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Origube

Eva Yu

Mr. Acre & Mrs. Gravel

GAT/IDS 9B

17 January 2017
Origube

Making a cube in a cube is a lot harder than expected. This project requires the

construction of an outer cube surrounding an inner cube. It takes time, precision, and patience.

Of those 2 cubes, the volume and surface area can be calculated. The same can be said for the

empty space between the 2 cubes and the space when the inner cube is taken out. The objective

of this project is to be able to assemble, and find the volume and surface area of a cube inside a

cube.

Figure 1. Step 1

To start off, take a square piece of paper with the color facing up. For this

example, a 6x6 in of paper is being used to construct.


Figure 2. Step 2

Fold the sheet of paper in half, so the white side is shown. This does not apply if the

paper has 2 sides with color. However, it would be more confusing since this example only

shows 1 color. After folding, the width of the paper becomes 3 in. because it is half of the

previous width.

Figure 3. Step 3

Open the piece of paper up and fold it in up to the halfway crease. Do the same thing

again with the other half. The two flaps end up having a width of 1.5 in. each.
Figure 4. Step 4

Fold the upper right hand corner up to the top of the paper and repeat with the lower left

corner. The width of the flap that was folded still stays as 1.5 in. and the fold (shown above)

forms a 45-45-90 triangle (special right triangle) making the leg opposite the 90-degree angle

1.52 in.

Figure 5. Step 5

Flip the sheet of paper over so the fold line is visible. Take the lower right corner and fold

up to the top part of the paper forming another 45-45-90 triangle that is slightly bigger. This

causes the diagonal to become 32 in. since it is the leg opposite of the 90-degree angle. Repeat

this process after rotating the paper 180 degrees.


Figure 6. Step 6

The piece of paper should look like this after repeating the folding process shown in

Figure 5. The length of the lower left corner is now 3 in. since it is half of 6 in. (the length of the

piece of paper).

Figure 7. Step 7

Fold the piece of paper in half with the length 32 in. at the bottom up to the other

diagonal that is also 32 in. Now, the length of the bottom is 32 in. and the top is 1.52 in.

because it is half of the bottom length.


Figure 8. Step 8

Fold the white diamond that is positioned on the right in half towards the left direction.

Next, flip the paper over to the other side and do the same thing. The side with 3 in. is the same

length as shown in Figure 6 because it is half of the original length. The diagonal formed from

folding the diamond is 1.5 in. because it is half of 3 in.

The bottom length is still 32 in. and the top length is still 1.52 in. since it is half of the

bottom length (shown in Figure 7). Subsequently, repeat steps 1 to 8 and create a total of 12

pieces in order to construct the outer cube.


Figure 9. Finalized Outer Cube

The cube should look like this when finished constructing.

Figure 10. Step 9

The measurements also need to be found for the inner cube. To construct, take a square

piece of paper like before shown in Figure 1.


Figure 11. Step 10

Fold the paper in half with the color shown outside. Like mentioned before, if the paper

that is being used has 2 colors, it does not matter which side is shown. The length is 6 in. and the

width becomes 3 in.

Figure 12. Step 11

Unfold the piece of paper and fold the piece in up to the crease made previously. The

length stays the same while the width of the flaps is now 1.5 in. because it is half of 3 in.
Figure 13. Step 12

Flip the paper over to the other side. Then, fold the lower right corner up to the top part of

the paper until the lines meet forming a triangle. The sides are 3 in. because they are half of the

original length. The folding also creates a 45-45-90 triangle so the leg opposite of the 90-degree

angle is now 32 in. Rotate the paper 180 degrees and repeat the process of folding the corner up

to the top part of paper.

Figure 14. Step 13


This is how the piece paper should look after repeating the process in Figure 13. The top

and bottom lengths are still 3 in.

Figure 15. Step 14

Take the flap on the right and fold down and to the left at the same time (simultaneously)

towards the vertical segment. Do the same for the flap after rotating the piece of paper 180

degrees. 45-45-90 triangles are formed from the folded flaps, causing the length to be 1.52 in.

because it is opposite the 90-degree angle. To find the hypotenuse, multiply 2 from the leg since

it is a 45-45-90 triangle. This results as the length being 3 in.

After making one of the pieces needed to make the inner cube, it is known that the edge

of the cube is going to be 1.52 in. Repeat steps 9 to 14 and create a total of 6 pieces in order to

construct the inner cube.


