If I have a $10 \times 10$ sided cube (rubik's cube is $3 \times 3$ sided), and dropped it in a bucket of black paint, can you tell me mathematically how I could determine the total number of sides that are black?
[Math] I was asked this question in an interview…
discrete mathematics
Best Answer
The obvious answer would be $6\times 10\times 10=600$ since each face of the cube has $10\times 10$ "sides" on it and there are 6 faces of a cube.
However, if this one of those silly "lateral thinking" questions, perhaps the paint seeps between the "cracks" and in fact every "side" of each of the $10\times 10\times 10=1000$ "minicubes" making up a Rubik's-style cube is covered, so that therefore there are $6000$ "sides" painted black.