A cube with the edge of length $n$ is divided onto $n^3$ unit ones. Let us choose some of them and draw three lines parallel to the edges through their centres. What is the least possible number of the chosen small cubes necessary to make those lines cross all the smaller cubes? a) Find the answer for the small $n$ ($n = 2,3,4$). b) Try to find the answer for $n = 10$. c) If You can not solve the general problem, try to estimate that value from the upper and lower side. d) Note, that You can reformulate the problem in such a way: Consider all the triples $(x_1,x_2,x_3)$, where $x_i$ can be one of the integers $1,2,...,n$. What is the minimal number of the triples necessary to provide the property: [i]for each of the triples there exist the chosen one, that differs only in one coordinate. [/i] Try to find the answer for the situation with more than three coordinates, for example, with four.

Prove that a section of a cube by a plane cannot be a regular pentagon.

An ant crawls along the edges of a cube turning only at its vertices. It has visited one of the vertices $25$ times. Is it possible that it has visited each of the other $7$ vertices exactly $20$ times? (S Tokarev)

$1956$ points are chosen in a cube with edge $13$. Is it possible to fit inside the cube a cube with edge $1$ that would not contain any of the selected points?

Which regular polygon can be obtained (and how) by cutting a cube with a plane ?

Which regular polygon can be obtained (and how) by cutting a cube with a plane ?

A cube $A_1A_2A_3A_4A_5A_6A_7A_8$ is given in space. We will mark its center with the letter $S$ (intersection of solid diagonals). Find all natural numbers $k$ for which there exists a plane not containing the point $S$ and intersecting just $k$ of the rays $SA_1, SA_2, .. SA_8$

The $ABCDA_1B_1C_1D_1$ cube has unit length edges. Find the distance between two circumferences, one of those is inscribed into the $ABCD$ base, and another comes through points $A,C$ and $B_1$ .

Prove that we can put in any arbitrary triangle with sidelengths $a,b,c$ such that $0\le a,b,c \le \sqrt2$ into a unit cube.

Find the side length of the largest square that can be inscribed in the unit cube.

The planet Caramelo is a cube with a $1$ km edge. This planet is going to be wrapped with foam anti-gluttons in order to prevent the presence of greedy ships less than $500$ meters from the planet. What the minimum volume of foam that must surround the planet?

A cuboid of volume $V$ contains a convex polyhedron $M$. The orthogonal projection of $M$ onto each face of the cuboid covers the entire face. What is the smallest possible volume of polyhedron $M$?

Let $N, P$ be the centers of the faces A$BB'A'$ and $ADD'A'$, respectively, of a right parallelepiped $ABCDA'B'C'D'$ and $M \in (A'C)$ such that $A'M= \frac13 A' C$. Prove that $MN \perp AB'$ and $ MP \perp AD' $ if and only if the parallelepiped is a cube.

Consider the cube $ABCDA'B'C'D'$ (with face $ABCD$ directly above face $A'B'C'D'$). a) Find the locus of the midpoints of the segments $XY$, where $X$ is any point of $AC$ and $Y$ is any piont of $B'D'$; b) Find the locus of points $Z$ which lie on the segment $XY$ of part a) with $ZY=2XZ$.

How many ways of choosing four edges in a cube such that any two among those four choosen edges have no common point.

Each face of a cube is of the same size as each square of a chessboard. The cube is coloured black and white, placed on one of the squares of the chessboard and rolled so that each square of the chessboard is visited exactly once. Can this be done in such a way that the colour of the visited square and the colour of the bottom face of the cube are always the same? (A Shapovalov)

Show that the planes $ACG$ and $BEH$ defined by the vertices of the cube shown in Figure are parallel. What is their distance if the edge length of the cube is $1$ meter? [img]https://cdn.artofproblemsolving.com/attachments/c/9/21585f6c462e4289161b4a29f8805c3f63ff3e.png[/img]

The rook, standing on the surface of the checkered cube, beats the cells, located in the same row as well as on the continuations of this series through one or even several edges. (The picture shows an example for a $4 \times 4 \times 4$ cube,visible cells that some beat the rook, shaded gray.) What is the largest number do not beat each other rooks can be placed on the surface of the cube $50 \times 50 \times 50$?

Consider the solid $Q$ obtained by attaching unit cubes $Q_1...Q_6$ at the six faces of a unit cube $Q$. Prove or disprove that the space can be filled up with such solids so that no two of them have a common interior point.

Consider a cube and let$ M, N$ be two of its vertices. Assign the number $1$ to these vertices and $0$ to the other six vertices. We are allowed to select a vertex and to increase with a unit the numbers assigned to the $3$ adjiacent vertices - call this a [i]movement[/i]. Prove that there is a sequence of [i]movements [/i] after which all the numbers assigned to the vertices of the cube became equal if and only if $MN$ is not a diagonal of a face of the cube. Marius Ghergu, Dinu Serbanescu

How to arrange three right circular cylinders of diameter $a/2$ and height $a$ into an empty cube with side $a$ so that the cylinders could not change position inside the cube? Each cylinder can, however, rotate about its axis of symmetry.

The centers of the faces of a cube form a regular octahedron of volume $V$. Through each vertex of the cube we may take the plane perpendicular to the long diagonal from the vertex. These planes also form a regular octahedron. Show that its volume is $27V$.

This year's gift idea from BabyMath consists of a series of nine colored plastic containers of decreasing size, alternating in shape like a cube and a sphere. All containers can open and close with a convenient hinge, and each container can hold just about anything next in line. The largest and smallest container are both cubes. Determine the relationship between the edge lengths of these cubes.

Let $ABCDA'B'C'D'$ be a rectangular parallelepiped and $M,N, P$ projections of points $A, C$ and $B'$ respectively on the diagonal $BD'$. a) Prove that $BM + BN + BP = BD'$. b) Prove that $3 (AM^2 + B'P^2 + CN^2)\ge 2D'B^2$ if and only if $ABCDA'B'C'D'$ is a cube.

$m,n,p$ are positive integers which do not simultaneously equal to zero. $3$D Cartesian space is divided into unit cubes by planes each perpendicular to one of $3$ axes and cutting corresponding axis at integer coordinates. Each unit cube is filled with an integer from $1$ to $60$. A filling of integers is called [i]Dien Bien[/i] if, for each rectangular box of size $\{2m+1,2n+1,2p+1\}$, the number in the unit cube which has common centre with the rectangular box is the average of the $8$ numbers of the $8$ unit cubes at the $8$ corners of that rectangular box. How many [i]Dien Bien[/i] fillings are there? Two fillings are the same if one filling can be transformed to the other filling via a translation. [hide]translation from [url=http://artofproblemsolving.com/community/c6h592875p3515526]here[/url][/hide]