1090.74 – How Big is This Cube?
The cube in the figure is inches on a side, crafted of fine white pine and painted yellow. If it is cut into unit cubes, there will be of them. Each will have 0 or 1 or 2 or 3 yellow painted faces. (The drawing shows the unit cubes with 3 yellow faces.) It happens that the number of these unit cubes with 1 yellow face is twice the number with 2 yellow faces. And the number with no yellow faces is 8 times the number with 3 yellow faces. What is ?

Solution
The unit cubes with yellow faces are at the corners of the cube. There are therefore of them. The unit cubes with yellow faces are located along the edges of the cube. There are edges and each has unit cubes with yellow faces for a total of unit cubes with yellow faces. The unit cubes with only one yellow face are in the interior of the faces of the cube. There are such cubes in each face for a total of
unit cubes with one yellow face.
Finally, the unit cubes with no yellow faces form a smaller cube inside the big cube. There are of these.
The problem gives us two equations:
(# unit cubes with 1 yellow face) = (# unit cubes with 2 yellow faces)
in other words .
And
(# unit cubes with no yellow faces) = (# unit cubes with 3 yellow faces)
or .
Now the first equation is a quadratic with the two roots: and . Only the root satisfies the second equation, so is the answer.
