes will have 2 sides painted?

The cubes on the edges will have 2 sides painted. A cube has 12 edges which can be divided as 4 of
length, 4 of breadth and 4 of height.
Lets take the given example. Each of the Length side has 5 cubes. Out of this 2 are corner cubes. So
there are 2 cubes (4-2) which will have 2 sides painted. Now in this case the same is true for breadth
and height as well. Also remember there are 4 edges each of length, breadth and height.
So the number of cubes with 2 sides painted are : 4 x2 + 4x2 + 4 x2= 24
The general formula is : 4 x (L+B+H-6)
If L=B=H=say A, then 4x (3A-6)

How many small cubes will have 1 side painted?

Cubes on the inner surface are the ones with 1 side painted. Take any surface in this case. It is a
square of the form 4 x4. Now if you remove the edges it will be a square of the form 2 x 2. Now
these cubes on the surface which are not on the edges are the ones with 1 side painted.
Surfaces are of the types: Lx B, BxH and LxH; with 2 of each type
The general formula is 2 x ((L-2)(B-2) + (B-2)H-2) + (L-2)(H-2))
If L=B=H=say A, then 6 x (L-2)2

So the formulas are:

Length, breadth and height are equal Length, breadth and height are not equal
0 sides (L-2)3 (L-2) (B-2) (H-2)
1 side 6 x (L-2)2 2 x ((L-2)(B-2) + (B-2)H-2) + (L-2)(H-2))
2 sides 4x (3L-6) 4 x (L+B+H-6)
3 sides 8 8

The variation of these questions is when the cube is not painted with the same colour across all
faces.
Some times same colour is applied on opposite faces so there are 3 different colour on pair of
opposite faces
Sometimes 2 colours are applied on 3 faces each. These 3 faces are either adjoining to each other or
not

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