Question

The large cube shown is made up of $27$ identical sized smaller cubes. For each face of the large cube, the opposite face is shaded the same way. The total number of smaller cubes that must have at least one face shaded is

$10$

$16$

$20$

$22$

$24$

Solution:

Count the cubes with no shaded face and subtract from $27.$ A small cube is unshaded exactly when every one of its exposed squares is blank.

The three patterns are: the top and bottom faces show only their center square shaded; one pair of opposite side faces shows the four corners and the center shaded; the remaining pair shows the four edge-midpoints shaded.

Exactly $7$ small cubes avoid every shaded square: the one hidden cube at the very center of the block; the two cubes at the centers of the edge-midpoints faces, whose only exposed square is that blank center; and the four cubes at the midpoints of the edges where a corners-and-center face meets the top or bottom face, since there each exposed square is a blank edge cell.

Hence $27 - 7 = 20$ cubes have at least one shaded face.

Thus, the correct answer is C .

1987 AMC 8 Problem 7

Solution:

Problem 7 in Other Years