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Logan Mardlin
Acre-Gravel
9A
27 December 2014
Cube In A Cube
Have you ever thought that a cube is a complex three dimensional shape? Try putting
another cube inside of it. Then things get really complex. I am Logan Mardlin and I will be
showing you how to find the surface area and volume of a cube and of a smaller cube inside of
that. I will also be showing you how to fold and construct the two cubes.

Folding The Cube:

Outer Cube:
1) Start with a 12x12 centimeter square piece of paper
2) Fold two edges into the middle at half way
3) Fold back the sides up to make two squares
4) Fold the non-square corners into the middle
5) Fold in half so there is a large white triangle on each side
6) Make the white squares on the ends into green triangles by folding them in half

Figure 1

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Figure 1. Flat piece of origami paper

Figure 2

Figure 2. Paper folded in half

Figure 3

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Figure 3. Paper after the corners are folded back

Figure 4

Figure 4. The paper folded in half

Figure 5

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Figure 5. The paper folded in half again

Figure 6

Figure 6. The far triangles folded inward

Inner Cube:
1) Start with a 12x12 centimeter square piece of paper
2) Fold two edges into the middle at half way
3) Fold two non-connected corners into the middle

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Figure 7

Figure 7. Flat piece of paper

Figure 8

Figure 8. Piece of paper folded in half

Figure 9.

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Figure 9. Fold corners into the middle

Figure 10

Figure 10. Fold external triangles inward to make a crease

Surface Area and Volume:
Outer Cube:

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Surface Area - One edge of the cube is 6 centimeters. 6 centimeters multiplied by

6 centimeters is equal is 72 centimeters squared. 72 centimeters squared times the number
of sides, which is 6, is equal to 432 centimeters cubed.
Volume - The volume of the outer cube can be found easily by multiplying 6 by 6
and by 6 again which is 432 centimeters cubed. Then we must subtract the volume
of the inner cube from the volume of the outer cube. We can find the volume of the inner cube by
multiplying 3 by 3 and by 6 which is equal to 18 centimeters cubed. 432

centimeters cubed minus 18 centimeters cubed is equal to 648 centimeters cubed.

The volume of the outer cube is 648 centimeters cubed.

Inner Cube:
Surface Area - The surface area for the inner cube can be found in the same way as the outer
cube. If you multiply the height times the width times the number of sides, you will get the
surface area. The height and width is 3 centimeters. 3 centimeters squared
simplifies down to 36 squared centimeters. If you multiply this by 6 you will get 216 centimeters
squared.
Volume - To find the volume you must multiply the height times the width times the depth which
is 3 times 3 times 6. This simplifies down to 108 centimeters cubed.
This shows how these two shapes are the same shape only different sizes. The total
surface area of one face of the larger cube is 6 centimeters by 6 centimeters which
is 72 square centimeters(x*x). The total surface area of the bigger cube is 72 square centimeters
times the number of sides which is 6 (6 (x*x)). This simplifies out to 2592 square
centimeters. One edge of the smaller cube is 3 centimeters long which means one face is
18 squared centimeters((x/2)^2). If you take the total surface area of one face of the smaller cube

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and multiply it by the number of sides, which is 6, you will get 108 squared centimeters which is
the total surface area(6(x/2)^2). The ratio of the surface area of one face of the big cube to the
surface area of one face of the smaller cube is 4:1. When you connect the midpoints of the four
edges of one face of your big cube a rhombus is formed. This happens because of the fact that
one face of the larger cube is a square.