Figure 16. Finalized Inner Cube

This is how the cube should look like after constructing.

Finding the Surface Area of Cubes

Surface Area (SA) = (6) (Side) 2


Surface Area Formula of a Cube
SA = (6) (32) 2
Substitution Property
SA = 108 in. 2
Multiplication Property

Figure 17. Finding the Surface Area of the Outer Cube

The figure above shows how to find the surface area without subtracting the empty space.

The surface area is 108 in. 2

Surface Area (SA) = (6) (Side) 2


Surface Area Formula of a Cube
SA = (6) (1.52) 2
Substitution Property
SA = 27 in. 2
Multiplication Property

Figure 18. Finding the Surface Area of the Empty Space from Outer Cube

Figure 18, above, demonstrates how to find the surface area for the empty space of the

outer cube. The surface area of the empty space is 27 in. 2


SA = SA
Cube Outer Cube - SA Empty Space SA Formula without Empty Space
SA = 108-27
Cube Substitution Property
SA Cube = 81 in. 2
Subtraction Property

Figure 19. Finding Surface Area of Outer Cube Without the Empty Space

The figure above displays how to solve for the surface area excluding the empty space.

The surface area of the outer cube without the empty space is 81 in. 2

Surface Area (SA) = (6) (Side) 2


Surface Area Formula of a Cube
SA = (6) (1.52) 2
Substitution Property
SA = 27 in. 2
Multiplication Property

Figure 20. Finding the Surface Area of the Inner Cube

Figure 20 shows how to find the surface area of the inner cube, which is 27 in. 2

TSA = SA Cube Outer Cube + SA Inner Cube Total Surface Area Formula of Whole Cube
TSA = 81 + 27
Cube Substitution Property
TSA = 108 in.
Cube
2
Addition Property

Figure 21. Finding Total Surface Area of the 2 Cubes

As shown above, shows the total surface area of both cubes. The total surface area of the

2 cubes is 108 in. 2

When finding the total surface area, it is important to use the same formulas. To recap,

what was shown on how to formulate the TSA started with finding the surface area of the outer

cube without subtracting the empty space (Figure 17). Then, finding the surface area of the

empty space (Figure 18) and finding the surface area of the outer cube without the empty space

(Figure 19). Following, the inner cubes surface area can now be found as shown in Figure 20.

Finally, this adds up to find the total surface area of both cubes (Figure 21), which is 108 in. 2

Finding the Volume of the Cubes


Volume (V) = (Side) 3
Volume Formula of Cube
V = (32) 3
Substitution Property
V = 542 in. 3
Multiplication Property

Figure 22. Finding Volume of the Outer Cube

Above shows how to find the volume of the outer cube. The volume of the outer cube is

542 in. 3

Volume (V) = (Side) 3


Volume Formula of Cube
V = (1.52) 3
Substitution Property
V = 6.752 in. 3
Multiplication Property

Figure 23. Finding Volume of the Inner Cube

The table above demonstrates how the volume is found for the inner cube, which is
6.752 in. 3

Total Volume (TV) = V Outer Cube -V


Inner Cube Total Volume Formula of Cube
TV = 542 - 6.752 Substitution Property
TV = 47.25 in. 3
Subtraction Property

Figure 24. Finding Total Volume of the Empty Space

Figure 24, above, displays how to find the volume of the empty space. The ending result
is 47.25 in. 3

As said before, it is important to use the same formulas when finding the volume. To find

the TV, start off by finding the volume of the outer cube (Figure 22) and inner cube (Figure 23).

Then as shown on Figure 24, subtract the inner cubes volume from the outer cube in order to

find the total volume.

To conclude, some difficulties occurred while in the process of finding the surface area

and volume. The biggest difficulty was creating the outer cubes pieces. The folding had to be

perfect or the calculations would be invalid. When folding the piece of paper in half, sometimes
the other half is not perfectly aligned with the top. This caused the folds after that part to also not

be perfect. Constructing the outer cube took a long time and was easy but hard. Having to figure

out how to put the pieces together was the hard part. But after getting the hang of it, it got easy.

Some recommendations would be to use time wisely and calmly fold. If too stressed, this might

be result as the folds to be even more uneven. Along the way, some things can be learned, such

as typing a square root (Alt 251) and origami. The final total surface area of the cube in a cube is

108 in. and the volume of the cube in a cube is 47.25 in. Nevertheless, an object has other
2 3

components rather than itself like empty space, total surface area, and volume.

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