Cross-Sections

What’s inside a cube?

An interactive lesson with 6 steps, about 5 minutes: you predict, drag and solve, with instant feedback on every answer. It runs in your browser and needs JavaScript.

What you’ll learn

• Each side of a cross-section lies in a different face, so a cube’s slices have 3 to 6 sides.
• A slice through the centre perpendicular to a long diagonal is a regular hexagon.
• Parallel faces give parallel sides, which rules out a regular pentagon.

Steps

1. Cut off a corner
2. Slice a cube
3. Seven sides?
4. The regular hexagon
5. Slices everywhere
6. A regular pentagon?