Number of rotation invariant 6-colorings of a cube

coloringcombinatorics

Consider a cube colored with six distinct colors on its six faces. How many non-equivalent colorings upto rotations are there? That is, how many ways can we color the cube so that we dont get the same colorings by rotating any colorings about any of its canaonical axes?

I think the permutation groups have a role to play here. Typivcally, is it related to automorphisms of $S_6$ under rotations, or do dihedral groups come into sight? Thanks beforehand.

Best Answer

Paint one surface white. Choose one of $5$ remaining colors for the opposite face. The four remaining colors can be split in $3$ ways into pairs and then put in $2$ ways. This gives a total of $5\cdot3\cdot2=30$ possibilities.

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